X-MEN superhero Northstar will make comic book history by marrying his longtime partner in Marvel Comics' first gay wedding.

Northstar, who came out as Marvel's first gay character in 1992, will wed his partner Kyle in issue No. 51 of Astonishing X-Men.

"When gay marriage became legal in New York State, it raised obvious questions since most of our heroes reside in New York State," Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso told Rolling Stone.

"Our comics are always best when they respond to and reflect developments in the real world. We've been doing that for decades, and this is just the latest expression of that."

Astonishing X-Men writer Marjorie Liu said the series would portray the relationship between Northstar, a mutant, and non-superhero Kyle as similar to that of soldiers or police officers and their spouses.

"You have, for example, one partner who is always going off into dangerous situations, whose 'team' at work is an important, integral, part of their lives, and then you've got the person left behind," she explained.

"Like Kyle, who has a perfectly wonderful life, a great job, but is a human man who has to watch his partner go fight aliens or giant robots, or insane supervillains at the drop of a hat, and there's nothing he can do to help."