DC Comics is celebrating Gay Pride and showcasing their LGBTQIA characters in their upcoming solicitations for June.
Their recent press release promised not only a look back at historically diverse characters but new stories featuring new characters just starting their careers in the new DC Omniverse. Their press release promised:
DC Pride, an 80-page anthology comic featuring LGBTQIA+ characters from across the DC Universe, and Crush & Lobo, a new eight-issue miniseries written by Mariko Tamaki (This One Summer, Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass) with art by Amancay Nahuelpan (Nightwing, Wonder Woman). Crush & Lobo will launch on June 1 and DC Pride will publish on June 8. DC will also publish a series of nine Pride themed variant covers in June, showcasing DC’s top characters as realized by the comic book industry’s leading artists.
The characters on the cover of DC Pride include:
- The Golden Age Green Lantern (aka Sentinel). A recent addition to the LGBT ranks. Starting as a change in the character in the Earth 2 lineup, Alan Scott has retroactively come out of the closet since DC’s most recent transition to the Omniverse Continuum continuity (the last reboot … and hopefully the last for a while).
- Midnighter and Apollo: Apollo with his solar powers and Midnighter with his built-in battle computer are Superman/Batman analogues from the Wildstorm Universe. Two characters who started their careers in the Wildstorm Universe and became popular DC characters when they were annexed by DC Comics. Their love affair and marriage were popularized and with the DC reboot, I expect to see more of them.
- Katherine Rebecca “Kate” Kane is a wealthy heiress who becomes inspired by the superhero Batman and chooses, like him, to put her wealth and resources towards a campaign to fight crime as a masked vigilante in her home of Gotham City.
- The Question: The second character to bear this name, during the 52 Saga, when the original Question, Victor Sage was dying of lung cancer, he trained Renee Montoya as his successor and she eventually replaced him.
- Dreamer, known in everyday life as Nia Nal, is an original character created for “Supergirl” and played by Maines. An ancestor of DC Comic icon Nura Nal/Dream Girl, Dreamer is TV’s first transgender superhero and made her debut in Season 4 of the CW series.
- Jess Chambers (a Flash from Earth 11) Chambers is a recent addition to the DC Omniverse appearing in Future State’s Generations Shattered #1.
- Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy: Joker’s former partner-in-less than humorous criminality, and the mistress of all things green, Poison Ivy have been an item for a while. They have even been seen cursing up a storm in the Harley Quinn animated series which was more fun than I thought it would be.
The series is going to cover quite a number of characters in the DC Universe and I was glad to see there were more variant covers and other stories covering more of the characters in the DC Universe such as Aqualad and Extraño.
For those not in the know, Extraño (Spanish for “Strange”) is a fictional superhero magician published by DC Comics. Created by writer Steve Englehart and artist Joe Staton, he first appeared in Millennium #2 (January 1988). Extraño is noted for being the first openly gay superhero in DC Comics.
Some of the stories you can expect to see include:
• Batwoman (Kate Kane) by James Tynion IV & Trung Le Nguyen
• Poison Ivy & Harley Quinn by Mariko Tamaki & Amy Reeder
• Midnighter by Steve Orlando & Stephen Byrne
• Flash of Earth-11 (Jess Chambers) by Danny Lore & Lisa Sterle
• Green Lantern (Alan Scott) & Obsidian by Sam Johns & Klaus Janson
• Aqualad (Jackson Hyde) by Andrew Wheeler & Luciano Vecchio
• Dreamer by Nicole Maines & Rachel Stott• Renee Montoya by Vita Ayala and Skylar Patridge
• Pied Piper by Sina Grace, Ro Stein & Ted Brandt
As for the variants, here’s the titles that will be graced by those:
• Batman #109 Pride variant cover by Jen Bartel• Crush & Lobo #1 Pride variant cover by Yoshi Yoshitani
• DC Pride #1 Pride variant cover by Jen Bartel
• Harley Quinn #4 Pride variant cover by Kris Anka
• Nightwing #81 Pride variant cover by Travis G. Moore
• Superman #32 Pride variant cover by David Talaski
• Teen Titans Academy #4 Pride variant cover by Stephen Byrne
• Wonder Girl #2 Pride variant cover by Kevin Wada
• Wonder Woman #773 Pride variant cover by Paulina Ganucheau
Look for the DC Pride anthology in stores starting on June 8th.
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Thaddeus Howze is an award-winning writer, editor, podcaster and activist creating speculative fiction, scientific, political and cultural commentary from his office in Hayward, California.
Thaddeus’ speculative fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He has published two books, ‘Hayward’s Reach’ (2011), a collection of short stories and ‘Broken Glass’ (2013) an urban fantasy novella starring his favorite paranormal investigator, Clifford Engram.
