Hello Everyone! I’m Nathan and I’m going to be working with Not a Robot by providing content for their substack and I’ll likely be joining Not a Robot’s podcasts for a couple of weeks. I’m primarily going to be using this substack as a platform to replace my tweet threads with actual writing where it makes sense with the goal of providing a platform for my to talk about recent news as it comes out. Reading Orders, Trade reviews, and discussion about the big picture of DC Comics will continue to be at comic herald. All I’m doing is moving my tweeting and first impressions to this Substack. With that being said, let’s talk DC Pride!
DC Pride is here!! and I’m really happy that DC is continuing to make this feel like an event and a great platform to launch queer titles from. Last year, we had DC Pride 2021, Lobo and Crush, and a bunch of variant covers, and that was it. This year however, there are many new Pride books coming: Poison Ivy by G. Willow Wilson, Nubia: Queen of the Amazons by Vita Ayala, DC Pride: Tim Drake Special, DC Pride Annual 2022, and Multiversity: Teen Justice #1. That's 5 new queer books over the original 2 from last year. I’m going to chat about to different things below: 1) the context of these books and where I see each of these books going. 2) the good and bad of DC Pride and DC's history with Pride.
The New Announcements Explained.
Poison Ivy by G. Willow Wilson with art by Marcio Takara: I want to go back to 2021 when Harley Quinn #11 caused a bunch of controversy. Remember, for all of 2021, Harley's story was centered around setting herself up in Gotham and finding the love of her life Poison Ivy. After both sides of Poison Ivy’s personality (Queen Ivy and Ivy) came together, Harley and Ivy shared a passionate kiss. The couples story was a culmination of a history in the comics of DC editorial’s reluctance (run by Dan Dideo and many problematic individuals) to let them be together. Their kiss in Batman #117 was huge, but when their story continued in Harlry Quinn #11 there was some controversy. Stephanie Phillips essentially spent the issue explaining the nuances of the Harley/Ivy relationship. Harley as an individual has changed from the Rebirth days. She’s more heroic (but very, very sloppy still), and she's more turned off by Ivys ecoterrorist impulses. What became clear was that while Harley had grown alot. Ivy hadn’t and they both wanted the other to be different that the other was. So Ivy made a decision, she would go take time away to figure out who she wanted to be. She would go away from Gotham and let herself figure out who she was. This is the story Wilson is going to be telling, and I'm excited. I think this story will be an essentially step towards the Harley/Ivy relationship that fans are begging for. I know many people wanted them to be together now, but I think this story and a slower burn towards Harley and Ivy being together will be much healthier and better in the long term. Besides, there’s still Harley + Ivy content for those who want that story now. Just check out the stellar Harley Quin: The Animated Series - Eat, Bang, Kill Tour. At the end of this series, I’m expecting Harley and Ivy to be much closer to a shared comic, maybe in time for the post-crisis soft relaunch/Infinite Frontier Phase 2.
Nubia: Queen of the Amazons. Trial of the Amazons is going on right now and the entire status quo of the Wonder Woman family is changing. We’ve already seen one major change as a wonder woman character has died, and now Nubia is officially ascending to the role of Queen of the Amazons in Nubia: Coronation special. This story will continue where that mini-series left off, as essentially a Nubia: Season Two. If I had to guess, this comic is meant to set up for the post-dark crisis wonder woman world, and focus on explaining the post- trial of Amazons Wonder woman family. Nubia Is likely the queen of all the amazons, Bana Migdall's, Esquicieda's, and Thymiscria's, and that means this story will be very important.
Multiversity: Teen Justice - This comic is essentially meant to serve 1 purpose and one purpose only, set up Jess Chambers. Who is Hess Chambers? He’s the non-binary Flash who is part of the Future State Justice League comic. With his white hair and energetic personality, he was a very exciting new character, and it’s finally time to bring him into the present continuity. He’s from Earth-11, and this mini will explain his story and likely be setting himself up for a post-dark crisis continuity where he will join a new Justice League with Jonathan Kent, Yara Flor, Jackson Hyde, Jo Mullien, Jace Fox and now Jess Chambers.
DC Pride: Tim Drake Special #1 - Tim Drake is exploring his sexuality after asking Bernard on a date in Batman: Urban Legends #6. Then In Batman: Urban Legends #10, we were teased that Tim Drake will likely be leaving the Robin title behind and getting his own series under a new identity. The info we have about this one-shot seems to imply that more Tim Drake stories are on there way, and maybe even the new identity reveal?
DC Pride 2022. There’s a couple very exciting announcements in this anthology including a Ray story, a Jo Mullein Story, Jackson Hyde Story, a Jon Kent story, a Harley and Ivy story,, and an Alyssa Yeoh story (Barbara’s close transgender friend) as well as more including more details about a Dreamer project in the works by Nicole Maines! I think this will primarily be a bunch of less important feel good stories, but I am still very excited to read these.
The good and bad
Good: DC Pride is an awesome thing that highlights queer characters and queer creators during a time where more readers than ever are looking for and expect queer content. As a said above, it’s a great platform to launch new stories. Last year it also served as an opportunity to begin stories that would go on to have major queer stories in them. In June 2021, we had the announcement of Aquaman: The Becoming, began part 1 of the story that would lead to Tim Drake coming out, and Superman: Son of Kal-el which would go on to have Superman kiss Jay Nakamura. DC Prides Variant covers are awesome, and DC is making a great step by planning to sell more DC Pride covers year round. This DC Pride is also a showcase of DC’s efforts to expand queer content, as these covers feature many queer relationships whereas last year relied on the addition of pride flags and pride parades to be “Pride covers” by being able to focusing their queer covers on queer characters, DC is moving in a direction that is much more supportive of Queer storytelling.
The Bad: There are some misses that I want to point out, because as much as DC is making some awesome moves and I am very pleased with this pride year, there are some systemic issues that are noteworthy about this DC Pride that I want to see from DC. First, while the number of titles is awesome, DC is holding back on using this announcement as a commitment to continuing queer storytelling. Most of these books are mini-series and once the mini ends, there is no commitment to continue to give these characters room to shine. Lobo and Crush was a great queer mini-series, and it ends by leaving the door open for a Lobo and Crush 2. However, when Lobo and Crush ended, there wasn’t another queer story to replace it even as more books were announced. In other words, I worry that once these mini-series end, that there won’t be follow-up books that will continue to place queer books in center. The excellent Teen Titans Academy doesn’t currently have a follow-up and great queer characters like Stitch and Miguel Montez don’t seem to have a place to further their stories. As such, while there will be many queer stories, queer teen characters aren’t being spotlighted in main continuity. Jon is essentially 18, Tim Drake has been to college, and almost all of these heroes are in their early adulthood. Where are the young queer stories? I know that the DC Kids label has some stellar stuff coming, but the main continuity is a little lackluster right now in that department.
I also wish I could see a little bit more spotlight on queer content that you can currently buy on your shelves. A pitch like “If this announcement excited you, here are our queer comics that are coming out this month.” "Are you excited for the Midnighter: Complete Collection? You can follow Midnighter in Superman and the Authority, and Action Comics right now!” rather than waiting till Pride month to advertise queer stories. Queer people aren’t just looking for stories that represent themselves during Pride month after all.
Finally, I’d like to see more energy focused on highlighting your queer creators, not just giving them work, but showcasing them. They should be celebrating their incredible talent more and making sure readers know to follow their work. Queer characters aren’t the only important thing to highlight. The real people who make these books matter just as much if more so.
Generally speaking though, this was a noticeable step up from 2021 and I am very pleased with the improvements that have been made this year. DC’s Pride is leaps and bounds better than Marvel’s 1 book and should be celebrated.
Quick note: After all this controversy over Disney and the donations to the Don’t Say Gay bill, I feel like Marvel editorial has been relatively silent. There have been no commitments to even featuring queer stories and I’d be curious to look at the number of queer books coming out of marvel, because it feels like their are very very few. By itself, that is bad, but coupling it with the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and the very quiet announcement for Marvel’s Voices: Pride, I’m left very disappointed.
Thanks everyone for reading my first Substack post! I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts on today’s news!
-Nathan Payson