DC and Marvel Take Pride in the Gay Community

While COVID-19 may put a kibosh on a lot of Pride events everywhere again this year, we can still look to DC and Marvel to help celebrate Pride. This June, both companies will be publishing anthologies based around their respective gay characters. It’s really great to see this support for the gay community this year. It has been a long road to get representation in comics which allows LGBTQIA+ readers to see characters like themselves while enjoying their books. When I went to San Diego Comicon in 2007, I was amazed to see 2 gay themed panels, one for gay creators and one about gay characters and storylines. Years later, I was able to get Phoenix Comic Con to host panels related to these same topics. While Phoenix doesn’t have them anymore, hopefully there are other cons out there that are supporting the community with panels where these topics can be discussed.

DC Comics has announced that they will be releasing DC Pride #1, and 80 page comic book, this June. The comic will feature a stories about Batwoman, Renee Montoya, Alan Scott and Obsidian, Midnighter, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, Pied Piper, Dreamer, Aqualad, the Flash of Earth-11, and Constantine. There are a number of interesting character choices for this book. There has been big news around the fact that Dreamer, an ancestor of Dream Girl from the Legion of Super-Heroes, is making the jump from the Supergirl TV show to the comic books. I’m waiting to see what they do with this story as it’s her introduction to DC continuity but there won’t be many pages to work with for a full introduction and character building. Another interesting choice who looks to be just a cameo is Extraño from the old New Guardians comic. Given the little he has been linked to Midnighter and Apollo for the little he has existed since New 52, I’m betting that that’s where he will appear. Jess Chambers, the Flash of Earth-11 was just introduced back in Future Sport: Justice League becoming DC’s first non-binary super-hero. Not a whole lot was revealed about them so it will be interesting to see what this will be about, what Earth it will be on, and what time period it will take place in. The fact that they named this Flash Jess Chambers is an interesting choice as Jesse Chambers is the name of fellow speedster Jesse Quick. As the original Jesse is linked to the JSA, we haven’t seen her since the New 52 started but she may show up now that their back. Whether the 2 speedsters have any connection is something we’ll have to wait and see.

Along with doing the one-shot, DC is also doing pride covers for a number of their regular titles. The issues that have been released for these special covers are as follows.

• Batman #109
• Crush & Lobo #1
• Harley Quinn #4
• Nightwing #81
• Superman #32
• Teen Titans Academy #4
• Wonder Girl #2
• Wonder Woman #773

Marvel isn’t falling behind on this topic either. They recently did a Marvel Voices for Native American characters and are now following that up with one for the gay community with Marvel’s Voices: Pride #1. There will be stories revolving around Wiccan and Hulkling, Northstar, Mystique and Destiny, Nico Minoru and Karolina Dean, Iceman, Daken, and Karma. It’s interesting that Julie Power and Angela appear on the cover but I haven’t seen mention of them having stories of their own. Maybe they will still appear in there somewhere.

Like DC, Marvel is also doing a number of variant pride covers by Phil Jimenez. Along with alternate covers for Marvel Voices: Pride #1, there will also be variants for the following issues.

• Black Cat #7
• Guardians of the Galaxy #15
• Marauders #21
• Mighty Valkyries #3
• Wolverine #13
• X-Factor #10
• X-Men #21