(Updated 3/12/21 with Paulina Ganucheau’s Wonder Woman Pride variant cover art.)
June is Pride Month, a time to spotlight and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. DC has rolled out their plans for this year’s Pride, including a new anthology starring the publisher’s notable gay characters in stories told by creators from the LGBTQ+ community, themed variant covers on a number of their titles, and a new eight-issue miniseries with a gay co-star.
The DC Pride anthology will feature nine stories from creators including DC mainstays like James Tynion IV, Steve Orlando, and Mariko Tamaki and rising stars including Vita Ayala, Danny Lore, and Rachael Stott. Among the stories will be one that introduces Dreamer, the trans female superhero portrayed by Nicole Maines on The CW’s Supergirl, in a story written by Maines herself.
Here’s the full lineup of characters and creators included in the DC Pride one-shot, which will sport a main cover (seen above) by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Tamra Bonvillain:
- 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 & Rachael Stott
- Renee Montoya by Vita Ayala and Skylar Patridge
- Pied Piper by Sina Grace, Ro Stein & Ted Brandt
The introduction of Supergirl‘s Dreamer to the DCU of the comics is a big step, bringing an already highly-visible trans hero to the publisher’s stable of characters. Trans representation among DC characters has been relatively sparse, with the most notable other trans character probably being Alysia Yeoh, Barbara Gordon’s friend and former roommate. A new story featuring the non-binary Jess Chambers, the Flash of Earth-11, is also a welcome inclusion, and will make DC Pride the second straight anthology to include a non-binary character after last month’s Love is a Battlefield featured obscure Wonder Woman villain The Blue Snowman.
Along with the anthology one-shot, DC will also debut Crush & Lobo, a new eight-issue miniseries by Tamaki and artists Amancay Nahuelpan and Tamra Bonvillain. The series, which will spin out of the events of Teen Titans Academy, will follow Crush as she finally comes face to face with her father, Lobo, for the first time. The miniseries will debut with a main cover by Kris Anka, a 1:25 variant cover by Christian Ward, and a retailer-exclusive ‘Team Variant’ by Dan Hipp.
Additionally, DC will roll out Pride-themed variant covers for nine of their titles, including for the DC Pride anthology and Crush & Lobo #1. You can check out those titles, and the available covers, below:
- 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 #774 Pride variant cover by Paulina Ganucheau
That publisher has also highlighted a trio of collections and graphic novels featuring LGBTQ+ characters that are releasing in June: Tom Taylor & Bruno Redondo‘s Suicide Squad: Bad Blood; Kody Keplinger & Sara Kipin‘s Poison Ivy: Thorns; and Tamaki and Yoshitani’s I Am Not Starfire.
The slate of material marks the first time DC has specifically commemorated Pride Month with new content. In previous years the publisher has primarily plugged existing material that featured LGBTQ+ characters, with last year’s blogpost mainly serving as a way to draw subscribers to the DC Universe app. DC has no shortage of great, GLAAD Award-winning material to spotlight, but it’s still really nice to see them going out of their way to promote inclusion for all this way.
Crush & Lobo #1 (of 8) arrives in stores and digitally on June 1st, with the DC Pride anthology arriving the following Tuesday, June 8th, and the themed variants releasing throughout the month of June.
