DC Pride 2023 #1 review

Finally, I remember that I don’t have to buy a DC giant digitally because it goes into the DC Infinite app on the same day. DC wants their annual Pride anthology to be as available to as many people as possible, which is very commendable.

I apologise in advance if I mangle anyone’s pronouns.

I do know Grant Morrison is a ‘they’ these days. Grant returns to the worlds of Green Lantern and Multiversity with Love’s Lightning Heart. Kinda sorta GL Flashlight Terra of the Rainbow Patrol moves heaven and earth – well, other planets – to bring back lover Red Racer, lost in the Crisis of Infinite Categories or whatever. A watch is involved but I couldn’t make head nor tail of this, it’s Morrison at their worst, throwing out names and ideas willy nilly without knitting them together into anything coherent. This is the definition of ‘impenetrable’. The art by illustrator Hayden Sherman and colourist Marissa Louisa is a treat.

Next, the Harley and Ivy story that’s obligatory in every DC anthology. Here they teach Teen Titan Crush – Lobo’s daughter, I like her – a lesson in love and me a lesson in sleep.

I dunno, maybe some young people will find this kind of speech useful; let’s hope so as there’s a lot of it in DC Pride 2023 and it gets worse. I did learn what ‘UWU’ means via Google, which may come in useful in very specific circumstances. Anyway, Leah Williams write and Young Diana artist Paulina Ganucheau provides the pleasantly picturebook-style full-colour images for And Baby Makes Three.

In Hey Stranger, Green Arrow’s son Connor Hawke shows up in Gotham and helps Robin Tim Drake clean up after a night’s crimefighting. They have a long talk about coming out. All I’ll say is that whoever is responsible for Connor’s current design – here drawn by the talented Bruka Jones – should have a talk with themself. Writer Nadia Shammas made me smile with the reminder that good vigilantes clean up after themselves and do paperwork. I could do without the rewriting of Tim’s emotional history, though I suppose that’s Batman Editorial edict these days.

Circuit Breaker, proud possessor of the stupidest superhero name this side of Night Thrasher, debuted in Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1. Via an adventure with alternate world Flash Jess Chambers we learn that transitioning from female to male is like adjusting to super powers. I think. Maybe you’d better ask writer/artist A L Kaplan if I’m interpreting Subspace Transmission right. Oh well, I quite enjoyed my annual meeting with DC Pride stalwart Jess, they’re a breath of fresh air, and the art is great. But does anyone understand the Still Force?

Don Aguillo’a full-colour art in Anniversary, a Midnighter and Apollo feature, is really rather striking. I still can’t get my head round Alan Scott’s hideous beard, though. The script by Josh Trujillo gives us the most excruciating dialogue I’ve seen in many a year.

Spirit World star Xanthe Zhou, aka the Envoy, is sad and lonely so goes to the Gotham graveyard and helps Batwoman protect her family crypt. Batwoman being one of the DCU’s top three lady-loving-ladies, flirtation occurs. With a zippy script by Jeremy Holt and lovely full-colour art from illustrator Andrew Drilon, Lost & Found is my favourite story in the book. Drilon’s opening panel, a top shot of Xanthe at work in a shop, is especially fun, and at least two DCU characters are Easter egged in these pages. The lettering comes from Lucas Gattoni – maybe he lettered those hero names I spotted. Maybe Holt asked for them… who knows!

Wonder Woman fan favourite Nubia is taken to a whole new level of ‘imperious’ in a story co-starring Steel 2, Natasha Irons – think ‘scowling bitch’.

Has Teamwork Makes the Dream Work writer-artist Mildred Louis. ever read a story featuring Wonder Woman’s sister? She’s not really someone to decide another woman is worth less than the dust on her sandals the second she encounters her. As for Natasha, she wouldn’t take this behaviour. No way. I like Louis’s energetic, full-colour art a lot, but would someone at DC please decide what Natasha looks like? It’s not a matter of hair, her face is completely different with every artist.

There’s more impressive art as Catman and Ghost-Maker team up to fight bad guys, then have sex. The End. Ghost Maker narrates, telling us battle is a dance, bodies are art… it’s great to see onetime JSA illustrator Stephen Sadowski back in the DCU, and I remember Rex Ogle’s name from the editorial box a while back. I don’t know much about Ghost-Maker, but he has very stupid parachute pants and never takes his eye bandage off. The story is called The Battle, but Fan Service would be more suitable.

Finally, John Constantine and Jon Kent share a story because they’re both bisexual. Also, Skylar Patridge’s otherwise decent art – the monster design is great – also has them sharing a face. Felix Faust is on hand, we know he’s had sex with a woman at least once as he had a son who was in a (particularly) unloved version of The Outsiders. Christopher Cantwell’s script involves a Fetch spirit with connections to some pal of John’s I’ve never heard of. The opening caption says the story is set in ‘Rural Vermont, somewhere between the House of Mystery and House of Secrets’, which would be fine but it should be Kentucky. Kudos to colourist Dearbhla Kelly for good work that adds depth and mood to My Best Bet.

Rounding out the book is a bunch of pretty decent pin-ups, some nice tributes to Rachel Pollock – who was meant to contribute but died recently – and an introduction by the talented and inspirational Phil Jimenez which pushes the party line that we LGBTQ+ folk are special fluffy creatures who love art and spread joy everywhere… he’s never met me. I’d far rather Phil had contributed some comics, a cover, maybe.

The cover we do get, by Mateus Manhanini, is a disco fever dream, but well done for what it is. I think that’s Poison Ivy in the middle… is she allowed to be seen without Harley these days?

All in all, this is the usual DC Pride mix – super-earnest, often cloyingly sweet scripts dripping with affirmation and lectures. It’s as if DC editors just go through their online Rolodex of non-Cis creators, ask them to pick a couple of original LBGTQ+ – or recently rainbowed – characters, and write whatever the heck they want. If it makes sense, even better. The same files bring up the artists, who range from serviceable to excellent, and probably the colourists and letterers, who all do fine work.

I’d be happy were this to be the last DC Pride book, and the characters seen here integrated into the wider DC line on the basis of merit. If that means we don’t see Circuit Breaker, Ghost Maker or Box Ticking Lass for a while, fine. Or maybe we could have an anthology also featuring heroes who don’t fit into one of DC’s quarterly specials? Reaching out to marginalised audiences is a great idea, but what do the likes of Elongated Man, Firestorm, Hawk & Dove and Geo-Force have to do to get a ten-pager? A general giant anthology in which Jackson Hyde Aqualad, Batwoman and Grace Choi could share space with rarely seen non-LGBTQ+ characters would be perfect. Let’s have a rainbow flag of a comic that’s truly inclusive.