DC Pride 2024 #1 – Al Ewing, Ngozi Ukazu, Gretchen Felker-Martin, Jamila Rowser, Jarrett Williams, Nicole Maines, Calvin Casulke, Melissa Marr, Phil Jimenez, Writers; Stephen Byrne, Ngozi Ukazu, O’Neill Jones, DJ Kirkland, Jordan Gibson, Len Gogoue, Jenn St-Onge, Giulio Macaione, Artists; Triona Farrell, Marissa Louise, Jeremy Lawson, Colorists
Ray – 9/10
Ray: DC’s annual Pride anthology is one of the best events of the year, and this one features nine stories from top DC creators, lesser-known creators, iconic talents from out of the big two, and even a top creator from the competition making his DC debut. How does this one shake up compared to last year’s?
“Hello, Spaceboy” by Ewing and Byrne wastes no time in establishing why these two are world-class talents. Focusing on the alien Starman, Mikaal, he and his agent Rutger are busy dealing with fans when they’re interrupted by Mikaal’s frenemy—a fellow member of their alien species, who battled Mikaal to the death in the past. Now he needs his help to deactivate an alien weapon from their arrival on Earth—which feels a little bit like Lovecraftian alien foreplay. This story is big, kinky fun with gorgeous art, but has some very powerful emotions behind the battles.
“The Rivers and Lakes That You’re Used To” by Ngozi Ukazu focuses on Jackson Hyde as he tries to figure out where he belongs with the help of his Atlantean boyfriend Ha’Wea—at least, until he fights a strange serpent and winds up being transported to New Genesis. With the help of perpetual outsider Orion (who is hinted to be on the A-spectrum here), he’s able to make his way back home. This is a much lighter story than the first, with delightfully cartoony art by Ukazu, who will be making more of a splash with the New Gods soon.
“Marasmus” by Felker-Martin and Roe finds Poison Ivy and Janet from HR on an alien planet, in search of a rare extinct mushroom spore with psychedelic properties. They find it—but they also find bigots from Earth colonizing the planet. So the art by Claire Roe is gorgeous, but a few things stuck out to be about this. I’m a bit surprised to see the writer with another DC gig given some recent… comments, and the tone of this story is rather gleefully cruel. Towards some deserved targets, yes, but it feels like an odd record screech on the overall tone of this issue.
“Steeling Time” by Rowser and Jones brings the tone back to a lighter one as we catch up on Natasha Irons and Traci 13, who had an ugly off-panel breakup a while back. They awkwardly reunite at a party at the Oblivion Bar, with Nat being forced to confront some of her avoidant tendencies. This is a very low-stakes story, but one that feels genuine. While the two main characters are enjoyable, it’s really the back-and-forth snarkiness between fellow attendees John Constantine and Xanthe Zhou that steals this story.
“Bros Down In A-Town” by Williams and Kirkland finds the friend group of Jon Kent, Jay Nakamura, Bunker, and Ray all hanging out for a food festival in A-Town. This is another low-stakes story, with the main challenges being Ray’s trouble with crowds due to his abusive childhood and Miguel’s romantic woes. This group has never hung out before it was introduced here, but Williams and Kirkland give the entire story a very light, fun vibe as these four young adults broaden their horizons—with a guest appearance from Galaxy and Argus.
“Lessons in Astral Projection” by Maines and Gibson serves as a fantastic sequel to Maines and Hickman’s recent “Dreamer: Bad Dream” graphic novel. Nia and her father are trying to pick up the pieces after her mother’s death and her sister’s disappearance, but she has no understanding of how to use her new powers and no one to train her. An investigation into her mother’s legacy leads to a clue—as well as to a reveal of how far Maeve went before she left. This is a great story that features some stunning visuals, as well as a great piece of the puzzle of how she went on to become Dreamer.
“Phantom Rodeo” by Kasulke and Gogou picks up with Circuit Breaker, finding the trans speedster working at a rodeo when they’re contacted by Jay Garrick—who needs to experiment with the Still Force to figure out what’s messing with the Speed Force. This means that Jules has to go on a cosmic adventure filled with strange monsters, as is pretty much what’s going on in the Flash book right now. This is a fun story with great visuals, but mostly seems a way to pull these two characters back into the main Flash book for the next issue.
“The Strange Case of Harleen and Harley” by Marr and St-Onge is a short preview of the upcoming graphic novel by the same name and creative team, which sees Harley and Ivy pulling off a heist at an animal testing facility. There isn’t much context to this, but we do see that Harley is acting looser and more out of character—likely the result of her growing split personality—and Ivy seems to like it. The art here is great, and this snippet gives me some stuff to look forward to in the main book this fall.
“Spaces” by Jimenez and Macaione is the final story, and in the vein of Kevin Conroy’s heartbreaking farewell, this is a very personal story in which Jimenez explores what the mythology of Themyscira meant to him growing up as a queer kid. The gorgeous, painted art goes a long way in bringing the dreamlike story to life, but Jimenez’s deeply human musings and conversations with his past self really give it emotional heft. There are even some interesting insights about his early days writing at DC.
Overall, this installment had a few more hiccups than the last few, but it still came together into a beautiful celebration of DC’s LGBT talent and characters.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
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