DC Pride 2024

#1A

Release: May 28, 2024

Creators

WriterAl Ewing, Jarrett Williams, Ngozi Ukazu, Nicole Maines, Calvin Kasulke, Jamila Rowser, Gretchen Felker-Martin, Melissa Marr
ArtistNgozi Ukazu
Cover ArtistKevin Wada

Happy Pride, everyone.

I don’t have a lot to say on this one, largely because I don’t think it’s my place to say much. This is a comic that, unlike so many others, doesn’t center me, or at least people like me.

Which isn’t to say that people like me don’t benefit from it and aren’t able to enjoy it, but the point is that my thoughts about it aren’t important. That can be a difficult thing for people like me to accept – almost impossible for many – but it’s also necessary.

It is not, however, sufficient. These annual specials – as well as the specials DC regularly puts out focusing on other marginalized groups – need to happen, but it isn’t enough that they do.

The main thing that stood out for me as I read though this was the idea that I should know more about a lot of these characters. Sure, there were familiar faces like Jon Kent, Poison Ivy, and, obviously, Harley Quinn – though Harley’s story wasn’t really a story but rather a preview of an upcoming YA graphic novel – but there were a lot of unfamiliar faces as well.

When I say I should know more about them I don’t necessarily mean that I find all of them interesting, because there are some real duds in there in my opinion – which is fine; not every character can be a winner – but as someone with a strong general knowledge of characters, especially on the DC side of things, I should know more about them because they should be having more of an impact in the larger DC Universe.

Now, much of that could be on me, as it could be that they appear regularly in titles I don’t read, but it’s also worth noting that some of the characters appearing in this volume don’t actually appear in any stories and are simply included on pin-up pages.

So as I say, necessary but not sufficient.

The same holds true for many of the the creators involved, whose names should be more familiar to me than they are, though, again, much of that could be on me. (Which brings us back to these specials being necessary.)

The final story in the special is written by someone who is very familiar to me, and while I said this is a work that doesn’t center me, Phil Jimenez’s autobiographical story does still speak to me as someone who benefited from the ability to escape into fantastic worlds contained in the pages of comics and of my own creation.

I will say that the art from Giulio Macaione was great, I do kind of wish Jimenez had drawn it himself, in part because it would have made it even more personal, but mostly because I always like to see new art from him. But, again, this book isn’t about me or what I want, so I’m certainly not complaining, just mentioning my admiration for Jimenez’s work.

But that’s my quick look at this year’s Pride special from DC, a look that most likely neither necessary nor sufficient.

And again, particularly to the people this special and this month do center, Happy Pride.


Born and raised in the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Jon Maki developed an enduring love for comics at an early age.


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