#dc pride

I always enjoy this mish mash Pride collections - it's just nice to have Pride be celebrated and collected like this. That being said, some stories are written better than others. I also tend to find the old worn out Pride narrative of "finding a place of belonging" being a little weak at this point - but that is probably just because I'm stable in my queer space, so it might be more poignant to those that aren't.

Nia works because she's constantly fucking up, it's why more than her own creator have taken interest in writing her. Like she generates such delicious conflict and she's constantly learning and being confronted with her own shortcomings, which makes for some fantastic storytelling. Imo, the best comic run in relation to anything DC was Static's OG 1993 run from Milestone. Virgil is very, very flawed in the run and each arc is him being confronted with his own blindspots, learning, and growing. Every bit of progression is earned. Doesn't mean he's always in the wrong, he's often got great insights himself.

Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III wrote Virgil to have biases. Milestone was created with centering the Black experience and giving readers a chance to see Black heroes and stories in a time which sorely lacked them(AND STILL DOES, WE NEED MILESTONE BACK). Like it was a risky move to write a story where Virgil was not as aware about antisemitism, homophobia, sexism, etc. But the writers did it because Static is an extremely intersectional and woke(I'm using the original meaning of the term) story. It is aware of how social systems enforce and perpetuates discrimination. Virgil, is just a kid. Like he's not super ultra special, he's a high school student trying to get through life.

Before the racism fully drowned out Static stories, he was featuring a lot under the pen of other writers and continues to be a great influence on creatives. A character with flaws and room to grow generates stories.

Setting aside personality, even Taylor's powerset makes her......difficult to incorporate into practically anything. She's genuinely, all-powerful. Like if we power-scale, she clears every Justice League member without breaking a sweat. She has a flaw in her powers because of her sensitivity to signals but any time someone uses it, it's an allegory for ableism because it's treated as a disability. So it's not a flaw anymore, and if any character does use it THEY become an asshole now.

Like if you stick kryptonite near a kryptonian, it's purely there to power them down. Unless another writer is going into a story with the mentality of "Galaxy is perfect and correct and never wrong", she's impossible to write in a collaborative manner!

No one fucking tag the creators or think this is me targeting them please jesus christ. I don't read any of the big three anymore, like ffs my favorite character rn is Jay Nakamura and Cameron Kim, I'm reading Green Lanterns(Jessica and Simon run), Static and New Gods. I fucking hate the batfam and anything to do with the mainstream heroes because of these kinda flaws and more like I'm aware there's worse problems out there.

Firstly, it is insulting to the canon queer characters to post NON CANON queer people BEFORE canon queer ones?? And I say specifically queer characters because queerness also exists outside of being in or shipped in a couple, despite what DC's post would suggest about pride by only posting people in pairs. [edit: aside from Jon's coming out scene. Although that is a comic page that still centers clark over jon]

I understand as a marketing tactic, DC is aware superbat brings in a large amount of readers, but neither are canonically queer [nuance to this statement. For example Bruce in Batman The Knight was written to be bisexual. But he is not a confirmed bisexual character.] But at what point does this go from a fun ode to superbat shippers to outright queerbate when there are no signs of making superbat canon, let alone confirming the bisexuality of either people?

Tim is bisexual and in a queer relationship, it is not fair that he has been put in only after a post about two straight men. Similarly, my best friend @r0bee has pointed out to me how unfair it is that the canon saphic couple shows up FOURTH and only after a non canon saphic couple.

There are also MANY things to be said about putting Jackson and Ha'wea, two canonically queer and black characters, as the very last section of the post???? After 9 all-white and several allocishet characters.

And where are the other characters? Where are Harley and Ivy, probably the most recognised queer couple in DC. What about Diana Prince the actual bisexual character in the trinty or Selina Kyle, openly bisexual characters despite their bisexuality seemingly often forgotten or ignored by writers? What about Connor Hawke, an asexual character?

The introduction of Kate Godwin in 1993, a trans lesbian written by a trans lesbian and the first ever trans costumed hero

Hartley Rathaway (Pied Piper) coming out to Wally West in 1991, making him the first mainstream costumed character to specifically say the word gay to describe themself

Midnighter and Apollo’s wedding, the first on panel mainstream gay wedding in comics, in 2002

Connor Hawke, one of the few asexual characters anywhere that isn’t a robot or alien (confirmed in 2022, but implied for longer)

The Half a Life arc, in which Renee Montoya is outed as lesbian (2003)

What is considered the first mainstream gay kiss in Starman #45 (1998)

These aren’t all of them, they’re just some objectively significant stuff and a couple personal favorites