THIS WEEK: DC starts its Pride Month celebration with the first issue of Justice League: Dream Girls. Also, we check in on the debut of The Deadman and the (not-quite?!) conclusion of Harley and Ivy: Life and Crimes.
Note: The reviews below may contain spoilers.
Justice League: Dream Girls #1
Writers: Jadzia Axelrod and Nicole Maines
Artists: Nicola Scott, J. Bone, and Brandt&Stein
Colorists: Annette Kwok, Marissa Louise, and Dearbhla Kelly
Letterers: Jodie Troutman and Frank Cvetkovic
Cover: Brandt&Stein
For the last six years, DC has made a concerted effort to spotlight and celebrate their queer characters during Pride Month. This year, they leveled those efforts up from a single anthology to a weekly, month-long miniseries, starring recent DC mainstays Dreamer and Galaxy and featuring back-up stories starring other queer characters.
I love seeing DC embrace new characters, new perspectives, and new voices. Dreamer and Galaxy have not been around very long. But in the short time they’ve been part of the DC Universe, they’ve become – and more importantly, been positioned to become – prominent, central characters. Central enough that they can anchor a four-issue miniseries, and DC can expect that miniseries to succeed creatively and financially. That, in and of itself, is a feat, and a show of confidence in both these characters and the creators who have guided their stories.
Those creators, writers Jadzia Axelrod and Nicole Maines, do a great job of crafting an entertaining, engaging start to this year’s DC Pride celebration, in concert with multiple standout art teams. Most of the story takes place in dreams, a smart move that allows for clean transitions between Nicola Scott and Annette Kwok’s regal Paradise Island, J. Bone and Marissa Louis’s cartoonish Gotham City, and Brandt&Stein and Dearbhla Kelly’s WEBTOON-esque Justice League Watchtower. Each scene allows the creative teams to show a bit of Galaxy and Dreamer’s personalities, drop them into a new corner of the DCU, and tease the mystery at the heart of this miniseries (which is, “Why has The Key trapped our heroes in dreams?”).
What’s worth noting, given Justice League: Dream Girls’ conceit as a Pride Month Event, is how easily and effortlessly Dreamer and Galaxy fit within the various DCU environs on display. Outside of a snarky reference to an assemblage of queer Gotham baddies as “the Pride parade from Hell,” there is nothing about this issue that feels forced or overly ham-fisted. To be more blunt, there is nothing that makes this comic feel like it owes its existence to Pride Month. Instead, Axelrod, Maines, and co. simply tell a fun story starring interesting characters they clearly love. If this miniseries had launched any other month, it would have been just as at home in the current DC line, and I would have enjoyed it just as much. On the strength of its lead characters and its storytellers alone, Justice League: Dream Girls #1 succeeds.
So much so that I’m very glad the next issue of this miniseries drops next week. I’m excited to see what corners of the DCU Axelrod and Maines drop Dreamer and Galaxy into next, as well as learn more about exactly why The Key is so interested in Dreamer. But mostly, I’m just excited to spend more time with these characters, who have earned their place as fan favorites at the forefront of a month-long event. Hopefully, this miniseries will be successful enough that we’ll see more of the Dream Girls after Pride Month, and Justice League: Dream Girls, concludes.
The Round-Up
- Given writer W. Maxwell Prince, artist Martín Morazzo, colorist Chris O’Halloran, and letterer Good Old Neon’s consistently fantastic output, my expectations for The Deadman #1 were quite high. So it’s no small compliment when I say the team met those expectations and delivered another dense, clever, and entertaining debut. I’ve sung this creative team’s praises before, and much of what I said then remains true here. But it’s worth pointing out (as our illustrious editor Zack Quaintance did yesterday) that Deadman is uniquely well-suited to allow the Ice Cream Man team to explore their interests and bring their sensibilities to mainline DC. The result is another winning Next Level title, which anyone who enjoys contemplative and quirky storytelling will enjoy.
- I’m quite happy that Erica Henderson’s Harley and Ivy: Life and Crimes will apparently return after this week’s issue #6. This Harlivy retrospective has been an absolute delight throughout, and its first arc concludes in the same cute and spectacular fashion in which it began. If you’re a fan of well-illustrated action-romance and/or either of these characters, do yourself a favor and pick this one up in trade, then come back when the teased sequel arrives.
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