In 1970, the first Pride marches were held across the United States, one year after the Stonewall Inn riots sparked a movement that continues to this day. In the last five decades, LGBTQIA+ people have been fighting for equal treatment, visibility, and the very right to exist.
That fight extends to popular media, including comic books. While publishers across the industry have made significant strides in queer representation and groundbreaking storytelling, Marvel and DC have often struggled to consistently invest in their queer characters beyond the annual Pride Specials. More often than not, that investment comes in the form of anthology specials or variant covers of existing titles spotlighting related queer characters.
To DC’s credit, they have made meaningful progress in recent years through characters like Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and even the return of Batwoman in a new series written by her creator. This year, rather than the expected annual anthology, we have been given the weekly mini-series Justice League: Dream Girls – A DC Pride Event, focusing on the trans characters Dreamer and Galaxy, with the DC Universe’s other prominent queer characters relegated to the supporting cast.
One of those characters is a reminder of a much more complicated history. DC’s first openly gay superhero remains one of the most neglected and mishandled characters the company has ever created. Let’s talk about Gregorio de la Vega, better known as Extraño.
Extraño 101
Created in 1988 as part of the Millennium event by Steve Englehart and Joe Staton, Extraño is one of ten individuals chosen to succeed the Guardians of the Universe, who believed the coming crisis would require more than just the Green Lantern Corps to defend the universe. Having almost ended his life but was saved by the Flash, he accepts his destiny and is given mystical abilities. He and his fellow New Guardians would have their own 12-issue series after Millennium, where they begin their lives as the new protectors of the universe and all that entails.
Gregorio would be seen calling himself “Auntie” and being the very flamboyant feminine stereotype of gay men seen in popular media for decades, giving sage wisdom about life and how they should proceed with their new duties. In the first issue of this series, however, three of the Guardians, including Gregorio, are bitten by the Hemo-goblin, a vampire who is HIV-positive. Yes, while two other members of this ensemble are also bitten, somehow, editorial approved the gay character being bitten by a vampire with HIV…HOW?!
Extraño in recent years
As previously stated, The New Guardians would end at issue 12, with Gregorio adopting a more masculine design before the conclusion due to backlash over his over-feminization. After this, however, Extraño would fade into nonexistence in the DC Universe for almost 30 years, not brought up in mystical tie-in events such as Infinite Crisis, but just left to be forgotten. It wasn’t until the Love is Love anthology, which was co-published by DC Comics and IDW Publishing in the wake of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, that we would see ex-editor-in-chief Dan Didio be the one to seemingly apologize for the treatment of Extraño in the aftermath of this real-life tragedy.
What’s even more shocking is that if it weren’t for a handful of select creators doing everything in their power to keep Gregorio around in some way, shape or form, he would have just been forgotten again. In the pages of Midnighter and Apollo, written by Steve Orlando, Gregorio has been given a modern look and has shed the Extraño moniker. He’s now married to Tasmanian Devil, has adopted a daughter and helps Midnighter learn that his lost love has been trapped in Hell while also helping him survive the journey to retrieve Apollo.
After the events of this series, Gregorio returns to the Extraño name, makes a brief appearance in Orlando’s Justice League of America, and even begins mentoring a young sorcerer, Sylvan Ortega, who is seen in several holiday or Pride specials alongside Extraño… but other than that, Gregorio de la Vega has become no more than an elder gay character that is brought out once or twice a year.
But then what…?
This raises several questions. Why go through all the effort with an apology for what happened to him only to barely do anything with him? Why not raise his profile and do more to set him apart from being seen by many online as the “DC gay Doctor Strange”? Why not explore his Spanish heritage and queer identity in his own ongoing or mini-series?
One thought that bounces in my head from time to time is that he’s not seen as worth the time of the mainstream DC Universe because John Constantine and Zatanna are prominent. It’s almost as if DC is quietly saying that there’s enough magic going on; we don’t need more. He’s hardly even a background player in magic-based stories. The most anyone can say is that James Tynion IV made an effort with artists Daniel Sampere and Alvaro Martinez to include Extraño in background shots of the Rebirth run of Justice League Dark, but otherwise, he tends to be forgotten once again.
Another thought that permeates is a fear. A fear that it’s already difficult or even unnatural in the eyes of many straight writers and artists to include queer characters in their media; in a lot of cases, they’re background players or their queerness is diminished.
In recent years, characters such as Midnighter and Apollo, Bunker, heck even Batwoman up until recently, again her creator being brought back in to do something-ANYTHING-with her. So asking a creator to come in and deal with a married gay character with HIV may be asking too much in the eyes of DC Editorial. What’s wild to me is that DC already invented the perfect solution for this: Black Label.
DC Black Label has largely been overlooked ever since the Batman-undressed debacle, but recent stories such as Siren’s: Love Hurts show that the imprint can be the ultimate vehicle to tell adult-focused stories about DC’s characters. So why not use this as an opportunity to take another shot at Gregorio as a character? Bring in a queer creative team who’s passionate about the mystic side of the DCU, and give them the freedom to tell the story in the best way possible. Take risks and explore a character that has been owed the opportunity for decades but has consistently been thrown to the wayside.
It is the perfect way to address the issue because otherwise, the strange case of Extraño will continue, where he is only valued as an occasional cameo or background player when it’s time to celebrate our continued fight for our existence. For a character who was supposed to represent the future of the DC Universe, Gregorio de la Vega has spent far too much of his history shoved back into the closet whenever the celebration ends.
