PRIDE MONTH 2024! To say that Rachel Pollack’s Doom Patrol run was ahead of its time would be an exercise in the most obvious of understatement. Despite having the unenviable task of following Grant Morrison’s seminal period on the book Pollack populated it with her own cast of memorable characters and continued the offbeat, off-kilter sense of unpredictable weirdness that had permeated its pages since Morrison’s arrival. It was the debut of soon-to-be DP member Kate Godwin aka Coagula, though, that would prove to be what this era would be most remembered for. DC’s first trans super-hero, lent extra authenticity by being created by a trans writer, making her first appearance way back in 1995. (A quick warning that there may be hinted-at spoilers in the following.)
DC Pride: A Celebration of Rachel Pollack #1 gives us a fitting tribute to the writer we sadly lost in 2023. It’s presented in DC Comics’ over-sized one-shot format and, while $9.99 may feel like an off-putting price point for an issue that is nearly 90% reprint, it’s undeniable that there’s some prime Pollack material herein. That comes alongside the long overdue righting of an egregious DCU wrong. But we’ll come to that later…
After a fascinating scene-setting introduction by industry veteran Stuart Moore that will ensure you immediately want to check out more of Pollack’s work we’re launched straight into Doom Patrol Vol. 2 #70 and that key first appearance of Coagula, whose powers emerged after a past encounter with Doom Patrol member Rebus.
It’s astonishing to think that this story was first published nearly 30 years ago, not simply because of the trailblazing intro of a trans character but also because of how absolutely relevant it is to us in 2024. The antagonist Codpiece’s super-villainy springs from his own toxic masculinity, with his name coming from the huge weaponised penis substitute he wears to commit his crimes (some wonderful visual gags and slapstick here from art team Scot Eaton and Tom Sutton). Had this been published in 2024 we would have been considering it to be an allegory for ComicsGate and/or incel culture. Coupled with its explorations of gender identity there’s something far more profound lurking in the overt comedy and satire here.
The second Pollack reprint is her re-imagining of Joe Simon’s Brother Power, the Geek in the ‘90s Vertigo Visions The Geek special. Despite Michael Allred’s jaunty artwork it’s probably fair to say that thematically this one is a little over-packed and loses sight of its own narrative clarity occasionally. But it remains an intriguing extrapolation of the counter-culture characters and storylines from the short-lived (and almost immediately cancelled) two-issue ‘60s series.
There’s an elephant in the room here, though, and it’s one that needs to be commented on. Despite the importance of Coagula as the first transgender super-hero at DC, she was casually killed off between Doom Patrol series by a later creative team in order to advance the storylines of other characters. As queer characters so often are. Her “final” appearance was in a 4-page flashback in Doom Patrol Vol. 3 and it was a wasteful loss in terms of representation and character diversity.
Suffice to say that ‘Shining through the Wreckage’, the new 10-page story in DC Pride: A Celebration of Rachel Pollack #1 by Joe Corallo and Rye Hickman (above), will make fans of Pollack’s DP very happy indeed. Its spotlight on Coagula captures the tone of her time on the book perfectly and is bursting with Doom Patrol history while still acknowledging the most recent Unstoppable Doom Patrol series. Hickman’s art also evokes those Vertigo days in tone and presentation. And yes, to fully get it the reader will need an intimate knowledge of Rachel Pollack’s run but on this occasion that feels entirely fitting. A most welcome commemoration of a creator whose contributions to comics and the trans community cannot be over-emphasised.
Rachel Pollack, Joe Corallo (W), Scot Eaton, Tom Sutton, Michael Allred, Rye Hickman, Maria Llovet. Tom Taggart (A), Tom Ziuko, Laura Allred (C), John Workman, Clem Robins (L) • DC Comics, $9.99
Review by Andy Oliver
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