Stuff for the Teen Age, LGBTQ at NYPL
Power Up For Pride With LGBTQ+ Superheroes!
Happy LGBTQ+ Pride Month to all who are fighting against the evils of bigotry, homophobia, and discrimination!
Comic books and graphic novels have always been a medium open to LGBTQ+ representation, but the establishment of the Comics Code Authority in 1954 forced creators and publishers to adhere to a strict set of rules and guidelines that promoted a heteronormative agenda and forbade anything that would challenge that. This meant that early LGBTQ+ comics were produced by underground publishers and creators, up until the gradual decline of the Comics Code Authority in the late 1980s.
Mainstream comic book publishers, such as DC Comics and Marvel, started including explicitly LGBTQ+ characters and themes starting in the early 1990s. In 1992, Alpha Flight’s Northstar was the first openly gay mainstream character created by Marvel Comics. He later married his longtime boyfriend in 2012. In 1998, WildStorm, an imprint of DC Comics, produced the gay vigilante superhero, Midnighter, who later married fellow superhero, Apollo, in 2002.
In 2006, DC Comics announced that their latest incarnation of Batwoman, aka Kate Kane, was a lesbian who would receive her own title run. In 2015, one of the original X-Men, Iceman, aka Bobby Drake, officially came out as gay, and became the first openly gay male character to receive his own title run in 2017. In 2017, America Chavez became Marvel Comics’ first queer, Latina superhero to receive her own series.
Overall, LGBTQ+ representation in comic books and graphic novels has seen a definite rise in recent years, and has shown a progression towards more inclusive and diverse storylines. It is not difficult to make the connection between superheroes and people on the LGBTQ+ spectrum; we all have our villains to conquer and demons to slay, so if you need any inspiration to help power you up for your next big battle, here are a few LGBTQ+ superhero recommendations, brought to you by our own superteam of librarians! (Note: Book summaries are reprinted from the publishers.)
For more recommendations, don’t forget to check out #RainbowReading or the Queer Comics Database.
Graphic Novels
America, Vol. 1: The Life and Times of America Chavez by Gabby Rivera
Recommended by Caitlyn Colman-McGaw and Katrina Ortega
At last! Everyone's favorite no-nonsense powerhouse, America Chavez, gets her own series! Critically acclaimed young-adult novelist Gabby Rivera and all-star artist Joe Quinones unite to shine a solo spotlight on America's high-octane and hard-hitting adventures!
She was a Young Avenger. She leads the Ultimates. And now she officially claims her place as the preeminent butt-kicker of the entire Marvel Universe! But what's a super-powered teenager to do when she's looking for a little personal fulfillment? She goes to college!
America just has to stop an interdimensional monster or two first and shut down a pesky alien cult that's begun worshipping her exploits before work can begin. Then she can get on with her first assignment: a field trip to the front lines of World War II—with Captain America as her wingman!
Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka
Recommended by Judd Karlman and Amanda Pagan
Batwoman battles a madwoman known only as Alice, inspired by Alice in Wonderland, who sees her life as a fairy tale and everyone around her as expendable extras!
Batwoman must stop Alice from unleashing a toxic death cloud over all of Gotham City—but Alice has more up her sleeve than just poison, and Batwoman’s life will never ever be the same again.
Batwoman, Vol. 1: Hydrology by J.H. Williams
Recommended by Judd Karlman
As a part of the acclaimed DC Comics—The New 52 event of September 2011, Batwoman's new series finally begins! The creative team of J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman launch the ongoing Batwoman series, as Batwoman (aka Kate Kane) faces deadly new challenges in her war against Gotham City's underworld–and new trials in her personal life. Who or what is stealing children from the barrio, and for what vile purpose?
Will Kate train her cousin, Bette Kane (aka Flamebird), as her new sidekick? How will she handle unsettling revelations about her father, Colonel Jacob Kane? And why is a certain government agency suddenly taking an interest in her? These are some of the questions that will be answered in this long-awaited series!
Black Hammer, Vol. 1: Secret Origins by Jeff Lemire
Recommended by Crystal Chen
Once they were heroes, but the age of heroes has long since passed. Banished from existence by a multiversal crisis, the old champions of Spiral City—Abraham Slam, Golden Gail, Colonel Weird, Madame Dragonfly, and Barbalien—now lead simple lives in an idyllic, timeless farming village from which there is no escape! But as they employ all of their super abilities to free themselves from this strange purgatory, a mysterious stranger works to bring them back into action for one last adventure!
Black Panther: World of Wakanda by Roxanne Gay
Recommended by Crystal Chen
The world building of Wakanda continues in a love story where tenderness is matched only by brutality!
You know them now as the Midnight Angels, but in this story they are just Ayo and Aneka, young women recruited to become Dora Milaje, an elite task force trained to protect the crown of Wakanda at all costs. Their first assignment will be to protect Queen Shuri... but what happens when your nation needs your hearts and minds, but you already gave them to each other?
Meanwhile, former king T'Challa lies with bedfellows so dark, disgrace is inevitable. Plus, explore the true origins of the People's mysterious leader, Zenzi. Black Panther thinks he knows who Zenzi is and how she got her powers—but he only knows part of the story!
Winner of the 2018 GLAAD Media Awards for Outstanding Comic Book!
Gotham Central, Book One: In the Line of Duty by Greg Rucka
Recommended by Benjamin Sapadin
Gotham City: a town teeming with corrupt cops, ruthless crime lords, petty thieves… and just a small handful that would oppose them. Grizzled veteran Harvey Bullock, Captain Maggie Sawyer, detective Renee Montoya and the GCPD are the law force that stands between order and complete anarchy.
Gotham's Finest work around the clock to not only keep the world's most psychotic criminals off the street... but also cleaning up the mess left behind by Batman's one-man war on crime.
Iceman, Vol. 1: Thawing Out by Sina Grace
Recommended by Amanda Pagan
Bobby Drake has been in the super hero game longer than most—but what has he left behind besides a few good one-liners and a string of failed relationships? And now a younger version of himself has emerged from the timestream—and he's more put together than Bobby ever was. He grapples with his gay identity and his family and how to build a life and legacy he can be proud of... and become the best Iceman he can be!
But, whether it's seeking his ex-girlfriend Kitty Pryde's advice on meeting guys, or delivering his latest news to his folks, it won't be easy—and that's before a gang of revenge-seeking Purifiers comes calling! And, still learning to be comfortable in his own skin, Bobby will meet someone who's perhaps too comfortable in his—the son of Wolverine himself, Daken!
Midnighter, Vol. 1: Out by Steve Orlando
Recommended by Crystal Chen
A theft at the God Garden has unleashed a wave of dangerous biotech weapons on the world, and Midnighter intends to put that genie back in the bottle by any means necessary. But something else was stolen from the Garden as well... the secret history of Lucas Trent, the man Midnighter once was!
Patsy Walker, a.k.a. Hellcat! Vol 1.: Hooked On a Feline by Kate Leth
Recommended by Amanda Pagan
Patsy Walker has managed to escape her past, her enemies and Hell itself (literally)—but nothing compares to job hunting in New York City! Between trying to make rent and dodging bullets, Patsy barely has time to deal with her mother's exploitative romance comics about Patsy's past resurfacing, much less how they start to interfere with her work and dating life.
As she goes from living a double life to a triple, what the hell is Patsy Walker supposed to do?
There'll be friendship and burgers, monsters and rent checks and a ghost from the past with questionable motives! Comics' most flexible heroine has been a provisional Avenger, a Defender, Satan's daughter-in-law and a dead woman—but she's never been anything like this!
Runaways: The Complete Collection. Volume 1 by Brian Vaughan
Recommended by Judd Karlman and Leah Labrecque
They were six normal teenagers linked only by their wealthy parents' annual business meeting... until a chance discovery revealed the shocking truth: their parents are the secret criminal society known as the Pride.
For years, the Pride controlled all criminal activity in Los Angeles, ruling the city with an iron fist... and now, with their true natures exposed, the Pride will take any measures necessary to protect their organization—even if it means taking out their own children. Now on the run from their villainous parents, Nico, Chase, Karolina, Gertrude, Molly and Alex have only each other to rely on.
Zodiac Starforce: By the Power of Astra! by Kevin Panetta
Recommended by Amanda Pagan
They're an elite group of teenage girls with magical powers who have sworn to protect our planet against dark creatures, as long as they can get out of class!
Known as the Zodiac Starforce, these high-school girls aren't just combating math tests. They're also battling monsters—not your typical afterschool activity! But when an evil force from another dimension infects team leader Emma, she must work with her team of magically powered friends to save herself—and the world—from the evil Diana and her mean-girl minions!
Dreadnought by April Daniels
Recommended by Amanda Pagan
Danny Tozer has a problem: she just inherited the powers of Dreadnought, the world’s greatest superhero. Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, Danny was trying to keep people from finding out she’s transgender. But before he expired, Dreadnought passed his mantle to her, and those secondhand superpowers transformed Danny’s body into what she’s always thought it should be. Now there’s no hiding that she’s a girl.
It should be the happiest time of her life, but Danny’s first weeks finally living in a body that fits her are more difficult and complicated than she could have imagined. Between her father’s dangerous obsession with "curing" her girlhood, her best friend suddenly acting like he’s entitled to date her, and her fellow superheroes arguing over her place in their ranks, Danny feels like she’s in over her head.
She doesn’t have time to adjust. Dreadnought’s murderer―a cyborg named Utopia―still haunts the streets of New Port City, threatening destruction. If Danny can’t sort through the confusion of coming out, master her powers, and stop Utopia in time, humanity faces extinction.
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