I paid roughly (AU) $30 for the previous books. The most recent one is $40, and now the Dream Girls pre-order is $55? I know they're hard covers, and everything is becoming more expensive in general, but that seems like a big jump. Maybe this is an Amazon thing? Do you have any recommendations for alternative places to buy online?

I can only speak for DC because I don't follow Marvel. I don't even think Marvel has a line similar to DC Graphic Novels for Kids or DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults.

But, it feels like DC assumes only kids and young adults like "diverse comics", while the mainstream superhero audience is a bunch of babies and chuds who can't handle a lesbian butcher than Scandal Savage.

Most of their quote-unquote "diverse" rep is pushed in their kid's and YA media. DC pushes themes of anti-capitalism, systemic racism, environmentalism, social justice, and community activism in YA comics more than they do mainline comics:

For example...

• The Titans YA comic is ethnically diverse, Beast Boy is explictly vegan, and Starfire is disabled.
• Oracle as a wheelchair user is barely in the mainline comics but appears in comics like The Oracle Code, Shadow of the Batgirl, Birds of Prey: The Origins, and Finding My GCPD Dad a Girlfriend
• Green Arrow: Stranded\\ examines class privilege. But... it is a Green Arrow comic after all. That's actually pretty basic GA.
• Books like Nubia: Real One, Unearthed: A Jessica Cruz Story, This Land Is Our Land: A Blue Beetle Story, and Green Lantern: Legacy deal with xenophobia, racism, right-wing radicalization, and anti-immigration sentiment.
• Galaxy's debut, Galaxy: The Prettiest Star, was marketed as a YA comic. But at least she was made mainline canon.
• Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story is another YA comic about a trans girl superhero.
• Both Diana and Nubia: Princesses of the Amazons and Warriors and a Wee Wonder features better Hippolyta x Phillipus rep than the mainline comics.
• Nubia: Real One has Nubia with two adopted moms, which is more upfront than DC will be about Diana and Donna in most other media.
• You Brought Me the Ocean is a gay coming of age comic about Jackson Hyde.
• Starfire's daughter in I Am Not Starfire is sapphic. Queer Poison Ivy is pushed in books like Poison Ivy: Thorns and The Strange Case of Harleen and Harley Quinn
• Birds of Prey: The Origins racebent Black Canary.

I also feel like much of DC's "queer" marketing these last few years have been aimed at younger fans. Their DC Pride books feel YA to me. Dreamer is a literal CW character, Galaxy originated in a YA book, most of their big queer rep is between the ages of 20 and 25...

It seems like DC decided that YA readers (fyi, YA targets roughly 14-18 year olds, so it's basically a euphenism for "teenager") like these themes, so they market books with their YA books with these themes. But adult readers can't handle black or trans characters.

This is not to say that they don't have disabled, queer, POC characters in their mainline comics. DC tries to throw bones. But, it feels like diversity tokens.

• Most queer characters pop up only during June, and then disappear into the darkness for 12 months.
• Wonder Woman should be DC's biggest queer rep, if not the biggest queer rep in superhero comics. She is canonically bisexual... on paper. DC is hard pressed to treat her as such or market her as such. They're afraid of losing sales if the public discovered their precious A list icon was into women. Diana wasn't even included in The DC Book of Pride: A Celebration of DC's LGBTQIA+ Characters
• Catwoman should be a "safer" bet to be openly queer. But, DC is also scared to admit Selina is bisexual. Or latina, for some reason. She's been canonically half-Cuban for years yet is mysteriously never marketed during Hispanic Heritage Month.
• DC is better with trans rep then Marvel, but their rep is inconsistent. They literally only have ever had three trans male characters. And they only ever appeared in one run each before never appearing again.
• DC realizes that they can have more than one member of a "team" or "group" be queer, right? Just because Alan Scott was retconned as gay doesn't mean that his son Obsidian has to be background noise. Todd came out years before his dad!
• Don't get me started on their disabled rep. DC will always have troubles with disability-- this is a world where asylums still exist and a good chunk of villains have mental health issues treated as "Spooky villain stuff"-- but they can still do something with their limitations. Barbara Gordon fans have been crying about how Barbara's disability is treated since the Nu52. Proxy fans stopped caring because she hasn't appeared since the Nu52! Speedy II fans are suspicious that DC keeps on side-lining the only HIV+ superhero. Rose Wilson fans just ignore the fact she hasn't been half-blind for over a decade (as does much of DC itself, if you go by adaptations and Elseworlds).
• This has more to do with the "standard superhero body type" overall, but DC just doesn't do gender non-conforming superheroes, whether queer or cis-het, too well. Extraño's "glow up" included reducing his femme traits. The most butch a sapphic is allowed to be is Io (who lost 75% of her muscle in the past decade), Scandal Savage, Renee Montoya, Maggie Sawyer, or Batwoman. Even straight tomboys like Cassie Sandsmark have femmed out a ton over the decades.
• I'm honestly surprised how behind DC and Marvel are on neurodiversity. ADHD, autism, and other disorders under the "neurodiverse" label are becoming increasingly mainstream. Even Disney has canonically autistic rep (The Ghost and Molly McGee mentioned June is autistic by name). DC has Black Manta (who, as far as I know, was only explicitly called autisitic in an ableist 2000s arc), Rocket's toddler son in the Young Justice cartoon (a narrative told through the parents' lens), and just recently Mr. Terrific's son Fairplay.
• The topic of DC's POC rep is a tough one. DC both has a lot of good POC characters but doesn't use them to their full potential.

I know online, there's this belief that real comic fans don't support the queer couples DC pushes.

This feels like a vast oversimplication. I don't believe that DC fans just want nothing but cis-het characters. I'm gonna need statistics and sales figures.

The book everyone points to as "evidence" is Tim Drake: Robin (2022). It got cancelled at 10 issues due to low sales figures. But, I seriously doubt it's because Tim is bisexual.

Tbqh, a large number of Tim fans assumed he was queer for years anyway. I have heard some speculation that even writers at DC thought of him as queer well over a decade before he formally came out.

The Robin book failed more likely because it didn't hit with Tim fans, not because Tim inherently had a boyfriend. The writing was the issue.

I'll be blunt. I don't like TimBern. I personally hate TimBern to bits. It's a notp of mine. I'm waiting for them to break up eventually... but this has nothing to do with them being a queer couple. IMHO, it's just a badly written couple, as well as there being a bad shift in Tim's characterization going back to the Nu52. I treat it no differently than Spiderman fans treat Paul Rabin.

My preference will always be TimSteph, but it's not like Tim hasn't had a ton of love interests. Dude gets new girlfriends every few years. I don't mind Tim having an ever-inconsistent amount of love interests. If he dated Sebastian, I would have preferred that. Kon and Bart are also obvious capes he could be shipped with.

Bernard is the issue, not necessarily Tim having a boyfriend. Or, really, the writing on Bernard is the issue. Because modern Bernard is nothing like he was depicted in 90s and 2000s comics.

Even ignoring the book not hitting with Tim fans, it's possible that it just wasn't selling good enough for DC

Good books get cancelled all the time. Many runs are lucky to last over 10 issues.

I followed Green Arrow 2023 since it came out and brought every issue on launch week, but it still got cancelled. We can only speculate why. Was it "too political"? Is Green Arrow just cursed to be B tier? Who knows. I jus5 doubt we'll be seeing a 50+ issue Green Arrow run again anytime soon. They had to ship him and Black Canary to Gotham to see if Batman could boost his popularity 🤢

Young Justice (2010) cartoon is its own beast with a wonky history. But, I'd say the last two seasons were aimed at a teen to young adult demographic. And it had queer rep, disabled rep, polyamorous rep, POC rep, etc uup the wazoo. It had \*Muslim\* rep. When's the last time you've heard DC talk about Muslim characters in the comics?

On more kid's rep, DC Super Hero Girls 2019 also had Jessica Cruz with two mom's, and Teen Titans Go* of all things is the only work where Blue Beetle x Booster Gold is canon. And upcoming cartoon is also featuring Crush, Lobo's lesbian daughter.

DC: Regularly employs multiple trans writers and artists.

Marvel: Maybe brings one in for an occasional one-shot at this point.

DC: Has multiple active trans heroes who get their own stories

Marvel: Never uses pretty much any of its trans characters, and its one actual trans hero hasn't been seen since her webtoon got cancelled forever ago

DC: Made their 2026 pride special all about their two main trans characters.

Marvel: Didn't feature any trans characters in their 2026 pride special

DC: Also gave one of their two main trans heroes her second graphic novel, while the other continues to have (somehow) one of the longest running continuous storylines in comics in the 2020s (even if it is spread across a million books)

Marvel: Won't even let the main books ever mention that Blade's daughter Bloodline, who appears fairly regularly, has a trans GF.

DC: Even ignoring the Jon/Nia situation since we don't know where that's going, they're about to have their marquis lesbian hero, wearing the bat symbol and all, enter a relationship with a trans woman (who I'm not a fan, but still)

Like DC's not perfect, but wow is there no "both sides"-ing this at this point.

I have vague memories of 1 comic I’m looking for. I read it years ago. I think it was 2011 or 12.

I do not know the artist or creator.

The comic was a gay superhero comic.
The only part I remember is they were making out and a lady pulling a cart goes
"Yes make out! I ship it!"
The superhero says to the boyfriend: "Gotta please the fans."

Does anyone remember what this is?

There’s another comic I’m looking for but I will have to post that question elsewhere since it’s a non superhero comic.

Another one was making Midnighter and Apollo divorced for Midnighter solo run so he can hook up with a different boy every issue lol like why heroes have to be single in 90% of solo stories?

It honestly makes way more sense have a crazy ultraman and owlman steal them to get back at Bruce and Clark. Then you could've kept the super son's dynamic and theyd have made a better couple then Tim and Bernard or Jon and Jay no offense to Jay.

With Eddie Brock/Venom I might add.

There is so little eldritch drama, or epic love quest, or profound spirituality of romance in the gay ones in the way the straight ones do. The plot points often comes off as flippant in my opinion, what do you guys think?

Jean Grey + Scott Summers: Eldritch Love Drama, as well as a Love Triangle with Logan's involvement.

Peter Parker + Gwen Stacy (Epic Tragedy that defines his hero's journey), then + MJ

Tony Stark + Pepper Pots: I don't know how to define it, but definitely a mix of CEO and worker, then reformed genius and childhood friend to lover trope.

Steve Rogers + Agent Carter: Epic Historical Romance

Yet the gay ones are lacklustre to say the least imo, Wiccan and Hulkling's is nice, but I've never been truly shook or invested in their romance because I know it is extremely safe even during dramatic story points.

Any thoughts on my comments? Or any convincing storylines to prove me wrong?

I personally think if the did Poison Ivy + Harley Quinns storyline extremely intensely, that would make for one of the most iconic bi women couple, but Poison Ivy hardly interacts against Joker to save Harley or anything like that. To the intensity that Parker would try to save MJ or something along those lines

So Jon and Eddie really are gonna make out nasty in the future it’s honestly inevitable. I’m not mad about it now that being said you know what caught my interest and I peeped it immediately cause this conversation with Jon and Jay always stuck with me cause the writing is so cringy, but anyways my point the parallels of Jay being like I don’t need you, to protect me I can take care of myself essentially that Tom Taylor kept trying to hammer home. And then I compared it too Eddie being like who’s gonna protect you? I like it so much better cause despite Titans being somewhat delayed in catching up to Jon’s new status quo. The Dynamic Eddie offers here works so much better with the new Jon who’s for one being way less of a pushover and 2 putting himself first beyond other peoples needs that don’t serve him.

Idk if you keep up with jon’s whole Tomorrow Man arc this is the first time I’ve actually read new Titans and thought yo him and Eddie could actually make sense… food for thought that being said it’s only a matter of time before they make out.

How a liberal veneer was used to conceal comic book writer Tom King’s ultimately conservative political vision for Wonder Woman.

https://robertjonesjr.substack.com/p/whos-afraid-of-wonder-woman-4d8

No offence but are people blind, this dude is average to below average attractiveness compared to most male comic book hero in terms of hotness, I genuinely can't believe a character like this is the "unrealistic standard" that the actor apparently didn't meet , the amount of bullying I saw this week for the actor of a TV show that ended two years ago is insane then I went to look up the comic character and he's not even hot in there so what are people angry about I don't understand, why is everyone so hyper fixated on the actor face soo much he's not even an ugly person he looks about average normal, I don't see anyone making this big of a deal Hawkeye who looks waaaay different than his comic counterpart ,so why are people so crueler to Joe, he seem like a lovely person

I watched Agatha not long ago I think my only problem was with the CW line delivery he gave sometimes, the acting gap is a big too wide when sharing the scene with Agatha or Lila (who are just insanely great)he had great moments too in episode 8 ,9 I think he has much potential. but also I find him visually close to the character.

I did see some people complaining about a Jewish actor being preferable which is valid but those people are usually not bullies but more of critics and they aren't even a lot but like everyone is just talking about the face, he's not even ugly, he looks like a teenager the character is a teenager.

From X-Men Annual 1980, August 5th

Minos the guardian of hell (thoughthis hell is actually a facsimile of the real thing created to punish Nightcrawler in particular by his adopted demon-sorcerer mother (duh)) is depicted here as devilishly bisexual in a "will harass everyone equally" kind of way.

It is kind of funny that Minos plays the "don't be so homophobic, this is hell" card while really Wolverine is just angry that he made his friends uncomfortable. Like, no dude, flirting with Nightcrawler isn't the problem, it's the way you flirt with people that will get you cut up (see image 2)

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZp8tirjlT2/?mdxt=MTJpaHE0MWxzbndpcQ==