Here’s a story.

Many years ago—before the Pandemic, even, which makes it feel like a lifetime ago—I had a meeting with editors at DC Comics about their burgeoning YA line. My agent at the time had set it up; he had sent his actually successful authors to DC and they had struck out, so maybe me, who had written and drawn comics no one had read, would succeed where they had not. The DC editors laid out everything they wanted (stories about characters people knew) and didn’t want (stories with new characters) and I responded with four two-sentence pitches. The first three pitches were about characters everyone knew, as instructed. But the last one, tacked on because I would always regret it if I didn’t, was about a new character. It was about using superhero tropes to tell a story about the experience of being trans.

It was about Galaxy. 

I didn’t think DC would go for it. It was, after all, the exact opposite of what they had told me to pitch. Also, this was back before Nicole Maines had been cast as Dreamer for the Supergirl TV show; DC had no major trans superhero beyond Kate “Coagula” Godwin, who was both a Vertigo character and dead at the time. But that was the pitch they wanted. I wrote an outline that made the editor cry when she read it, and then they gave me a contract to write the whole book. Vash Taylor was brought in to draw the book and give life to the characters, Ariana Maher came on to give Galaxy and Argus their wonderful little word balloon quirks, and together we made Galaxy: The Prettiest Star, a beautiful book that I was incredibly proud of and was certain no one would read.

Turned out I was wrong again. A lot of people read it. A lot of people bought it. It’s in its third printing. It should have been impossible. Galaxy was a new character who was trans and gay, three things conventional wisdom said would harm sales. She didn’t even tie into an existing superhero, beyond idolizing Superman. But the conventional wisdom was wrong, and Galaxy: The Prettiest Star did so well that I was asked to write another.

Galaxy: As the World Falls Down came out last week. This being the second book means that Galaxy has a series now. Galaxy had already claimed the distinction of being the first trans superhero at either Marvel or DC to have her name in the title of their own book, to not be a member of a team or an ensemble, but to have the story be about her. Now Galaxy also gets to be the first trans superhero at either Marvel or DC who has her name in the title to have a series. How wild is that?

In this book, Galaxy may have accepted herself, but she is still struggling with the idea of being a superhero. Or whether even deserves to be one. The nightmare she left behind on Cyandii when she was a child still haunts her, and not even the love of her girlfriend Kat can shake the survivor’s guilt completely. And when the Vane, the unseen boogey men of Galaxy: The Prettiest Star, arrive, Galaxy is thrust into a hero role whether she’s ready for it or not. Only Galaxy can stop the Vane. Or she would, if she could only figure out how.

Galaxy: As the World Falls Down is a different animal than Galaxy: The Prettiest Star. It takes place mainly in Metropolis, over two very stressful days. DC Comics stalwarts Superman and Ma Hunkel join Galaxy’s cast of characters, as does Dreamer. Galaxy met Dreamer in Nicole, Rye Hickman, Bex Glendining and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou’s Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story, and this story takes place during that same hot, dangerous summer. It makes sense, then, to have Rye drawing this book, too. Jodie Troutman came on to lettering, which gives us an all-trans creative team. Appropriate, considering this story is all about finding your people.

With this book, I really wanted to tell the story after the coming-out story. What do you do, once you’ve accepted your new identity, started to become comfortable with yourself, and are acutely aware that there’s now a target on your back that wasn’t there before? You find your people. You remain out and proud.

You save the world.

Galaxy: As the World Falls Down is in stores now.