Strap in folks. I have news.

First off, let’s talk about Galaxy: As the World Falls Down. YA graphic novel about teen Galaxy by me, Rye Hickman and Jodie Troutman. This book is simultaneously a sequel to Galaxy: The Prettiest Star (by me, Vash Taylor and Ariana Maher) and also to Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story (by Nicole Maines, Rye, Bex Glendining and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou). Stars Galaxy, but also has her best pal Dreamer in there as well. Comes out May 5th.

Galaxy: As the World Falls Down is about what comes next after coming out. It’s about being a teenage superhero while also being trans and queer, feeling anxiety about life after high school while making sure the world doesn’t end, and what to do when a powerful empire wants you dead.

That’s amazing on it’s face right? Sure. But! there’s more!

I’m sure you all saw “I’ll Be Home For Hanukkah,” in last year’s DC Holiday Special, by me, Hannah Templar, Bex Glendining and David Lanham. In it, Galaxy is a part of the Justice League, going on several mission over the eight nights of Hanukkah.

If you read that and thought, “I sure wish we got a full-length Justice League story with Galaxy,” you’re in luck! A week before Galaxy: As The World Falls Down hits stores, Justice League Intergalactic Special drops!

This is a double-sized one-shot in which Galaxy joins Star Sapphire, Adam Strange and Green Arrow on a mission in save the planet Naltor from the Witch Queen. Naltor is the planet Dreamer’s mother is from, so Galaxy tries to bring Dreamer along for the ride. Trouble is, Dreamer’s and Galaxy’s lives have gone in such different directions. Galaxy is a respected member of the Justice League, but her JL teammates see Dreamer as a war criminal. Can their friendship survive their increasingly divergent perspectives? You’d have to be really good friends to weather that. You’d have to be the best friends in the universe.

This incredible, action- and emotion-packed spectacular is co-written by me and Nicole Maines, with Travis Moore and Tamra Bonvillain on art and my old Hawkgirl pal Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou on the letters. Here's the cover plus three variant covers, because they're gorgeous:

But that’s not even the news! The news is that Justice League Intergalactic is going to lead into…(drum roll please)…Justice League: Dream Girls — A DC Pride Event!

This four-issue weekly miniseries is also written by me and Nicole, with art done by an absolute murderers row of modern comic talent including Nicola Scott, J. Bone, Brandt&Stein, Stephen Sadowski, Vincent Cecil, Mikel Janín, Rosi Kämpe, and many others. It’s an event book so big we had to get two letterers, Jodie Troutman and Frank Cvetkovic! Here’s the official plot description, from DC:

The story begins in the aftermath of Justice League Intergalactic Special, when Dreamer and Galaxy suddenly awaken on Themyscira, living out an idyllic fantasy as princess and champion of the Amazons. Their confusion deepens when a mysterious stranger washes ashore insisting that Dreamer must leave the paradise she’s always dreamed of to save the world, and the dreamlike landscape around them begins to shift in ways that feel both familiar and deeply wrong.

The threat behind the shifting dreamscape is the Key, a long-standing Justice League adversary whose ability to manipulate perception and hunger for control over dreamspace make him a uniquely dangerous opponent for Dreamer. The world he’s building offers her a version of heroism that feels easier to embrace than the imperfect reality she left behind, and Dreamer fears that those imperfections are all she is…whereas Galaxy, eager to prove herself to the League, believes she can keep her imperfections hidden.

In this series, Dreamer is battling, in many ways, her will to go on. With being a hero, with life at all. She’s nothing like the hero she set out to be, and after everything, she (ironically) can’t see a future for herself. So, she needs her closest friend to remind her, even if Dreamer didn’t exactly ask for her help. As the Key tightens his hold, Galaxy fights her way through the dreamworld to pull her friend back from the brink. Her ability to see through the Key’s illusions makes her a threat he’s desperate to expel. The series blends cosmic action, emotional stakes, and a story about identity, legacy, and the strength of a friendship tested by forces determined to tear it apart. 

Check out these awesome Brand&Stein covers for issues 1-4:

Galaxy’s journey has always been about the struggle to define yourself. Each moment of joy and euphoria is paid for by the hard work of claiming your queer and trans identity in a world that would rather you go back in the closet. What Nicole and I did with Dream Girls is place Galaxy and Dreamer in scenarios where that isn’t so: the Key offers them everything they’ve ever wanted, with no effort or difficulty. How does Galaxy handle a life without struggle? Not well, it turns out.

Dream Girls also gets a connected series of variant covers by one of the greatest comic artists of all time, Phil Jimenez, and colored by Arif Prianto:

I get choked up when I look at that image. To see my girl Galaxy front and center with all these iconic heroes drawn by artist I've loved since I was a teenager means so much. There was a time when I didn’t think this was possible. That the stories I wanted to tell, about queer and trans people, wouldn’t be accepted in the mainline DC universe, much less as part of their flagship title. But here we are. I’m writing Justice League with a good friend, and a character I made up gets to hang out with Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman and talk about the joys and the difficulties of being trans and kiss her girlfriend and in the pages of the comic its no big deal but it is a big deal in the real world, especially right now.

It’s a dream come true.

Justice League Intergalactic will be in stores 4/29. Galaxy: As the World Falls Down hits 5/5. Justice League: Dream Girls — A DC Pride Event comes out every Wednesday in June. Tell your friends.