It’s June, AKA Pride Month, and it’s time to crack open DC’s annual Pride special. DC Pride 2025 also marks the five-year anniversary of the book. I remember picking up the Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy Jenny Frison variant of DC Pride: Love and Justice in 2021. It was one of my first times going into a comic shop to buy a comic instead of getting graphic novels at my local bookstore. I still have that book framed on my wall to this day.

If it wasn’t clear, DC Pride has a very special place in my heart. I have learned about so many characters through these pages. It is a celebration of queer identity while also serving as a resource to learn about different identities, experiences and even history. With a stacked cast of characters and creators, there is a lot to enjoy in DC Pride 2025.

This year’s anthology does things a bit differently. All of the book’s stories are woven together to create one large overarching plot—and the thing that connects them together is a 100-year-old gay bar in Gotham. Arguably, this bar is a character itself. Queer people have historically found community through spaces like bars and clubs. Back in the day, bars—like the one in this comic book—were speakeasies designed to keep patrons safe and their identities secret. We see how this location has served as a sanctuary for all of the different characters featured in this story, including Kate Kane (Batwoman), Renee Montoya (The Question), Connor Hawke (Green Arrow), Harley Quinn, Jo Mullein (Green Lantern), Apollo, Midnighter and so many more.

Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern (and a DC Pride alumnus), plays a major role in this comic as we explore the grief he has for his former lover, Johnny Ladd (also known by his Russian name of Vladimir Sokov), who became the Red Lantern—the rival to Alan. We see the loss that Alan experiences for the life he once dreamed of with Johnny and how they were ripped apart too soon. This has many layers considering so many queer people have not and still do not get to be with the ones they love and live the lives they’ve dreamed of.

These two men commemorated their love by carving a heart into the wall of this bar, in the process beginning a nearly 100-year-old tradition of patrons leaving their mark. Every single person who has added to this wall now finds themselves in an alternate dream-like reality that brings their deepest desires and wishes to fruition. What we find is that many of these characters are experiencing versions of what they thought were their most ideal lives before coming into themselves, while others find themselves in their own personal heavens.

All of these characters have vastly different stories, some haunting and some celebratory, all woven together by their identities within the LGBTQIA+ community.

DC Pride 2025 also introduces a new character named Ethan Rivera who serves as the heart of the story. We get to briefly explore his past as an army veteran and how he has come into his identity as a (transgender) man. He also happens to be the one person who can pass between these alternate realities. It’s up to him to try to pull everyone back to reality—which for some is a hard thing to do considering these ideal lives feel so much better than their real ones. The finale seems to set up a lot for the future of Ethan Rivera and I hope to see him again in future stories.

Back in 2022, DC Pride featured its first autobiographical story called “Finding Batman” about Kevin Conroy’s experience as a gay man and becoming the voice of Batman. It created what has become a trend for autobiographical segments in DC Pride, and this year’s is by Jenny Blake, a prolific comic book editor and writer known for co-creating Black Lightning. Blake came out as transgender at the age of 72 and shares her inspiring story in a funny and witty manner in “Master Planner,” the one story in the book that’s not connected to the bigger multiversal tale. It’s an important inclusion because it shows us that it is never too late to live as your authentic self and be who you were always meant to be. It also shows the importance of community and how Pride and queer spaces can uplift people and create safe spaces to explore who you are.

DC did something extra special this year and included the fans in DC Pride 2025. For one month, DC’s official Discord server accepted submissions from fans with the prompt, “How has the legacy of DC stories impacted or reflected your queer identity, journey, or experiences?” More than two dozen of the responses, ranging from stories, to fanart, to cosplay, are published in the back of the special. To see the ways in which LGBTQIA+ representation in DC comic books has inspired and even helped fans is incredibly moving and something I can also relate to. Seeing yourself—your identity—on the pages of your favorite stories is something that is genuinely invaluable. To relate to a character is something that draws humans to stories in the first place!

To me, this is what Pride is about—it’s about love and community and acceptance and so much more. No matter how different everyone’s experiences and stories are, this community connects us.

This year’s DC Pride was incredibly ambitious, which is a perfect way to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the anthology. The overarching story that weaves together the many queer characters of DC was a novel and dare I say epic concept. I am so grateful to have learned about Jenny Blake’s story, and I look forward to more autobiographical stories in future DC Pride comics. But it was seeing LGBTQIA+ fans celebrated on the pages of this year’s anthology that may have been my personal favorite aspect of this year’s DC Pride. Check out DC Pride 2025—and if you haven’t, make sure to grab the previous year’s Pride specials as well!
 

DC Pride 2025 #1 is now available in print and as a digital comic book. It can also be read in full at DC UNIVERSE INFINITE at all tier levels.

Sami DeMonster writes about superheroes, horror and sci-fi for DC.com and reviews comics every week on social media. Follow her at @samidemonster on Instagram and Substack.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Sami DeMonster and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.