Justice League: Dream Girls – A DC Pride Event #4 is the end of probably my favorite experiment from DC in a minute. Rather than one big anthology to celebrate social milestones, we get a weekly four issue mini series that ratcheted up my excitement every week as the story ping-ponged between the two main characters, Galaxy and Dreamer. The finale gets these two heroines back together to fight both the Key, and the Justice League themselves.
I’m not going to lie, the issue starts off with a pretty big bummer. Dreamer has had her will broken and she is completely subservient to the Key, an old Justice League villain who has been pushing and nudging Dreamer this whole series in a direction where she would be more agreeable and help him unlock the secrets of the universe.
DC
Thankfully though, Galaxy never gave up on her friend, and before long comes rushing in to try and save her. I don’t care if it’s typical superhero fare to have them trade blows and trade words – that stuff is one of my favorite things in all of comics and Jadzia Axelrod and Nicole Maines write the hell out of Galaxy in these moments. The love she feels for her friend is so palpable the words are going to get stuck in your brain like pocket lint you could’ve sworn you’ve already taken out.
Rosi Kämpe and Brandt&Stein on art draw some pretty exciting fight dynamic fight scenes, that while relatively light on action, are framed gorgeously and have the heroes strike some insanely cool poses. Even more effective than that though, is the talking head segments at the end of the book. The characters are pretty expressive and joyful and frankly its just nice to see them smile after everything they’ve been through all night long.
Jodie Troutman and Frank Cvetkovic also deserve a shoutout for their lettering. The dream sequences especially have some pretty energetic and dynamic work from them that adds to the excitement and danger.
For the more continuity-minded comic nerds out there (Hi, that’s me too), the Green Lantern Corps had, what I thought, was an outsized significance last month, but they seem to double down on their position. I wasn’t expecting to see Green Lantern foreign policy established in a celebration book, but that, along with some decisions from the old guard of the Justice League, make this a pretty important issue for the greater DC Universe.
DC
After the main feature, we’re treated to a black and white autobiographical backup from Klaus Janson. The story details his own journey through life, and parallels the story of accepting his sexuality with discovering his true passion in life: comics. It’s hard to read at points because of the bigotry from his peers (there’s a trigger warning about language before the story even starts), but it’s a beautiful and intimate story about one of comics most important and prolific artists. It’s moving, it’s charming, it’s heartbreaking, it’s a lot – but maybe most of all it’s simply stunning to look at. This guy has his name on some of the biggest comics ever printed seeing a more classic panel layout in stark black and white with selective pops of color just feels good to read.
Justice League: Dream Girls – A DC Pride Event #4 is exactly the kind of satisfying conclusion I was hoping I’d get. After four weeks of emotional swings from the two leads, we get a great “coming together” moment that highlights what makes these characters so resilient and reliable. Couple that with a satisfying apology from the Justice League and an absolutely astonishing backup from Klaus Janson, and you’ve got one of the more successful weekly minis I can remember. The creative team over the past month deserves a ton of credit for telling such a compelling story and delivering every week, but especially for this finale.
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