Transgender Representation in Comics
Content warning for transphobia, transmisogyny, violence against transgender individuals, and the objectification of intersex individuals.
As the visibility of transgender individuals have increased over the past few years, so has transgender representation in comics. However, as with most representation of marginalized people in media, representation of transgender individuals hasn’t always been done well, if at all. Examining how transgender people have been portrayed in comics throughout history, and how these portrayals reflect societal attitudes towards transgender individuals, will show that transgender representation in comics have generally improved over time, and that transgender artists have become more visible in our current era than they have been in years past.
It should be noted that this work is not meant to be a comprehensive history of transgender characters. Rather, it examines several notable examples of transgender characters seen throughout history in order to compare the differences in portrayal and societal attitudes to modern day characters. Doing so allows for a more focused and detailed look at the examples chosen, especially given the limited scope of this essay.
It should also be noted that this work will focus less on shapeshifting characters in comics, and more on characters whose gender identity is separate from any type of supernatural powers. This is not to discount the importance of these characters: Masquerade, a male superhero who was assigned female at birth, was a shapeshifting character from Milestone Comics’ 1993 series “Blood Syndicate.” And in 2005, Marvel’s “Runaways” comic introduced Xavin, an extraterrestrial shapeshifter who changes their gender from male to female in the 8th issue of the series. Both of these characters were used to explore gender identity at a time when mainstream comics rarely broached those issues. However, as Xavin explains, “for us, changing our gender is no different than changing our hair color.” This work aims to focus on characters for which that isn’t the case, and whose depiction reflects the material struggles that transgender individuals have faced throughout society.
One transgender character whose depiction — while deeply troublesome — intersects with real world issues, is Shvaughn Erin from DC Comics’ “Legion of Superheroes.” Originally introduced in 1978 in the comic “Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes,” Shvaughn was a member of the Science Police who became a love interest for the superhero Element Lad, aka Jan Arrah. In “Legion of Super-Heroes” issue 31, released in 1992, it is revealed that Shvaughn is actually a gay man named Sean, who regularly took a drug called ProFem in order to present as female and win the heart of Jan. Sean reverts back to a masculine form, as they are unable to obtain any more doses of ProFem due to living under an oppressive government that made the drug hard to obtain. As Jan tries to explain that he is attracted to Sean regardless of gender, Sean decides to leave Jan and move on. While in the streets, Sean voices his relief at the fact that the charade is over.
There are several questionable tropes that are present in this depiction. The most obvious is the idea that an individual would change large parts of themselves — even their gender — in order to seduce a cisgender male. Moreover, the depiction of Sean as a gay man in disguise furthers the idea that transgender women are just gay men who are feminized, rather than being women themselves. Lastly, this depiction plays on the trope of the deceitful transgender woman, a common transphobic trope in which someone who passes as a cisgender women is revealed to be transgender as a plot twist. In this trope, the transgender subject is seen as a “fake” woman, much like how Shvaughn is treated as a disguise here. Regardless of the fact that Jan is attracted to both the “disguise” and the person underneath it, this trope is still harmful and worth recognizing in any piece of potentially transphobic media.
There is one aspect of this depiction that may potentially resonate with transgender individuals, which is the idea of a transgender individual not being able to obtain the medication needed to continue their transition. “ProFem” could be a simple stand-in for hormones that doctors prescribe to their transgender patients. Hormone therapy requires continual doses of hormones, usually in the form of pills, in order to gradually and safely transition from masculine to feminine features, or vice versa. According to a 2010 report by the National LGBTQ Task Force, almost 19 percent of transgender people report being refused health care outright because they were transgender or gender non-conforming, and 28 percent report facing harassment in medical settings. In a society where systemic barriers can potentially limit one’s ability to access medical care or the medication needed to transition, being refused hormones is a real concern among transgender individuals.
Another transgender character that has been met with mixed reception is Wanda from “Sandman.” Introduced as part of an arc titled “A Game of You,” originally published in 1993, Wanda is the best friend of the arc’s main character, Barbie. Barbie eventually gets trapped in a dream state, and when the time comes to rescue her, Wanda is restricted from participating in the adventure due to the fact that she was assigned male at birth. She is held back by the book’s supernatural beings, who define gender in terms of chromosomes rather than personal expression. Wanda instead gets stuck in her apartment, with a demonic head who shouts negative thoughts in an attempt to make her feel insecure about her gender. Later on, Wanda leaves the apartment and meets a stranger who asks her if she’s a boy or a girl. Wanda answers, “I was born a guy. And now I’m a gal. Only I haven’t gone all the way…” After Barbie is rescued, a storm collapses the Wanda’s apartment and kills her.
Wanda is buried by her family. Her mother, who refers to Wanda by her deadname, Alvin, claims that the hurricane was punishment for her sins, saying “this town’s going to remember Alvin as the God-fearing child that he should have been.” Her deadname is written on her tombstone. After the funeral, Barbie crosses off the deadname with pink lipstick, and writes “Wanda” above it.
It should be noted that Wanda is depicted as having traditionally masculine features, such as broad shoulders, increased height, an angular face, and a bulge in the crotch area, which are heavily emphasized throughout the comic. Later on, Barbie sees Wanda in her dreams, where her height is reduced and her face is rounder. This is meant to show that unlike many of the other characters in the comic, Barbie sees Wanda as a woman.
By Wanda saying that she “haven’t gone all the way,” referring to the fact that she hasn’t had gender reassignment surgery, she reinforces the idea that transgender individuals aren’t truly transgender until they have undergone gender reassignment surgery. For many transgender individuals, genitalia does not definite their gender identity. Additionally, Wanda dies a tragic death, which reinforces the Bury Your Gays trope, seen in many pieces of media in which a member of the LGBTQ community dies a tragic death at the end of a story.
Although Wanda’s depiction is flawed, it is accurate in its representation of transgender individuals being misgendered posthumously, which is a problem that the transgender community still faces today. Neil Gaiman, the book’s author, said he wanted to depict this fact. Gaiman also stated that he probably wouldn’t have written this story today, as there are “some fantastic trans authors out there telling their own stories.”
One such author is Rachel Pollack, who created the character of Kate Godwin, aka Coagula, for the DC Comics series “Doom Patrol.” Godwin was introduced in issue 70 of the comic, which was published in 1993. Pollack said she was involved with transgender activism at the time, however, Godwin’s character wasn’t meant to be a bold statement. “It wasn’t this big decision like I was trying to have this crusade. I just thought it was a cool thing to do,” Pollack said.
Donning a button that says “Put a Transsexual Lesbian on the Supreme Court,” Godwin beams with self-confidence. In the comic, she reveals that she magically gained the power to dissolve objects while on the job as a sex worker, and demonstrates this power while out at a bar with friends. Later on, Godwin has to put this power to use in order to defeat the ridiculous villain Codpiece — who literally wears a giant codpiece that doubles as a laser — all while covering her face with a smiling frog mask.
In the issue that she is introduced, Godwin’s gender identity is never once called into question, nor is she misgendered by any of the characters. The comic lets her exist on her own, refusing to play into the transphobic tropes that other comics easily do.
One criticism that can be levied against the comic, however, is the fact that Godwin obtains her powers through a figure who is continually described as “He — She” due to the fact that they have both male and female genitalia. Godwin describes having sex with this person as “fascinating” until a ghost-like figure flows out of their body. This type of framing — a mysterious being with two genitals who was strange enough to give another person superhero powers through sexual intercourse — contributes the marginalization of intersex individuals, who are people that are born with sex characteristics that do not fit into the binary of masculine or feminine bodies. Intersex people are as much a part of the LGBTQ community as transgender individuals, and given how well portrayed Godwin’s character is, it’s disappointing to see “Doom Patrol” resort to othering another group of marginalized people.
In the 2010s, attitudes around the LGBTQ community and transgender individuals shifted in a more positive direction. Progressive writers and artists, specifically women and individuals in the LGBTQ community, were more open to the idea of creating positive representations of transgender individuals in mainstream comics.
In 2013, a run of DC Comics’ “Batgirl” written by Gail Simone included a bisexual transgender woman. The character, Alysia Yeoh, was introduced in issue 19 of the run, and was Batgirl’s roommate. Alysia decides to come out to Batgirl, aka Barbara Gordon, during a conversation where Gordon shares intimate secrets about her past with Yeoh. Yoeh’s coming out was met with acceptance on behalf of Gordon, who in return told Yeoh that she prefers being called Babs instead of Barbra.
Simone, a cisgender woman, decided to create Yoeh because she thought representing transgender individuals was important. “I had met and spoken with so many trans readers, smart lovely people who loved comics, but had to appropriate characters that were, you know, robots or aliens in comics because that was the closest thing to any kind of trans representation. It bothered me a lot,” Simone said.
In 2014, after Simone was taken off of “Batgirl” and was replaced by a new creative team, the series faced backlash after an arc involving the unmasking of a villain, Dagger Type, played into the “deceitful transgender” trope. After Dagger Type, who was posing as Batgirl, had their masked removed, Batgirl exclaims “Dagger Type? But you’re a — ,” before getting cut off. The writers apologized for the negative portrayal, changed some of the dialogue in the paperback version of the comic, and spoke to transgender women about how to include better representations of transgender individuals in the future.
The recent series of “Jem and the Holograms,” based on the 1980s cartoon of the same name, also features a transgender woman, and the reveal is somewhat similar to that of Alysia Yoeh. In 2016, as part of the “Dark Jem” arc, an original character named Blaze comes out to her bandmates. Blaze, who auditions to be the lead singer of the band The Misfits, has a moment of panic when she realizes she’s about to get the part, and wonders if the band will accept the fact that she’s transgender, especially given the fact that they’d be spending a lot of time together. Clash, Blaze’s girlfriend, convinces her to come out to the rest of the band. Blaze’s coming out is met with acceptance from her bandmates.
Blaze was created by “Jem” illustrator Sophie Campbell, who is a transgender woman. Campbell said that she came up with the idea of Blaze due to the fact that there were more members of Jem and the Holograms than there were of their rival band, The Misfits. Due to Blaze being her own character, Campbell wanted to make her transgender. According to her, there was no pushback on that idea.
It should be noted that Alysia Yoeh and Blaze do not have masculine characteristics that are heavily emphasized, unlike Wanda. Both characters are drawn similarly to the other cisgender women in those comics, and their status as transgender women are only relevant when it comes to sharing that personal information with other people. Doing so explores a valuable fantasy in which transgender women are allowed to exist without having their identities being called into question, and are accepted by close friends and family without hesitation.
“Bitch Planet” is a comic that explores the differences between cisgender people and transgender people in more concrete ways. Originally started in 2014, the comic depicts a society in which women who do not conform to heterosexual patriarchal norms and stereotypical American beauty standards are sent off-world to a prison planet. In the series’ second arc, published in 2017, it is revealed that there is a group of transgender prisoners located on a different part of the planet. The comic chooses to emphasize the transgender individuals’ genitals, as many of them have not been able to undergo gender reassignment surgery. The comic establishes that transgender people were the first to be sent away to the prison planet, as they do not conform to traditional cisgender ideals.
Later in the comic, it is revealed that one of the women relegated to the transgender section of the planet is the sister of Kamau Kogo, one of the main characters of the series. When Kogo orchestrates a blackout that frees all of the prisoners from their cells, some of the cisgender women attack the transgender individuals. One character, while standing in front of a group of transgender women, yells, “Sticks or lipsticks, they’re still men trying to take from you!” Soon after, one of the comic’s revolutionary leaders, Eleanor Doane, urges the crowd to not let fear divide themselves.
Here, “Bitch Planet” confronts a painful reality, which is the fact that some cisgender women do not support transgender women. This is because they see the advancement of transgender rights to be a threat to the rights of cisgender women. “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism” is a term that has been used in popular discourse to describe this category of cisgender-centric feminism.
Kelly Sue DeConnick, Bitch’s Planet’s co-creator and writer, said that she got the idea on how to implement transgender people in this society by talking to a reader whose husband is transgender. “He suggested that if the high status position is cisgender male, then everyone is who is not high status — transgender women, for instance — would be defined by their NOT-cisgender male status,” DeConnick said.
The advent of the internet and social media has created opportunities for lesser known artists to have their work seen by more people, which has led to marginalized creators having a platform through their online presence. The publication of various web-based comics has created a space in which comics made by transgender creators have been made more accessible.
“As The Crow Flies” by Mealine Gillman is a web comic about a queer person of color going to a religious summer camp in which the majority of children attending it are white. The main character, Charlie, is heavily implied to be non-binary, and they eventually befriend a character named Sydney, who is a trans girl. The comic explores the feeling of being other in a white, heteronormative cisgender society, as well as the solidarity that comes with creating bonds with other marginalized people.
“Goodbye to Halos” is a queer fantasy web comic created by Valerie Halla in which the main character, Fenic, is transgender. The comic starts with Fenic presenting as male, but after spending time in a reality different from her own, as well as being away from her father for a long period of time, she gets more uncomfortable with her masculine name and appearance. Over the course of a montage, she gradually takes on a more feminine form and changes her name.
Of course, those are just two examples of comics created by non-cisgender artists that you can find online. The internet and the popularity of web-based comics has helped cultivate a space in which someone who is looking for comics created by marginalized people will have little trouble finding them. Databases such as Cartoonists of Color and Queer Cartoonists Database exist for the purpose of helping people find work from marginalized artists.
Transgender individuals have come a long way in terms of seeing themselves represented in comics. While mostly cisgender writers tried creating transgender characters in the 1990s, these characterizations were often flawed, as they were created by people who did not have the experience of being a transgender person. One exception of this is the character of Kate Godwin from “Doom Patrol,” created by a transgender writer. Despite the positive portrayal, “Doom Patrol” still ends up marginalizing intersex individuals, who have a history of being alienated from the LGBTQ community. It wasn’t until the 2010s that writers working on mainstream comics, specifically women and those in the LGBTQ community, made an effort to represent transgender characters. Additionally, the popularity of the internet and web-based comics created a space for lesser-known marginalized artists to share their work. Through social media and online databases, transgender artists have become more visible in the comics space. As a result, comics about exploring transgender identity created by transgender artists have seen an increase in popularity, due to more positive attitudes surrounding queerness and the fact that these comics are much easier to find compared to the decades that came before.
