DC Pride 2025 Offers More Than Just Representation and Celebration

It’s June which means that we have arrived once again at Pride Month. For the fifth year in a row, DC is celebrating Pride with their one-shot, anthology-style publication celebrating the LGBTQ+ community and experience through the life, love, and humanity of its beloved characters and creators. In a month where there is plenty of rainbow activism, DC Pride has carved out a space of being a genuine love letter to its readers of all identities and this year’s is no different. It’s a long issue that features iconic and beloved characters as well as a deeply moving original, personal story from a creator — this year being Black Lightning co-creator Jenny Blake. However, while the format and mechanics of the issue and its stories are generally the same, this year’s DC Pride 2025 feels very different. Coming at a time when the LGBTQ+ is enduring old challenges in new forms with drastic anti-trans legislation nationwide and growing anti-queer sentiment, the community is enduring a lot of pain and it’s something that going into this year’s special, I wondered how DC would approach things. It turns out the answer comes in embracing the moment and doing what every generation of our community has done before us: fighting on and finding hope for tomorrow.

DC Pride 2025 is functionally set up as two stories — the larger overall narrative “The Heart Wants” and then the personal story from Blake. This is a little bit of a departure from previous year’s stories in that the main story is indeed one full story, but it’s told in different chapters by different creators each following different characters with one character, Ethan, serving as a throughline between them. The story starts as a beloved gay bar is closing down and Alan Scott takes new trans friend Ethan to see a famous wall in the basement of the establishment, one where patrons have carved and written on over the decades, marking their existence and place in history and the community. However, things soon get a little weird as reality seems to warp and we all find ourselves (and by that, I mean readers and characters alike) in different stories, different realities, a little off our center because things are familiar and comfortable but something is just off.

[ RELATED: DC’s Black Lightning Creator Jenny Blake Isabella Comes Out as Transgender ]

I won’t get into the actual details of exactly why things are off — there is a real story being told here and some twists and elements need to be read for one’s self in order for this story to ultimately pack the emotional punch it’s going for. And the story does pack a punch. What is fascinating about “The Heart Wants” is it is at different turns confusing, nonsensical, disjointed, and uncomfortable. On the surface that seems like a flaw; after all, this is a story penned by numerous writers with numerous artists and the flow is challenging to say the least. However, the deeper you go the more you realize that that is the point. The story is itself functioning as mirror of sorts to the community experience. For many, after a period of time of feeling secure and accepted, the social landscape has shifted again, with old prejudice and bigotry coming back to the forefront. It makes for a disorienting and disheartening reality and it’s that reality that this story reflects. The story uses this as a rich tool, sharing the idea that while one might want the comfort of everything they think they’ve wanted, real progress and real hope for a better tomorrow requires us to move forward, even through adversity. In short, while “The Heart Wants” can be a confusing read — and I would argue that this story would have made a much better full series rather than an extended single story — when you realize the story is itself a metaphor, it’s a gut punch that will break your heart and inspire you in equal measure.

As for the personal story. the past few DC Prides have included a personal story and Blake’s addition is a welcome one. While I would argue that nothing will ever top Keven Conroy’s beautiful story “Finding Batman” from 2022, Blake’s “Master Planner” is a giddy, beautiful, hopeful and richly nerdy celebration of transition, acceptance, and even the joy of comics. Blake tells her personal story very much through the lens of comics — and I personally love her referencing some deep cut comics moments, Claire Kent anyone? It’s fun and it’s uplifting and it is exactly the kind of injection of joy that’s needed.

When it comes to Pride celebrations, it’s far too easy to fall into something that’s performative, but each year DC Pride pushes things a little further and works to make their contribution something real and meaningful. With DC Pride 2025, DC continues these efforts in a way that speaks to the community where it is and continues offering inspiration for the journeys to come. I only wish we get more of these stories outside of June.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

DC Pride 2025 is on sale now.