Fantasy and science fiction have always been fertile ground for queer imagination, but now comic book publishers are introducing more explicitly genderqueer superheros than ever.
DC Comics’ latest groundbreaking superhero is Jess Chambers, or Kid Quick, who will make their debut next month in DC’s Very Merry Multiverse, a holiday-themed comic book anthology available on December 8. The speedy superhero will then assume the adult role of The Flash in Future State: Justice League, a miniseries set in a possible future that starts rolling out in January.
Ivan Cohen, the writer and creator of Kid Quick, told them. in an email that the idea behind the new superhero came when he started thinking about the inherent queerness of the comic’s setting: Earth-11, an alternate world where DC’s traditionally male characters become female and traditionally female characters present male.
“If someone has a non-gendered superhero name, like Kid Flash in the main DC Universe, or Kid Quick here, why not try something more modern?” Cohen asked. “Not every superhero has to be male or female, or white, just because DC characters created in the golden and silver ages of comics pretty much all were.”
Kid Quick’s first appearance also won’t necessarily center on their nonbinary identity. “[It] isn’t something the other heroes ‘tolerate,’ it’s just part of who the character is,” Cohen explained. “And not only do none of Jess’ teammates have any issue with it, they really don’t give it a second thought.”
Eleonora Carlini, the artist who helped Kid Quick visually come to life, described the character design process as “quite spontaneous.”
“It was as if Kid had been waiting for a long time to be drawn,” she told them.
Inspired by one of her favorite artists, David Bowie, she conceptualized Kid’s design as a sort of “homage to the quintessential icon who broke down gender boundaries.” She also tried to incorporate a nod to their nonbinary identity through the jagged, diagonal lightning bolt design that separates the red and yellow colors on their costume. “A costume that had a vertical or horizontal division would have defined too much a boundary between two opposites,” she explained.
Cohen also confirmed that Kid Quick is a superhero of color, but added that their backstory is not specified in DC’s Very Merry Multiverse because they debut “as part of a short story with a lot more heroes” where “more is implied than spelled out in great detail.” He also added that he wanted to “leave room to invent and explore whatever that background is in future stories,” noting that he didn’t know that other writers would be using Kid Quick as soon as January’s Future State.
“That being said, Kid Quick is allergic to cats, but that was VERY specific to the story that introduces them,” Cohen pointed out.
He hopes that as the character gets more “screen time,” there will be more opportunities for the trans, nonbinary, and genderfluid communities to “share their experiences and insights” so that “hopefully the character will become more real and well-rounded as a result.”
Kid Quick joins the growing number of new nonbinary fantasy and sci-fi characters in recent months, like DC’s Suicide Squad anti-hero The Aerie.
Marvel Comics also rolled out the character design for a nonbinary superhero called Snowflake who would debut in the next volume of their New Warriors series, but was met with widespread backlash for the character’s name. Star Trek: Discovery also introduced the franchise’s first trans and nonbinary characters, respectively played by Ian Alexander and Blu del Barrio.
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