A little background before I talk about this graphic novel:
I'm participating in the Zibby 22 in 22 challenge. The premise is simple and fun. Visit 22 bookstores in 2022. I altered the rules for myself in that I only hit used bookstores, and I must buy something for the visit to count.
In May, I was in NYC and decided to try Midtown Comics. They had no used or discounted section, but they are a landmark comic shop. So it was that I paid full price ($30) for a compilation of a comic book series I'd never heard of.
Joe Glass's The Pride Omnibus (Dark Horse Comics, 2021) was a disappointment. It's much more tell than show, which is a fatal flaw in a graphic medium. Characters have page-long monologues about LGBTQ "issues." Ultimately, the book achieves the very result it set out to prevent.
The flamboyant Fabman (a superman knock-off) wants to improve queer visibility in the superhero community. He sets out on the time-honored "putting the band together" mission. Gathering a core of eight supes, Fabman ticks all the boxes: a twink, a bear, an amazon, a drag artist, a stealth trans woman, etc.
Fabman assembles his team on their identities rather than on their superpowers or personality. Thus, the team is never more than the sum of its parts. And those parts, the characters, are not developed enough to care about them as real people. The don't rise above their labels.
The initial 6-issue run promises satire. The villains are Basher (Get it?) and the Reverend. Neither is given motivation or stakes beyond the one-dimensional God Hates Fags vitriol. The Reverend isn't even given a name. Satire should be made of sharper stuff.
Abrupt changes in artist give each issue a radically different tone. It's impossible to tell what's parody, what's incongruity, and what's just plain bad art. The Dark Horse sites lists 32 individual artists for the compilation.
The two six-issue series bookend an embarrassing three issues of The Pride Adventures. Described as self-contained stories, none of the 21 pieces is compelling enough to qualify as a story. I understand that including them here is for the completist, but, I'm sorry: they're filler.
In the second series, rather than develop the characters he's introduced, Glass sets them on a mission to gather "reserve members," after one of the eight was incapacitated during the first series. The team debates whether or not to recruit straight allies, but somehow each ends up somehow representing part of the rainbow flag. ("Oh, btw, we don't have gender on my home planet.")
The plot is lost in a sea of comic book references: Harley Quinn, Doctor Manhattan, Bruce Wayne, Wolverine, The Justice League. Not sure why, when the goal is to promote queer identity with our own team of unique individuals.
I wanted to like this collection, but I can't recommend it. The Pride makes it easy to dismiss LGBTQ folks as no more substantial than the label. That's the opposite of what Fabman (and, one assumes, Joe Glass) wanted.
But if you see a battered copy in a used book store for $1, pick it up and let me know what you think.
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