DC Comics' Newest Trans And Nonbinary Superhero Might Heal Our Inner Child
The new DC character Jules Jourdain, a.k.a. Circuit Breaker, will debut Tuesday.
WhenIwas a kid, superheroes were some of the earliest examples of gender fluidity I recognized. The men wore super-tight, often flamboyant clothes (what’s gayer than a cape?), and they sometimes obscured their gender. Ultimately, though, I understood that they weren’t actually nonbinary or queer in any intentional way; they were really just a manifestation of a cishet desire for anonymity and freedom, something that my closeted self identified with deeply. But at the end of the day, the superheroes always got the girl, went back to their regular hetero lives, and we moved on.
Luckily, times have changed and the days of queer coded characters and exclusively cishet superheroes are gone. On Valentine’s Day, DC Comics will debut an openly trans and nonbinary superhero named Circuit Breaker, a.k.a. Jules Jordain, according to DC’s press department.
Circuit Breaker will be part of the comic book ”Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1,” announced last month via Twitter by A.L. Kaplan, who created the character. In a separate tweet, Kaplan confirmed that Circuit Breaker will be both trans and nonbinary. “Trans man, but not super into the binary,” Kaplan wrote. It’s also worth noting that Circuit Breaker has beautiful black curly hair and cheekbones that could cut glass, which makes it difficult to not see them as a thinly veiled thirst trap.
Circuit Breaker is not the first trans character in the DC Multiverse but instead an addition to the franchise’s increasingly queer and gender-fluid repertoire. The first openly trans character appeared to be Coagula, a computer programmer and sex worker who was introduced in 1993 on ”Doom Patrol #70″ but was confined to the comic books and eventually killed off. Then, in 2018, Nia Nal became the first openly trans DC superhero to appear on TV. Other trans superheroes in the multiverse, I’ve read, include Alysia Yeoh and Victoria October, all of whom were created in the past decade.
Although there are more trans and nonbinary superheroes than ever before, they still make up a small minority of the DC Comics world — and, well, the comic and animated world in general. Still, this minority is extremely important for communities who seldom see themselves depicted in empowering ways through any form of media.
Currently, trans people are highly visible for all the wrong reasons. Conservatives have used the trans and nonbinary community as a scapegoat, propping up barriers that will make it more difficult for trans youth to access health care and that will also exclude trans teens from taking part in extracurricular activities, all under the guise of protecting children. We also live in the era of author J.K. Rowling’s outspoken disdain for trans people and renewed conversations on what it means to consume art by those who actively work against queer and trans communities.
Characters such as Circuit Breaker not only allow trans and nonbinary people to fall for characters who share their experiences, but they also open up a world to those who might not know openly trans people in their own lives. At a time when so many are unjustifiably painting trans people as the villains, we are going to need as many trans superheroes as we can get.
