Coagula
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearance"The Laughing Game"
Doom Patrol, no. 70 (September 1993).
Created byRachel Pollack
In-story information
Alter egoKate Godwin
Team affiliationsDoom Patrol
AbilitiesAlchemy

Coagula is a character from DC Comics' Doom Patrol series, the first transgender superhero by the publisher. Created by Rachel Pollack in response to other poorly written trans comic characters, the lesbian Coagula obtained her powers—to coagulate and dissolve material—from having sex with Doom Patrol member, Rebis. An actively-written character from September 1993 through February 1995, Coagula has cameoed in other comics as recently as 2022.

Character

Coagula is a transgender lesbian, former prostitute and programmer.[1] After having sex with former Doom Patrol member Rebis ("an alchemical hermaphrodite"), Coagula gained[2] "alchemical powers[1] […] the power to dissolve things on the one hand and coagulate them on the other hand".[2] She tried to join the Justice League, but "it's implied that she was rejected in part for being an out transgender lesbian activist"; she instead joined the Doom Patrol. Coagula first appears in issue 70—"The Laughing Game"—defeating The Codpiece, a spurned man-turned-villain with a multifunctional, mechanical codpiece. After her introduction in the next few issues, Coagula takes center stage in "The Teiresias Wars", a five-part story combining "Greek mythology with [Pollack's] twisted retelling of the Tower of Babel".[3]

The character last featured in "Imagine Ari's Friend (Part Four of Four: A Cry for the Great Face)" Doom Patrol, no. 87 (February 1995).[3] In DC Pride 2022, Coagula cameoed in the stories "Super Pride"[4] and "Up at Bat".[5]

Development

After creating the trans character Wanda Mann for The Sandman, Neil Gaiman solicited feedback from his friend, Rachel Pollack. She felt Gaiman had poorly written Mann, and said "she would remedy that by putting her own trans character, Coagula, into Doom Patrol. (In 2023, Gaiman admitted he would write Mann differently if creating the comic contemporaneously.) Coagula became comics' first transgender superheroine.[6]

The synergy of Coagula's name and powers are derived from the Latin phrase solve et coagula.[2] Pollack wrote Coagula's past to include prostitution and programming because those were the most-common professions for trans women in the early-to-mid 1990s. Pollack coopted Coagula's real name (Kate Godwin) from Kate Bornstein and Chelsea Goodwin.[1] The Coagula character allowed Pollack to expose readers to transgender topics before being killed off,[7] garnering positive feedback from readers who finally saw themselves represented in the pages of comics.[3]

Legacy

As of October 2015, Coagula was DC Comics' only transgender superhero, and had not yet been reused or reprinted since its original run.[7] DC's first transgender superhero on television was Nia Nal (played by Nicole Maines) who premiered in Supergirl on October 14, 2018.[8] In 2024, DC announced a 96-page one-shot tribute to Pollack under the DC Pride banner (DC Pride: A Celebration of Rachel Pollack); scheduled for Pride Month, it will include a reprinting of "The Laughing Game".[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c Pollack, Rachel (December 15, 2013). "Interview with Rachel Pollack". The Heroines of My Life (Interview). Interviewed by Monika Kowalska. Archived from the original on September 18, 2019. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c Gaiman, Neil; Pollack, Rachel (Summer 1994). "The Gods of the Funny Books". Gnosis (Interview). Interviewed by Erik Davis. Archived from the original on May 29, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2020. An Interview with Neil Gaiman and Rachel Pollack
  3. ^ a b c Lloyd-Davies, Madeleine (November 14, 2013). "Women Out Of Refrigerators: Coagula". The Toast. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  4. ^ McCreery, Cori (June 7, 2022). "DC Round-Up: Pride & Poison Ivy spotlight DC's LGBTQ+ community". The Beat: The News Blog of Comics Culture. Archived from the original on June 8, 2022. Retrieved June 10, 2022. DC kicks off June with their second-annual DC PRIDE anthology, and the debut of a new POISON IVY miniseries.
  5. ^ Axelrod, Jadzia [@planetx] (June 7, 2022). "At some point I'll do proper annotation thread of the whole story, but yes, that is indeed the great Kate Godwin standing with Lee Serrano at the Gotham Trans Wellness Conference. I like to imagine Kate as well-known in the Gotham trans community, a respected queer elder" (Tweet). Archived from the original on June 9, 2022. Retrieved June 10, 2022 – via Twitter.
  6. ^ Doyle, Jude Ellison S. (September 26, 2023). "Rachel Pollack's vision of spirituality may be her greatest accomplishment". Xtra Magazine. ISSN 0829-3384. Archived from the original on January 5, 2024. Retrieved March 16, 2024. Tarot legend and comics writer Rachel Pollack's legacy is epic
  7. ^ a b Corallo, Joe (October 27, 2015). "Coagula, DC's First And Only Transgender Superhero". ComicMix. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  8. ^ Keveney, Bill (October 10, 2018). "'Supergirl': Nicole Maines shows her power as TV's first transgender superhero". USA Today. Burbank, California. ISSN 0734-7456. Archived from the original on June 16, 2021. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  9. ^ Griepp, Milton (March 13, 2024). "DC Plans Pride Anthology, Rachel Pollack Tribute, Covers Collection, OGNs, Pride-Themed Variants". ICv2. Archived from the original on March 14, 2024. Retrieved March 15, 2024. In Publishing Program for Pride Month

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