Review — Galaxy: The Prettiest Star

Today, I review one of DC Comics’ latest graphic novels: Galaxy the Prettiest Star. Written by Jadzia Axelrod, with illustrations by Jess Taylor and lettering by Ariana Maher, this story is set in a world where Superman keeps Metropolis safe, but the small towns beyond the city are still places where anything other than a Beaver Cleaver or Brady Bunch reality is something other than acceptable. It is in this kind of a rural nothing of a place that a boy named Taylor lives an invisible life with a picture book family.

The thing about picture books they only show what people want others to see. The true moments of life are often left out, and are maybe not even photographed. The picture Taylor and his family paint… it’s not real.

Taylor, as we can guess from the cover of this vibrantly colored work of art, is actually a beautiful alien — a stunning girl forced to hide herself in another body to hide from the things that might hurt her. Released under DC Comics’ Pride logo, this story is an allegory for the life of someone growing up trans and trying to find the courage to let the world see them for who they are. Again, this is a detail you can get from the cover — in this case from a cover quote from Nicole Maines.

I went into this story thinking I had an idea of the plot, and a notion of the ending, and … I was really expecting a…