Well, here I go.
I wanted to like this comic so much. DC showcasing an alien princess superhero on earth who is a trans allegory sounded great, progressive and revolutionary for them even.From the blurb:
It takes strength to live as your true self, and one alien princess disguised as a human boy is about to test her power. A vibrant story about gender identity, romance, and shining as bright as the stars.
[...] Taylor is actually the Galaxy Crowned, an alien princess from the planet Cyandii, and one of the few survivors of an intergalactic war. For six long, painful years, Taylor has accepted her duty to remain in hiding as a boy on Earth.
That all changes when Taylor meets Metropolis girl Katherine “call me Kat” Silverberg, whose confidence is electrifying. Suddenly, Taylor no longer wants to hide, even if exposing her true identity could attract her greatest enemies.
[...] comes the story of a girl in hiding who must face her fears to see herself as others see her: the prettiest star.
'Galaxy: The Prettiest Star' is a good comic generally. The artwork is lush, stylistic, colourful and awestriking to fit its world and themes, if a little trying-too-hard-to-be-avant-garde, messy and confusing for my personal taste. A few of the main characters are as bold, vibrant and fleshed out as the art, and the coming-of-age story does bring up just how hostile and extreme discrimination in the "progressive west" - fearing what you don't understand and most damningly don't want to understand - too often gets. Even though 'Galaxy' is a DC title, and Taylor is given the possible superhero moniker Galaxy near the end, and Superman is mentioned, this is not a superhero story. There is nothing in the comic that could be called "action-packed", and there are no superhero fights of any kind. Yet I don't mind this creative choice, since 'Galaxy' is (purportedly) about talking things out and not resorting to violence, and it is a trans allegory, reflecting real life transgender experiences, above everything else. With a sci-fi twist.
It's just... I am so sick of reading and watching LBGTQ stories that are miserable, mean, hateful, malicious, and potentially triggering for members of that community. No matter how "realistic" they are. A lot of us consume fiction as an escape from horrible reality, and to see, with hope and optimism, a representation of how reality can be better. A colourful superhero comic like 'Galaxy' promised exactly this!
Tragic or otherwise meanspirited LBGTQ media is everywhere, and at this point, in 2022, I'm more tired of it than angry.
I want to see openly and happily queer and trans people represented for a change; who are allowed to be happy, to be free, to be themselves, without the looming threat of violence, death, their rare moment of joy twisted into something they will be guilt tripped over later, and/or the same tired overcoming of bigotry - whether from their society and system, their peers, or from their seriously out-of-touch family who need to grow up and who should love them unconditionally.
This review will mostly be a very long rant, I admit. But it does relate back to 'Galaxy', as you may see throughout my ramblings. I'll try to stay on topic and connect everything by the end. I humbly ask for kindness and patience.
Welp. Let's strap in:
There is a disturbing trend I've found in stories in 2022 that feature queer main characters and themes. It's inexplicably present even in otherwise positive LBGTQ media such as the 'Heartstopper' TV adaptation (see my rant of that in particular in the 'Heartstopper' section of my blog post here). Like, there must be conflict, and in order to create conflict, there must be misery (not true, that's plain lazy and obviously contrived), and the target of that misery - of disdain, of blame - is always the marginalised and therefore vulnerable LBGTQ protagonist, and their own story doesn't grant them nearly enough sympathy. Not like it gives sympathy, empathy, and time to their abusers, oppressors, gaslighters, and gatekeepers (read this excellent review of 'The Danish Girl' on Letterboxd here for more info, and for a further analysis on how truly harmful LBGTQ stories, but especially trans narratives, can be when they are attempting to be "mainstream" and "accessible" to cis audiences, and the common trappings and pitfalls they end up falling into. Here's another wonderful Letterboxd review of the same film while you're at it).
In a story's effort to create a "balance" and a "both sides" argument, it inadvertently frames it so it looks like the queer person - the victim - is mostly or partially to blame for their own marginalisation; for making the cishets uncomfortable, or for "ruining the straight person's life" or whatever. But instead of this resulting in the cishets revaluating their own views and prejudices, and realising how wrong they are, they are hurt emotionally, and so they take out their hurt on an easy target - the queer person they've been hurting all along - horrifically, maliciously - and the story sympathises with them! It's saying they are right for blaming the queer victim for everything. It's saying queer people are always wrong for daring to be human, for wanting to be happy and free, for not being the perfect "model minority" forced on a pedestal, and a bigot/oppressor's ideal of what they want the queer person to be like.
That is abuse. That is victim blaming. That is gaslighting.
The "both sides" debate - but what if one side is just. plain. wrong? Fuck the bigots and the insecure babies with the privileged yet limited worldview. Give them the flaws and problems to seriously work through and that they should be held accountable for. Leave the poor LBGTQ community out of their toxic spheres, they've suffered enough! They did nothing to deserve such scorn from the privileged masses. They did nothing wrong.
The cliché of the bigoted bullies/oppressors/gatekeepers transferring their own hurt and hate and blame towards the easy target of the discrimination victim via gaslighting to try to make themselves feel better, and never being properly called out on it, if at all... it's insidious and upsetting, to say the least. It has consequences. One of them is setting up the unintended, unconscious rule of: "If you're a member of a marginalised group of people, everything is your fault, even when it isn't."
And 'Galaxy: The Prettiest Star' has this in spades.
There is constant fearmongering and paranoia (another victim blaming tactic in certain contexts) in both real life and fiction, that if someone who is queer comes out, bad things will happen, and it will be all their fault, when really it's a self-fulfilling prophecy - it's the oppressive people, society and system who are to blame and are in need of change. In the context of 'Galaxy', this mindset is made literal, legitimate, and the punished queer victim's fault: if Taylor/Galaxy does come out as female and an alien, if she does come out of hiding, of no longer being afraid to be herself, then she risks invading aliens finding her, and thus putting her cover family, who are victims themselves, forced into this situation for her sake, and her friends, and possibly earth itself (it's not clear) in mortal danger. Or is this further fearmongering BS on her gatekeeping guardian/cover-father's part, to keep her under his tight control? I'm not certain. But it's still a terrible situation to put your metaphorically trans protagonist in. Any narrative that potentially justifies victim blaming, for example in situations that can be read as domestic abuse, is the worst, and it needs to be scrapped immediately.
I hate every character in 'Galaxy' except for Taylor, her love interest Kat, Kat's mum, and Taylor's little cover-sister Sally. They are all sweethearts, and the latter three possess common sense that's in touch with the progressing 21st century, and they are super supportive of Taylor from the beginning. Everyone else, such as the cover-father, the cover-brother, the high school principal, and Buck the "best friend", are pathetic, victim blaming trash who hold too much power over Taylor and the narrative when they don't deserve it. They're not worth it. And they receive absolutely no consequences for their actions by the end of the comic. No comeuppance. Nothing. They are allowed to just get away with their bullshit, after everything they put Taylor through. In fact, it is she who apologises to the abusive members of her cover family and to her toxic friend. She has to say sorry for one meagre reason or another, but they don't. Ever.
She has nothing to be sorry for! Except for things done for understandable reasons, for things done by accident, and for when she's justifiably angry and upset and is about to do bad things herself, but stops herself, but those instances are forgotten about quickly. Typical.
People of marginalised and socially maligned groups, such as the LBGTQ community, have nothing to apologise for. In these victim blaming narratives, done in service of the privileged who hate thinking and hate feeling uncomfortable, when a queer character is blamed for something, really they are being blamed for existing. For being someone with free will and a mind and life of their own, and for not being perfect in their abusive gatekeeper's eyes. Stop doubling down on this by having the queer character say sorry to their abusers! who may or may not apologise back (but on a much smaller scale if they do; yeah, so much for that "balance", eh?), and who will barely change their ways, if at all. It's not good, it's not right, and it's not fair. FFS, even 'The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School' doesn't fall into this trap!
Okay, there's one more point I have to make in this already overly long rant of mine, but it is ultimately the most important to take away with you: in 'Galaxy' and story types like it, about bigotry, bullying and oppression, that're told in a miserable way that leans towards victim blaming, inadvertently (at least I hope so) taking the side of the oppressors and gatekeepers who despise the main character, who is a member of a marginalised group and a victim, just for existing; always in these stories, the main victim characters are teenagers.
They are kids! So of course they're going to make mistakes and not be perfect! And they'll be dealing with enough anxiety, low self-esteem and self-hatred as it is! without making it so that merely wanting to be who they are - and happy, like everyone else! - makes them the worst people imaginable, because it inconveniences others. Oh, boo fucking hoo.
I want to hug these kids, comfort them, hold them as I allow them to just cry, to just release, and softly whisper to them, "It is not your fault. None of this is your fault. Fuck anyone who says it is. They are the ones with the problem, not you. They are the ones who need to change. You are brilliant the way you are. You are loved. You matter.
You deserve to be happy."
The blurb says, [...] a girl in hiding who must face her fears to see herself as others see her: the prettiest star. Well that's a lie since most of the others hate her either way! It doesn't matter if she's pretty or not. It shouldn't matter.
Even without all of these toxic trends and issues, 'Galaxy: The Prettiest Star' loses stars by reinforcing the "trans women and girls have to be the most conventionally beautiful ever in order to receive validation from the populace" idea, which is pervasive in both real life and fiction (hell it's bolstered in its title!). It contains all sorts of misogynistic and transmisogynistic layers unable to be unpacked in full here, so I'll leave it as it is, and hope I don't need to explain how problematic the idea, the manmade concept, is.
Other reviewers have also pointed out the fantastical bigotry trope: in 'Galaxy''s case it's a female alien disguised as a human boy that's used as a metaphor for the trans community and experience... good intentions aside, it's still trans people being compared to something that isn't even human. To something that may not exist. This is hugely concerning in of itself, and indicative of the problematic nature of the fantastical bigotry trope as a whole. But again, a further analysis into this topic would take far too long and take up far too much space for me to go over here, so I'll trust and leave my readers to look into it on their own, in their own time.
Taylor's cover-father and cover-brother (their names don't deserve to be remembered) seem to keep switching moods and personalities whenever it is convenient to the plot, as well.
All right. After all that, I'm not sure I can recommend 'Galaxy: The Prettiest Star' in good conscience, despite some good elements in it, and it being a mainstream "trans superhero" comic (even though it is allegorical, and there are hardly any ingredients categorising it as a superhero comic). Read it if you want. But be careful. If you do decide to buy and read it, consider yourself forewarned.
I shall finish off my rattling-on-and-on of a review of 'Galaxy' with a final bang:
Buck can go fuck himself.
Seriously, screw that insecure toxic waste of toxic masculinity. He was an obvious arsehole even before Taylor came out to everyone, so why she was friends with him in the first place, I have no idea.
Fuck him. That is all.
Final Score: 3/5
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