Supergirl may have ended its six-season run on The CW, but actress Nicole Maines isn't done with her character Dreamer, who broke new ground for being the first transgender superhero character on television. Maines has already penned several DC Comics stories featuring Nia Nal, including a recent issue of Superman: Son of Kal-El. Now Maines is teaming with artist Rye Hickman (Lonely Receiver) for a full-length graphic novel called Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story.
IGN had the opportunity to speak with Maines and learn more about how Bad Dream fills in some major gaps in Dreamer's story. Check out a preview in the slideshow gallery below and read on to learn more about how this book reveals Dreamer's full origin story at long last.
Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story Preview Gallery
Bringing Dreamer From the Arrowverse to Comics
It's easy to assume that Maines' previous Dreamer comics were a sort of trial run for this lengthier graphic novel. But in truth, she's been working on Bad Dream for several years. This is a story Maines specifically reached out to DC to tell, though she didn't initially plan on being the one to write it."I had an idea for solo comic and I went to DC to pitch it and I was like, 'Hey, I don't know what the plans are. I don't know what we want to do with this character.
This is a character who's really, really special and this is a character that's really necessary right now. This is my idea. I don't know how this process works. Here's my idea. I think you guys should do it. I don't know if you're going to find a writer and do something, but I just think this is something you could do.' And they said, 'Well, why don't you write it?' And I don't know why I didn't see that coming, but I was like, "I think you guys have misunderstood what it is I do. I dress up and I say the words that other people write. I'm not the writer." And they said, 'No, do it, You'll be great.'"
Maines admitted that writing Bad Dream has been a slow and difficult process, particularly as she started signing on to write other stories in books like Superman: Son of Kal-El, DC Pride 2021 and the recent Lazarus Planet crossover. Fortunately, she found some guidance in the form of her Superman co-writer Tom Taylor, who had some useful wisdom to impart.
"The best piece of advice he's given me was use your best ideas now," Maines says. "You will have other ideas, but there's no use in having a great idea and sitting on it. It's not doing anyone any good if you're sitting on your best ideas, so use them. You'll come up with more stuff to use later, but that has been really, really helpful and that's been great. If I have a good idea, I'm using it. I'm not going to second guess it. If I like it, it's going in."As for what led Hickman to join the project, Maines said she was immediately drawn to Hickman's work after reviewing several candidates.
"First of all, they have the perfect art style for a young adult graphic novel format," Maines says. "The way that Rye has been able to craft this world and the environments are so beautiful, because we go through so many different places in this story. We go from Parthas to Metropolis to A-Town and Rye has done such a spectacular job of bringing this to life and seeing the dream sequences come to life. Seeing what Rye has done with making them these beautifully surrealist, nonsensical Alice in Wonderland spreads is spectacular. "
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