Dreamgirl
20 years ago -Parsa Nal, the youngest child of the Nal family and the least likely to sire or bear the next generation Dream Oracle of the Naltorian Somnian faith, has a love affair with Ifza Nura while in university before he must return home for his arranged marriage. When Ifza becomes pregnant, they are terrified that the child may be the new Oracle, but are relieved when the child is male, making that impossible. Ifza refuses to allow Parsa to leave his family and responsibilities behind. She becomes the single parent to Nia Nal.
18 years ago - 2-year-old Nia's half-sister Mysa Nal is born, growing up within the Somnian faith.
17 years ago - 3-year-old Nia begins to show signs of gender variance, asking her mother when she will get to be a girl.
14 years ago - 6-year-old Nia's paternal grandmother, the current Naltorian Dream Oracle, passes away. Nia's half-sister Mysa Nal begins having precognitive dreams and becomes the new Dream Oracle, but Nia Nal begins experiencing them as well, despite those abilities traditionally being inherited by women. Not wanting to risk being discovered as a challenge to the Somnian faith, Nia's mother Ifza Nura takes her to Earth.
12 years ago - 8-year-old Nia begins her gender affirming care with a therapist.
9 years ago - 11-year-old Nia begins taking hormone blockers.
6 years ago - 14-year-old Nia begins hormone therapy.
4 years ago - 16-year-old Nia begins communicating with Doctor Pieter Anton Cross, discussing the specific complications of her gender reassignment surgery.
2 years ago - 18-year-old Nia undergoes gender reassignment surgery, performed by Pieter Anton Cross. She attends Metropolis University, and meets her roommate, Kara Zor-El. They eventually discover their shared status as aliens on Earth.
1 year ago - 19-year-old Nia is attacked by agents of an extremist group attempting a religious coup on Naltor, intending to kill her so that when her sister Mysa Nal's baby is born, she can be killed and the extremists can raise her child to control the Somnian religion. Nia & Kara Zor-El travel to Naltor to stop the extremists and free her sister, saving her just in time to meet her new niece.
There was never really a question about whether we were going to include Nia Nal in our timeline. She just fits so well into the world of Supergirl. Our version of Kara is currently a college student, and making Nia her roommate and best friend feels immediately correct. The idea of these two college roommates discovering that they're both aliens hiding on Earth is exactly the sort of playful contrivance that comics love. Their relationship is even the reason we decided to use the same naming paradigm as Supergirl... so instead of Dreamer or Dream Girl, we have Dreamgirl.
We can't tell you why, but that name, applied to a trans character, feels so perfect. This was a very fun character to adapt, and we would love to hear what you think of her.
We can't tell you why, but that name, applied to a trans character, feels so perfect. This was a very fun character to adapt, and we would love to hear what you think of her.
Nia's Comic HistoryThe character Nia Nal is based on Nura Nal, a member of the Legion of Superheroes who went by Dream Girl. She joined the Legion all the way back in 1964, and has been a regular part of their lineup ever since.
In 2018, the ongoing Supergirl CW series added a new character to it's cast. Nia Nal was an ancestor of Nura's living on Earth in modern times. Nia was played by Nicole Manes, an incredibly impressive trans actress and activist, and when it was revealed that Nia had actually inherited similar dream-based powers to the original Legion character, she officially became the very first trans superhero on television. Nia was one of the main characters on Supergirl for it's entire run, and even made some appearances in the last season of the Flash. She made the transition over to DCs comic continuity in the DC Pride special in 2021 in a story actually written by Nicole Manes. She's gone on to become a regularly appearing supporting character in the story of Jon Kent in the pages of Superman: Son of Kal-El. |
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Our Dreamgirl StoryWe wanted to find a way to use Nia Nal in our timeline as soon as she was introduced. Not just because she's an incredibly successful representation of the idea of a trans superhero, but just because she's such a fantastic expression of the core idea of our project; the World of DC is just unquestionably better with her in it.
There were some pretty sizeable hurdles we had to overcome if we wanted to get her to work in our timeline, of course. Before we even got to her timeline, we wanted to answer some questions about what her powers are, and what they do, and we actually found that when we thought about characters created by a certain Mr. Stan Lee. Stan has actually admitted to not being very innovative when creating and writing for women. When you go back to look at his classic woman characters, they all have similar powers, which seem to be passive and keep them out of the fight, but when later writers started to think about possible applications, those same powers became incredibly powerful. Nia should basically be a practicing telepath, like Jean Grey, with the addition of having her precognitive dreams, and also often uncontrollably psychically sharing the dreams of those around her. This gives her a very specific, personalized set of powers that we feel makes her work as part of the larger story. |
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Speaking of that story, how do we imagine Nia's personal tale? We actually have very little to work with from her limited appearances, and we wanted to make sure our version did the character justice. We actually started, belive it or not, with the actress that originated the role. Nicole Manes is just an incredible person, and this is one of those rare cases where someone who plays a hero is actually a hero in real life. We wanted Nia's transitioning experience to mimic the basic framework of Nicole's. We did add that she reached out to Doctor Midnite when it came time for her actual surgery, because we just imagined that an alien hiding on Earth undergoing gender reassignment would require a very particular form of medical specialization.
Other than that, we really just wanted to find a way where Nia's powers, a honored role in the religion of her people, really drove her story. We wanted her to have a sister to actually serve in that role so that Nia didn't feel obligated to take her place, and also decided to create a whole adventure around saving her sister. We also really like the idea that the whole reason she was allowed to go under the radar was because she was born as a boy, but developed these powers usually only held by women anyway. It's not a story ABOUT her being trans, but its a story that's only possible BECAUSE she's trans. We also get this fantastic relationship between college roommates Nia & Kara, and get to watch them step up and protect each other when someone comes after them. Even all by itself, that story is one we all can't wait to see. |
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