FabMan, sick of being treated as a joke and seeing no representation for the LGBTQ in a world full of heroes, assembles the greatest super powered LGBTQ heroes from around the world to form The Pride! Who joins? And what nefarious shadow is building just out of sight? Will The Pride be up for the task?

The main story, titled Holding Out For A Hero, is written by Joe Glass and drawn by Gavin Mitchell. It begins by showing us the superhero known as Fabman in action, stopping a runaway subway train in New York and saving dozens of people. The media, while reporting the story, emphasizes that Fabman is gay, and you can see from the expression on the faces from some of the survivors that not all of them are comfortable with him, despite his heroic deeds. After seeing a young boy getting taunted by some other kids because he’s playing with a Fabman action figure, Fabman has a talk with the lad, who is gay himself, and realizes the need for more positive openly gay role models, and decides to track down other GLBT superheroes that he knows and form a new superhero team. The majority of the rest of the story is showing each of the other heroes in action and being approached by Fabman.

Over in London, he meets Frost, a woman with ice-powers. In Los Angeles he meets White Trash, an invulnerable and super-strong man. Back in New York we see Angel, a transwoman with some unspecified mental powers and The Bear, a big strong bear-looking man. And in Massachusetts he meets a Wonder Woman-like hero named Queen Sapphire, but who is mostly referred to as Muscle Mary. Gathered together for a meeting in Greenwhich, Fabman tells him his idea, and makes the case for why a gay superhero team is important. A newcomer arrives, a young man who has the power to transform his body into steel, and he’s given the name Twink. They others decide to go along with Fabman’s idea, but then he has one more hero that he’d like to recruit, so the final squence is him at a bar, meeting an old friend called Wolf, a non-powered vigilante ala Batman. He’s not really interested at first, but then after a bar-fight with some homophobes, he’s in. Now the team is complete.

So while this primarily a set-up issue, I feel that Glass does a very good job in introducing the characters and giving giving insight into their personalities, as well as providing us with just enough action so that it’s not a “talking heads” issue. What I like most is how natural the story progressed. I know there are fanboys who will whine that any time a comic doesn’t have characters that are a majority of straight White males, that it’s “forced” or “pandering,” but this makes sense. If it’s okay for the X-Men to join together specifically because they’re all mutants, why can’t GLBT superheroes join together specifically just because they’re all GLBT? It’s as legitimate a reason as any other super-team. And this issue makes that point. Mitchell’s artwork is a bit cartoon-ish, which fits the tone of the story just right.

The issue also includes two single-page stories, both also written by Joe Glass, spotlighting different members of the team. We get the origin of White Trash, drawn by Joshua Faith, and the origin of Wolf, drawn by Marc Ellerby, which are are both well-done. Altogether this series is off to a good start. Chacebook rating: FOUR STARS

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