This summer’s comic world is about to get a splash of gay angst and romance thanks to an upcoming DC project.
This June, You Brought Me The Ocean will be hitting shelves and digital comic sites. The graphic novel will follow DC Comics character Aqualad. Specifically, we’re talking about Jackson “Jake” Hyde. Hyde is the second person to take on the Aqualad mantle and work as a sidekick to iconic DC superhero Aquaman. In addition, he’s openly gay (or bisexual in the Young Justice cartoon).
In the graphic novel, Hyde will be going through an origin story, coming-of-age tale, and coming-out narrative. As Polygon explains, Hyde, “grew up in a New Mexico desert town, with a mother who never told him much about his father but tried to keep him away from large sources of water as much as possible. Jake realized he was gay right around the time he realized he could control water with his mind — as if being a teenager wasn’t complicated enough.”
While struggling to come to terms with his growing superpowers, Jake also deals with a growing crush and relationship with the school’s swim team captain Kenny Liu.
But who’s behind the pages? That would be writer Alex Sanchez of gay young adult novel series Rainbow Boys and solo novel So Hard To Say. Sanchez didn’t work alone, however, as he was joined by artist Julie Maroh. If you recognize that name, it’s because Maroh is the award-winning creator of the Blue Is The Warmest Color graphic novel. That graphic novel was then adapted into a 2013 film.
If You Brought Me The Ocean sounds interesting to you, you can pre-order it now. Though, you’ll have to wait for the June 9th release. Thankfully though, you won’t have to wait in the dark. Thanks to DC, eight pages from the graphic novel are out now! We’ve included them down below.
Source: Polygon
I was excited to read it until I saw the crappy art. I’m a DC comic book fan but I’ve never been able to read and appreciate a story when I feel the art is poor, it too distracting and disappoints me.