Coagula is a character from

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

' ''

Doom Patrol Doom Patrol is a superhero team from DC Comics. The original Doom Patrol first appeared in ''My Greatest Adventure'' #80 (June 1963), and was created by writers Arnold Drake and Bob Haney, along with artist Bruno Premiani. Doom Patrol has appe ...

'' series, the first

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

superhero by the publisher.

Character

Coagula is a

transgender lesbian A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and some ...

, former prostitute and programmer. After having sex with former Doom Patrol member Rebis ("an alchemical hermaphrodite"), Coagula gained "

alchemical Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

powers ��the power to dissolve things on the one hand and coagulate them on the other hand." She tried to join the

Justice League The Justice League (also known as The Justice League of America) are a team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #28 (March 1960). The team was conceived b ...

, but "it's implied that she was rejected in part for being an out transgender lesbian activist"; she instead joined the

. Coagula first appears in issue 70—"The Laughing Game"—defeating The Codpiece, a spurned man-turned-villain with a multifunctional, mechanical

codpiece A codpiece () is a triangular piece that attached to the front of men's hose, covering the fly. It may be held in place by ties or buttons. It was an important fashion item of European clothing during the 15th–16th centuries. In the modern er ...

. After her introduction in the next few issues, Coagula takes center stage in "The Teiresias Wars", a five-part story combining "

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...

with ollack'stwisted retelling of the

Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel ( he, , ''Mīgdal Bāḇel'') narrative in Genesis 11:1–9 is an origin myth meant to explain why the world's peoples speak different languages. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language and mi ...

". The character last featured in . In '' DC Pride 2022'', Coagula cameoed in the stories "Super Pride" and "Up at Bat".

Development

Coagula was created by

Rachel Pollack Rachel Grace Pollack (born August 17, 1945 as Richard Pollack) is an American science fiction author, comic book writer, and expert on divinatory tarot. She is involved in the women's spirituality movement. Career Tarot reading Pollack has wr ...

. The synergy of Coagula's name and powers are derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

phrase la , text=solve et coagula , label=none. Pollack wrote Coagula's past to include prostitution and programming because those were the most-common professions for

trans women A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and s ...

in the early-to-mid 1990s. Pollack coopted Coagula's real name (Kate Godwin) from Kate Bornstein and Chelsea Goodwin. The Coagula character allowed Pollack to expose readers to transgender topics before being killed off, garnering positive feedback from readers who finally saw themselves represented in the pages of comics. , Coagula was

' first and only transgender superhero, and had not yet been reused or reprinted since its original run; DC's first transgender superhero on television was

Nia Nal Nia Nal, also known by her code name Dreamer, is a fictional superhero from the Arrowverse television series ''Supergirl'', portrayed by Nicole Maines. The character is based on, and is depicted as an ancestor of, the DC Comics character Nura N ...

(

Nicole Maines Nicole Amber Maines is an American actress and transgender rights activist. Prior to her acting career, she was the anonymous plaintiff in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court case '' Doe v. Regional School Unit 26'', in which she argued her schoo ...

) who premiered in ''Supergirl'' on October 14, 2018.

Character

Development

References

Further reading