15 hours ago
1
Groundbreaking actress, activist, comic book scribe, and memoirist, Nicole Maines, made history as the first transgender superhero on television, playing Nia Nal, a.k.a. Dreamer, on Supergirl. Since playing Dreamer on television, she has also brought her take on the character to the world of comics, shaping Dreamer’s story on the page. Maines has since expanded her creative impact by writing more stories for DC Comics, further shaping the future of LGBTQ+ representation in the superhero genre.
While at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, The Beat had the opportunity to speak with Maines, where she shared her go-to Taco Bell order, the challenges and triumphs of working with artists to bring Dreamer’s story to life on the page, and where Dreamer’s story is going next.
The interview has been edited for clarity.
OLLIE KAPLAN: We’re starting with an icebreaker. I saw you went to Taco Bell, so what’s your go-to order?
NICOLE MAINES: I did go to Taco Bell. I like the Luxe Cravings Box. I love a combo with a Dr. Pepper.
KAPLAN: I want a soft pitch that you pitch to Taco Bell Quarterly because it’s super queer friendly and run by a trans man.
MAINES: What? Who knew? Will they give me tacos for comics? That would be lovely and what I would want. I will write comics for tacos, as many Luxe Boxes as possible. Please give me a Crunchwrap Supreme; those are so good. So, my boyfriend and I rode over on his dirt bike. We put it in the cab, then rode into the canyon and had our little hood rat picnic.
KAPLAN: My wife, Avery Kaplan, and I do dates like that, too, like we pick up Taco Bell and eat it in the mountains.
MAINES: Classic.
KAPLAN: When you’re working with an artist, like Rye Hickman, what’s the collaborative process like and how do they help you bring that vision to life?
MAINES: I give the artists as much room as possible. My favourite part of reading comic books is always the art, so I’ll write my script and send that off, but I’ll always try to leave room. I try to be transparent and forthcoming, like, “Hey, this is what I imagine for this scene, but if you have something that pulls you in a specific direction that you like better, if you think this page needs an extra panel, or one panel less, if the muses take you, let them. I can rewrite it if I need to to fit it.” And that’s usually what happens: They get the art back to me, and I’ll say, “Oh, I like that better,” and then I’ll go in and do my lettering pass and make sure everything fits. So yeah, I try not to be too stingy or locked into certain things—keep it loose and fluid.
KAPLAN: Just following up on what you just said, do you have a favorite moment that one of your artists suggested that later ended up in the comic?
MAINES: Travis Mercer and I worked on the Super Son and Absolute Power tie-in. I had a very tall task. We were in John Kent’s dreamscape, and I was like, “Look, I have a vision of three back-to-back two-page spreads, no panels, and complete chaos and surrealism as his psyche falls apart. What do you think?” And Travis returned with the most beautiful tapestry; it’s just gorgeous. So, that sticks out to me because it came out better than I could have imagined. It was beautiful.
KAPLAN: I like that you always promote the art, too.
MAINES: It’s gorgeous, like I said. It’s my favorite part. Travis is sitting over there. He’s like, “No, no, she’s a bitch. Never work with her. She’s a nightmare, set in stone, everything.”
TRAVIS MERCER: When we were getting into moments, when I was drawing them, we would send music and scenery back and forth, like, “What’s the vibe? What’s the music?”
MAINES: It’s Taylor Swift.
MERCER: That’s precisely what it was. And yeah, we had that synergy with our collaboration where it was moment-to-moment. It wasn’t email-to-email, day-to-day. As I was drawing, I received text messages, and then we made calls to confirm. That last page needed to be perfect, and we did it on a tighter schedule than we thought.
MAINES: We were rushed on that one, too. David came out huge.
KAPLAN: What was the turnaround time on that one?
MAINES: Oh, I don’t remember.
MERCER: I don’t remember either, but I know it was right after San Diego. I was doing the layouts here for it, and as soon as I landed, my butt was in the chair.
MAINES: We were at Roy’s, and you said, “Look at this. This is what we’re doing.”
KAPLAN: I love it.
MAINES: Well, it is a known fact that Dreamer and John Kent’s song is “Say No More.” That last panel was there for a reason: people to think about whatever they wanted, just whatever that brought up for them. So, we wanted that moment to hit so hard.
KAPLAN: T-Swift for President?
MAINES: I say no. I love her music, but I don’t love her politics.
KAPLAN: You’re going to get all the Swifties on you.
MAINES: Oh, the billionaire will be fine. Like I said, I love her music. I got the Live from Paris Limited Edition heart-shaped vinyls the second they came out, at 5 a.m.
KAPLAN: You recently had to write Dreamer into a morally grey story. So, what’s it like having Dreamer become a morally grey character?
MAINES: Well, I’ve been saying that I think a lot of the time when it comes to trans representation, we are held to a very high standard. And there’s, I think, this feeling of needing to be unimpeachable and perfect because if we’re not, the whole thing will come crashing down, the door will close behind us, and we’ll have hobbled the movement for all time. And so for Dreamer in the comics, it has been a journey of devolving into being a war criminal, being an accessory to murder, and all of the things she’s not supposed to do. And yet, she’s still a good person. However, seeing her fail so colossally over and over again has left her in a space that I’m excited to bring her back from. She’s on the downswing now, and I’m waiting for the momentum to come back up so we can catapult her into the Dreamer that we know she can be.
KAPLAN: Do you have any teasers for Dreamer fans on what that trajectory may look like?
MAINES: We’re about to see her team back up with her good friend Taylor Barzelay, Galaxy, for the first time since they were kids. This is their first time teaming up in the mainline DC comics. And they will be on a Justice League mission together, with Galaxy bringing Dreamer along. And Dreamer is pointedly not a member of the Justice League, as she did not get one of those fancy little cards because she is a known war criminal.
KAPLAN: It’ll be nice to see a full circle.
MAINES: I’m excited because they’re coming back together, and it’s very similar to that Parks and Rec meme where someone will die.
KAPLAN: Oh, fun!
MAINES: Yeah, it’ll be.
KAPLAN: With the Amalagram stuff coming back into style, what other universe would you—it doesn’t have to be Marvel—would you love to see Dreamer in?
MAINES: Anything related to, like, Sandman, The Dreaming, Morpheus. I feel like that is perfect. Or the Legion of Superheroes. I feel like a couple of different aspects of Nia’s powers and origins have yet to be explored and expanded, and I feel like taking her into The Dreaming would be really sick. I’d also like to call it The Dreaming, because I hate the dream realm. I’m like, “I’ll just want to call it what it is!”
Stay tuned to The Beat for more coverage from SDCC ’25.
English (US)