Women & NB Creators at DC Comics, March 2020 Solicits, 26 Creators on 19 Books

DC’s been on a bit of a roll with female and non-binary creator representation lately, posting over 30 different creators each month since November. They’re not going to hit that mark in March, where we’re looking at some big dips in both creators and books. To be fair, March marks the fewest books overall we’ve seen from DC in a while. They’ve been busy as of late, and March has a less robust slate. But still, it’s not great. Let’s take a look at who’s doing what at DC this March:

• Amy Reeder: Amethyst #2 (writer, interior art, cover)
• Amy Wolfram: Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 (co-writer)
• Bilquis Evely: Lois Lane #9 (variant cover), The Dreaming #19 (interior art)
• Carmen Maria Machado: The Low, Low Woods #4 (writer)
• Cecil Castellucci: Batgirl #45 (writer)
• Dani: The Low, Low Woods #4 (interior art)
• Devin Grayson: Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 (co-writer)
• Jenny Frison: The Low, Low Woods #4 (variant cover)
• Jessica Dalva: The Dollhouse Family #5 (cover)
• Jody Houser: Supergirl #40 (writer)
• Joelle Jones: Catwoman #21 (writer, cover)
• Kat Howard: Books of Magic #18 (writer)
• Kelly Sue DeConnick: Aquaman #58 (writer)
• Laura Marks: Daphne Byrne #3 (writer)
• Marguerite Bennett: RWBY #6 (writer)
• Michelle Delecki: Metal Men #6 (cover)
• Mirka Andolfo: RWBY #6 (interior art)
• N.K. Jemison: Far Sector #5 (writer)
• Nalo Hopkinson: House of Whispers #19 (co-writer)
• Nicola Scott: Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 (interior art), The Green Lantern Season Two #2 (variant cover)
• Rachael Stott: Supergirl #40 (interior art)
• Rachel Dodson: Batgirl #45 (variant cover)
• Reiko Murakami: Basketful of Heads #6 (cover)
• Sarah Stone: RWBY #6 (cover)
• Tiffany Turrill: Lucifer #18 (cover)
• Yasmine Putri: Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 (variant cover)

All together, there are 26 different female creators set to work on 19 different books at DC in March, seven fewer creators than in February on ten fewer books. As best as I can tell, there are no non-binary creators in this round of solicits. So, these are some sizable drops. Even with fewer books overall, this is not a great situation. And there’s a special one-shot in the mix bumping up the numbers, too! Dropping seven creators is a lot.

Let’s take a closer look at the books, though. DC’s only got 56 new comics coming out in March, far fewer than February’s 72. But with female creators on only 19 of them, that gives us representation across 34% of the line. That’s noticeably down from last month’s 40%. So, even with the drop in books, we’re still much lower.

In terms of new names, it’s a very quiet month. Silent, in fact. We’ve got a returning favourite with Devin Grayson on the special Robin one-shot, but she’s not exactly new. Everyone else is someone we’ve seen in the past few months, which may partly explain the drop. It’s hard to grow without new creators.

It’s a quiet month for new books, too. The Robin special has a few female creators in the mix, and I hope that Stephanie Brown gets some attention for her time in the costume. Elsewhere, Tom King, Mitch Gerads, and Clay Mann are launching Strange Adventures. These high-profile mini-series tend to go to both male creators and male characters.

Overall, it’s a pretty underwhelming month at DC. We’ve got fewer female and non-binary creators across fewer books, by wide margins. With the drop in books overall, these declines aren’t catastrophic or anything, so hopefully April will bring better numbers across the board.