Jadzia Axelrod Talks Galaxy: As The World Falls Down

Jadzia Axelrod is the talented writer behind Princess Nightmare, Hawgirl, The DC Book of Pride, and the Voice of Free Planet X. She is best known for creating the original character Galaxy in the YA story Galaxy: The Prettiest Star with Jess Taylor. Galaxy has since appeared across the DC Universe, including the new Justice League: Intergalactic Special, out today. The YA trans coming-out graphic novel is getting a new sequel story next week with Galaxy: As The World Turns (with Rye Hickman), continuing the titular hero’s adventures. I spoke with Axelrod about the story below.

Jadzia Axelrod Talks Galaxy: As The World Falls Down is officially out on May 5th, 2026.

How exciting was it to work with Rye and continue Galaxy's story in this new YA graphic novel?

Extremely exciting! I love working with Rye. We did a short before in the Sharp Wit and the Company of Women anthology, and they are just a dream to work with. It’s like they draw directly from my imagination, but better. It’s uncanny. I will make comics with Rye as long as they will have me. As far as continuing Galaxy’s story goes, it’s unbelievable. It’s so rare in comics for a new character to hit. I’m not certain what special sauce me and Vash Taylor cooked up when we created her for Galaxy: The Prettiest Star, but it worked! People love Galaxy, and that means I get to tell more stories with her. Which is an absolute dream and one I didn’t think I was going to get. So, I am absolutely relishing it.

Was this book in the works as the first came out? Before? After? What was your approach?

After I turned in the final script for Galaxy: The Prettiest Star, I immediately sat down and wrote the outline for As the World Falls Down. No one asked me to do this. But I had to get it out of my head! I wrote that, and then closed the document and didn’t look at it again. Because I didn’t think I’d get another book at DC, much less a sequel to my trans queer sci-fi romance where no there’s no superhero costumes or epic battle final sequences. I felt like I had conned DC somehow, and to even think there would be more would be pushing my luck. But then, it was a hit! And I got to put Galaxy in Hawkgirl, which was wonderful! And then my editor asked if I had any ideas for a sequel to The Prettiest Star, and I was able to respond immediately with that outline, saying “Yes! This!”

My approach with Galaxy: As the World Falls Down was to payoff everything we hinted at and implied in The Prettiest Star. Galaxy idolizes Superman, so let’s have her meet Superman. Galaxy’s terrified of the Vane coming to Earth, so let’s have the Vane show up on Earth. Galaxy didn’t have a costume in the first book, so let’s start the second one with her in one. With that comes all the emotional fallout from those events. What does putting on a superhero costume even mean? Can Galaxy handle seeing the Vane on Earth? What if you meet Superman and he’s powerless to help you?

Additionally, this book was a unique opportunity to explore something we rarely see in queer stories. We have a lot of books about coming out, but what happens after? What happens when you’re taking your first steps in your new queer and trans identity? So following Galaxy as she finds her community on her queer journey became the spine of the book, and all the fun comic book doodads hung off it.

Galaxy fights an alien invasion, but more importantly, she finds her people.

Now that she’s established on Earth, Taylor is seemingly struggling with her superhero identity. What questions does she have about her future, and how is her past on her home planet about to collide with her present on Earth?

One of the cool things about this book is we got to explore what it means to be a superhero. Galaxy is fun because she’s not driven to be a superhero the way some other DC characters are (lookin’ at you, Bats!). She’s so introspective and considerate, so she’s going to try on being a superhero in bits and pieces and see which parts fit and which ones don’t. And maybe none of them do. She puts on a costume and punches a giant monster in the start of the book, that seems like what a superhero does, right? But it isn’t right, and Galaxy has to spend the book figuring out why. What is being a superhero, if it’s not just putting on a costume and fighting a monster? We know from Galaxy’s appearances in the current DC Universe that she’s figured this all out, but how?

We also finally get to see the Vane up close and personal. The Vane are a telepathic hivemind, capable of overwhelming another creature’s mind and adding their body to collective. Anyone could be the Vane—it doesn’t take much for them to get their hooks in you. Which is kind of what it feels like to be trans in this day and age: people you used to think of as allies or at least neutral parties suddenly turning on you. Might as well be mind control.

Galaxy has become a more notable character in the DC Universe since the publication of her first book, appearing in Hawkgirl, Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story, DC Pride, and even a cameo in Justice League Unlimited, among other titles. What is it like to see the character ascend in the DC Universe? 

It’s wild! Whenever I see an ad or a group shot where she’s just hanging out with these classic DC characters—y’know, the ones we think about when we think about “superheroes”—it just blows my mind.

I used to say I wouldn’t be a good fit for a publisher like DC Comics because I like to make up my own characters. Guess I found a loophole.

Nia Nal plays a part in this book — what was it like to see Galaxy's friendship grow over the past couple of years with Dreamer and how does that parallel your real-life friendship with Nicole (Maines)?

So often, trans and queer characters get siloed off, forced to hang out with cis and straight characters. They are usually part of an ensemble and the only one. So it’s really great that DC has seen the wisdom in having more than one trans character at a time, and allowed them to interact. And be friends! Not rivals, or enemies, or even lovers. Just friends. And to be able to revel in that friendship, to see them meet in Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story and to have that relationship deepen in Galaxy: As the World Falls Down is so amazing. So much of superhero comics is sort of slight-of-hand method of storytelling. You elaborate things from characters’ pasts as it suits the story, some detail that was never before discussed but everyone act as if it was always so. But with Galaxy and Dreamer, we don’t have to do that! We can point to these books and say, see, they were there for each other when they needed it most. And that’s why even though they’ve grown apart as young adults, they still come to each other’s rescue.

Nicole and I, by contrast, have only known each other for a few years, starting when she was writing Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story. We talked a bunch over text, sharing bits of stuff we were working on, and when we finally met in person it was like we had been friends our whole lives. The one way that we are like Galaxy and Dreamer is that despite our very different histories, there’s enough similarities that cross over that we instantly grasp where each other is coming from. Even though we haven’t shared it, we get it.

It’s really lovely to have Nicole as a friend. Nicole is so incredibly talented. She understands characters so well and so completely, really able to get under these fictional people’s skins and work out what makes them tick. Another person might be intimidated to hang out with someone who not only is remarkable at the very thing you’re best at, but is also stunningly beautiful and a successful tv and film actress. I am definitely intimidated, but another person could be as well.

How does Rye's work continue to surprise you? Or at this point, is the excellence just expected?

They are an incredible artist. Rye is incredible! I love working with Rye. But even expecting their usual level of awesomeness. they really leveled up with this book. Rye is able to get across some incredible acting in this book—the comic artist equivalent of an actor’s micro-expressions. Rye has what looks like a cartoony style, with heavy ink lines and simple shapes, but it’s deceptively expressive. It’s not realism, but it feels real. I don’t think I realized how much Rye is a master of body language until they started turning pages in. I saw these characters expressing everything I had written so clearly, but without any words on the page. There are faces in this book that took my breath away and broke my heart, so clear was the raw emotion Rye had put in.

It feels like some trans characters only get the chance to appear in anthologies or in one- time stories and don't get the same length as other heroes and villains. How important is it for Galaxy to get a second graphic novel and continue to appear in DC?

Ridiculously important. I don’t like to use the word “groundbreaking,” because it sounds like I’m blowing smoke up my own butt, but that’s what Galaxy: The Prettiest Star was. Ground was broken. That was the first book from either Marvel or DC to have trans hero be the title character. More than that, I have heard from editors that because of that book’s success, it is now easier to get books with queer and trans themes greenlit at DC. Those themes are no longer seen as an impediment to sales or an audience.

With Galaxy: As the World Falls Down, this is the first time a trans hero from the Big Two has been the title character of a series. Comics history has been made once again. Ten years ago that would have been unheard of. It feels unheard of now, with the current political climate. I talked to Sara Miller, one the editors for Galaxy: As the World Falls Down, a year ago when trans book bans were all over the news. I was worried that DC would put the plug before the book was released. And she very calmly and sweetly explained that everyone was excited for Galaxy: As the World Falls Down and no one was concerned. And that has meant so much to me.

Right now, as we are watching lawmakers attempt to legislate us out of existence, these kind of stories where trans people are not just protagonists but heroes are so important. Even if it a superhero fantasy. Maybe even because it’s a superhero fantasy. Why shouldn’t we get fantasies? Why shouldn’t we save the world?

Where would you like to see Galaxy next?

That’s easy: everywhere. I want her to have more YA books. I want her to have her own series in the current DCU continuity. I want her to guest star in other characters’ books. I want her to have her own animated movie. I want her to show up in a live-action film, hanging out with Hawkgirl. I want her to have an action figure with rooted hair you can brush and a tiny plastic Argus. I want her to have a LEGO set. I want her everywhere, fighting bad guys and smooching her girlfriend and generally being a force for good.

What can you say about her upcoming appearance in Justice League: Dream Girls?

It’s Galaxy like you’ve never seen her before! Nicole and I took some big swings with story, putting both Galaxy and Dreamer outside their comfort zones and in roles that I don’t think anyone will expect. It’s a wild ride! You’re going to love it!