Around the Daily Space team, we are willing to do a review of anything that can be somehow vaguely kind of sorta related to astronomy. From Starlight Coke to shoes covered in space patterns, we’ve strayed far and wide. Today’s pick, well, we picked it because of the title and really didn’t expect to find any clear science, and I am here to say, this story has better science than its title led me to expect.

Today, I review one of DC Comics‘ latest graphic novels — Galaxy: The Prettiest Star. Written by Jadzia Axelrod, with illustrations by Jess Taylor and lettering by Ariana Maher, this story is set in a world where Superman keeps Metropolis safe, but the small towns beyond the city are still places where anything other than a Beaver Cleaver or Brady Bunch reality is something other than acceptable. It is in this kind of rural nothing of a place that a boy named Taylor lives an invisible life with a picture book family.

The thing about picture books is that they only show people what they want to see. The true moments of life are often left out, and maybe not even photographed. The picture Taylor and his family paint? It’s not real.

Taylor, as we can guess from the cover of this vibrantly colored work of art, is actually a beautiful alien – a stunning girl forced to hide herself in another body to hide from the things that might hurt her. Released under DC Comics’ pride logo, this story is an allegory for the life of someone growing up trans and trying to find the courage to let the world see them for who they are. Again, this is a detail you can get from the cover – in this case, from a cover quote from Nicole Maines.

I went into this story thinking I had an idea of the plot and a notion of the ending, and I was really expecting a surprise-free ride along a known path. And to a degree, that’s what I got: a story of candy-colored joy mixed with the angst of being a teenager and the struggle of figuring out how to grow up and be true to yourself.

But it is in the details that this story shines. When Taylor becomes her alien self, she loves pickle juice, and that’s the kind of detail that if you know, you know. And it’s awesome.

And there is science.

The story is set in a town with a radio observatory, and the point is made that there are no cell phone towers, and wifi just isn’t a thing, and that is all correct. There are poetic allusions to physics and art and how, with the right senses, our science could be heard like an orchestra that shapes our reality.

And there are descriptions of galaxies that are heartbreaking in their beauty. I want to read you a brief section that is going to be my new way to see our universe. Axelrod writes: Galaxies are essentially Island universes: isolated pockets of brightness and activity in the Darkness. Stars, gases, dust, and dark matter swirling around together, held close by invisible bonds. All spinning around an unsteady center. A galaxy is not one thing. It can’t be. It’s made up of too many disjointed parts.

There is science in this book, the first of what I hope will become a new series, and that science is true, and it is beautiful, but more importantly, the characters – in all their flaws and in all their strength – they, too, are true. This story is a beautiful introduction to what could be DC’s newest superhero — Galaxy, who was called the prettiest star. And haven’t we all, once or twice, mistaken a quasar for a beautiful star?

This graphic novel is available wherever comic books are solid, assuming they aren’t sold out yet. We encourage you to get or order your copy at your local comic book store, and failing that, we have links to order it online, all on our website, DailySpace.org.