The First Transgender Comics Character

Comics' first trans character was also the first supervillain

Wired writer Laura Hudson announced in April 2013 that DC Comics was revealing Batgirl's Alysia Yeoh to be the "first transgender character in mainstream comics." But this was inaccurate. Trans characters had been in mainstream superhero comics before--long before.

An Outre Human

In April 2007, Bill Reed called Superman's first arch-foe, the Ultra-Humanite, the "first transsexual comics character by a wide margin." Beginning in Action Comics #13 (June 1939), the bald, mad (but brilliant) scientist, who was confined to a wheelchair, found the Man of Steel between him and his modest goal--domination of the entire world--four times. Then he was killed.

But in Action Comics #20 we learned his minions had salvaged and revived his brain, which he then had transplanted into the head of movie star Dolores Winters. Superman thwarted two of Ultra-Dolores's schemes before the villain perished for good, at least in the golden-age chronicles of creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

For the Wrong Reasons

Significantly, Rich Johnston does not mention Ultra-Humanite at all in his April 2013 article 'So Who Was The First Transgender Character In Mainstream Superhero Comics Anyway?' Neither does Wikipedia's list of comics' transgenders or DC's fandom wiki. Maybe that's because Ultra's reason for putting his brain in a woman was not that he wished to change sexes.

The transplant "didn’t seem to mean much to Ultra," stated Elle Collins in July 2015. "He went on with his evil schemes and insisted he wasn’t really a woman, despite wearing a slinky dress." So, why did he choose a female body? In his 2013 piece 'Top Ten Transgender Comic Book Characters', (where Ultra held the #1 spot), Jax Motes posited the villain had reasoned "that the authorities would be less likely to believe a woman in the public eye was a criminal mastermind." Thus Ultra was just exploiting female stereotypes. Ultra-Dolores was revived in the comics of the 1970s, but that body soon became no longer viable, and Ultra moved on to stranger forms, such as a giant flying ant, an albino ape, and a dinosaur.

S/he is a Villain, After All

It is also possible Ultra isn't always mentioned among other transgender comics characters because his transformation is perceived by people today in a negative light. At the New York Comic-Con in October 2014, a panel on transgender themes discussed the use of trans characters in comics as offensive plot devices that did not allow trans readers to see themselves reflected in the stories.

Chris Gavaler stated in 2017 that physically weak or challenged, and even highly intelligent, men were often depicted as feminized in classic comics. In Action Comics #20, Siegel and Shuster pushed the symbolic theme of smart-man-as-emasculated into the literal by having the scientist place his genius brain into a beautiful female form. Ultra-Dolores's second appearance showed the villain seducing a male scientist with a kitten (of course), and Superman started referring to his enemy as "she" and "madwoman," thus completing Ultra's sexual identity change.

Still a Remarkable Achievement

Some people's choice to ignore the Ultra-Humanite is understandable, but I believe his transgenderism should not be discounted. Though crossdressers in comics were very common and used for humorous effect, someone actually changing sex was not. It took a writer as progressive as Jerry Siegel was in the 1930s and 40s to create a gender-fluid character. Sadly, DC Comics' management was uncomfortable with Ultra's new status, so Action Comics #23 included the introduction of new (and ever-after) arch-enemy Luthor.

The transgender villain wasn't acceptable until the 70s, and even then s/he quickly became a flying ant. It seems it was better for a man to be an insect than a woman. The Ultra-Humanite should be remembered if for no other reason than as a symbol of how far we've come.

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