'Supergirl' Dreamer: Nicole Maines Becomes TV's First Transgender Superhero

When Supergirl returns from winter hiatus it will make television history with the new character, Dreamer. On Friday, The CW released a first-look at the superhero identity of Nia (Nicole Maines), a new series regular who debuted earlier this season on Supergirl. The character is being promoted as the first transgender superhero on mainstream television.

Nia’ transformation into Dreamer will begin on the January 27 episode, titled “Blood Memory.” Supergirl returns from winter hiatus on January 20. However, the character

On Friday, The CW released the first image of the Dreamer, a new superhero character in Supergirl played by actress and activist Nicole Maines. Maines’ character Nia, who debuted this season as a cub reporter for CatCo, will take up the mantle in the episode “Menagerie,” airing February 17.

Playing a transgender superhero will, in fact, be just the second time Maines makes history. Prior to her acting career, Maines was Susan Doe in the breakthrough 2014 case Doe v. Clenchy, which the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled that discriminating against a transgender student from using bathrooms consistent with their gender identity is unlawful.

See Maines as “Dreamer” below.

“Dreamer” is a modernization of the DC comic book character Nura Nal, AKA “Dream Girl,” an alien with precognitive abilities. Created by Edmond Hamilton and John Forte in Adventure Comics #317, Dream Girl rises the ranks and becomes leader of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Later on in a ‘90s reboot, she earned the name “Dreamer” when she (re-)joined the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Dream Girl/Dreamer made sporadic appearances in the modern era, one of them almost ten years ago in the first issue of Adventure Comics Vol. 2 in 2009.

Maines was also the subject of a 2015 book by Washington Post writer Amy Ellis Nut, Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family. She was also featured in the HBO documentary The Trans List and made her acting debut in an episode of Royal Pains. In 2018, Maines was cast in Supergirl.

Supergirl will return to The CW at 8 p.m. EST.