| Coagula | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Doom Patrol vol. 2, #70 (September 1993) |
| Created by | Rachel Pollack |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Kate Godwin |
| Team affiliations | Doom Patrol |
| Abilities | Solidify liquids and dissolve solids, accessing alternate realities through machines |
Coagula (real name Kate Godwin) is a comic book superhero and former member of DC Comics' Doom Patrol. Kate is a male-to-female transsexual, one of the first transsexual characters in comics. The character was created by transsexual science fiction and tarot writer Rachel Pollack. According the Comics Journal, Rachel Pollack based the character's civilian name on two friends of hers. The friends in question are transgender writer and actress Kate Bornstein and the transsexual activist Kate Godwin. Rachel wanted to create a positive portrayal of a lesbian transsexual lady.
History[]
Kate gains her powers while working as a prostitute. One of her customers is Rebis, a radioactive hermaphrodite; after Kate has sex with Rebis, she discovers she can coagulate liquids and dissolve solids at will. She first tries out for the Justice League, but is rejected by them. She meets the Doom Patrol while battling a villain called the Codpiece, who has devices such as a gun, a drill, and a spring-loaded boxing glove built into a special codpiece he designed and built. Coagula dissolves the device.
Early on Kate is identified as a lesbian, but as the series progresses it becomes clear she is bisexual. She begins a romance with Robotman.
The name Coagula comes from the alchemical term "Solve et Coagula", meaning "dissolve and coagulate".
A while after the Doom Patrol split, Kate and Cliff take fellow teammate Dorothy Spinner on a camping trip with the intention of telling her she is adopted. However, after hearing this, Dorothy suffers a mental breakdown. This causes her to generate a powerful psychic explosion, killing Kate and supposedly killing Cliff. Following this, Dorothy falls into a coma.
Powers and abilities[]
After having sexual contact with Rebis, Coagula gained the power to turn solids into liquids, and to coagulate liquids into solid. She needs to be in touch with the object to make the change occur.
She also had the ability to access alternate realities through machines. So far, this has only been shown once, where she was able to access an important reality through a computer, displaying it on the monitor. It was never explained the extent of these abilities.