Writer Gail Simone spoke to Wired about the new character:
I looked out into the audience [at Wondercon], saw dozens of faces I knew well — LGBTQ folks, mostly — all avid comics readers and superhero fans and DC supporters. And it just hit me: Why was this so impossible? Why in the world can we not do a better job of representation of not just humanity, but also our own loyal audience? ... Look, we have a problem most media don't have, which is that almost all the tentpoles we build our industry upon were created over a half century ago… at a time where the characters were almost without exception white, cis-gendered, straight, on and on. It's fine — it's great that people love those characters. But if we only build around them, then we look like an episode of The Andy Griffith Show for all eternity.