Long Covid Superheroes showcases the bravery of asking for help, resting, and being compassionate with yourself and others.
A child chasing joy from her wheelchair, a kid turning into a “mooncat” when the sun sets, a young girl who can transport herself to new dimensions with only her imagination. These characters all appear in a new 72-page full-color comic book called Long Covid Superheroes. The comic, part of a larger program out of the U.K.-based arts and health organization Alchemise Theatre, supports young people with Long COVID.
Over the course of a year, kids who were unable to attend school due to being housebound or bedbound with Long COVID joined online groups to socialize with their peers. They worked with adult facilitators who also have Long COVID to create superheroes based on their experiences navigating chronic illness and disability.
Unlike Marvel-style superheroes who possess superhuman strength, invincibility, and rugged individualism, these superheroes showcase bravery by asking for help, resting, and being compassionate with themselves and others.
For example, Joy Explorer, created by Sophia, uses her Joy Vision Goggles to locate small joys that keep her going. Nebuli, created by Lucy, generates pocket universes to escape the boredom of being housebound. And then there’s Caker, an inside joke between a kid and his mom who told him he was “brave, strong, and capable,” but creator Avi thought she said “cake-able.”
The kids even got to co-create their own superhero suits with professional costume designer Kelli Des Jarlais.
Louise Dickinson, the founder of Alchemise Theatre, has had Long COVID for six years. In the introduction to the comic book, she wrote that her heart sank when she read how common Long COVID is in children. One study in the U.S. found that 10-20% of children with a history of COVID-19 develop Long COVID. The same study estimated nearly six million children have Long COVID in the U.S. as of 2024 and that it surpassed asthma as the most common chronic health problem in children.
“We wanted to create an accessible space where these kids could connect, access play and joy, and be themselves again,” she wrote to The Sick Times.
Every Alchemise Theatre session included three breaks where kids could choose to either switch off and rest, or engage with breathwork and gentle movement.
Long Covid Superheroes is split into two equally engaging parts.
There’s A Day in the Life of Long Covid: The Game, illustrated by Zhenyi Zheng, which gamifies Long COVID. It’s similar to Long COVID Mode, a modification that gamers can apply to popular role-playing video games to simulate the experience of having an energy-limiting illness by nerfing characters with post-exertional malaise if they overextend themselves. Long Covid Superheroes: The Game challenges players to manage their energy, mood, and symptoms while they’re on a quest through illustrated worlds that are reminiscent of classic 2D side-scrolling video games like Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong.
The second part is a narrative comic called The Dreamweavers, illustrated by Alice Urbino. It tells the story of the superheroes created by the kids. Instead of fighting monsters and aliens, these superheroes are combatting ableism while coming to a better understanding of the challenges of living with Long COVID. It’s got a bright, zingy style that feels like a combination of Disney cartoons and modern anime.
On their website, the Long Covid Superheroes team writes that they’re aware that the superhero trope can “often be used in a patronizing and ableist way to pose achievements from the disabled community as ‘inspirational’ and to suggest we can simply ‘overcome’ our disability without the need for external support and adaptations.”
However, their aim is to “invert the usual superhero tropes, and to highlight the strength in the stillness, the quiet, the pause; the ability to accept and to ask for help; the ability to listen to our bodies and say no to the demands made by an ableist society; the ability to advocate for ourselves and the disabled community.”
Gotham City isn’t really under attack by the Clown Prince of Crime. Thanos isn’t really jetting around the universe collecting Infinity Stones. What is real are the millions of kids learning to build new lives after a debilitating post-viral disease ripped their childhoods out from underneath them. These Long COVID Superheroes may not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but they’re showing us a world where listening to your body, standing up for your needs, resting, and leaning on others is true bravery.
These Long COVID Superheroes may not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but they’re showing us a world where listening to your body, standing up for your needs, resting, and leaning on others is true bravery.
Learn more about the Long Covid Superheroes project on their website, and order the comic here for U.K. readers and here for U.S. readers.
Heather Hogan is The Sick Times’ engagement editor. She’s been living with Long COVID since 2020.
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