Marvel Voices: Pride #1

I know that Pride month ended a few weeks ago, but just before that I started to read Marvel Voices: Pride #1. I am just late in making this post. This issue in the vein of the DC Pride book I talked about a few weeks ago. When it comes to Marvel and DC, comparisons are always unavoidable. Like the DC book, I wanted to support what Marvel was doing for Pride month. Marvel has been doing special issues like this to showcase under represented communities via characters and their creators.

So how did I feel about Marvel's foray into this? Let's get into that. 

First off, like I said with the DC book, I know a little something about representation and how it matters. However, I can't speak to how this book will feel to those in the LGBTQ community. I can only speak to what I see here. This issue is massive and I would argue overstuffed. The DC book was a book about their characters as part of a day in the life. There is a deft to the story telling there that I think is missing in this Marvel book. Marvel has a tendency to be on the nose and I think this issue was that. To me, it was the equivalent of someone saying, "I have LOTS of gay friends." as they roll out all of the LGBTQ characters that they could. Mind you, that was the point, but DC showed a restraint that Marvel does not. 

Also, this issue felt very self-congratulatory. The focus was supposed to be on the characters and the creative teams, but Marvel treated this as a way to pat themselves on the back for having so many characters. There's a timeline of "key" issues representing the LGBTQ community. The cynic in me was like, "Hmm, sure was a lot of activity after 2010". So what was Marvel doing in the first fifty years of existence?  In addition to that, the opening of the book shows, for lack of a better term, a gay history of the Marvel Universe. They just need to chill with the back patting because they were late to the party. Yes, they made progress, but independent comics had been doing it for years. A lot of these characters are C-List at best and you would be hard pressed to find them. I would argue that out of their stable of characters, there were some glaring omissions. How do you leave out America Chavez? How do Wiccan/Hulking have only two pages? Where are Rictor and Shatterstar? How has Northstar not surfaced in any of the mainstream X-books in a more prominent role, including this book? They focus on his coming out moment in this book, but he only gets three pages of an original story in here? I also feel like they trotted out some of these characters and unfortunately, we won't follow up or see them again until next Pride month. If Marvel wants to deliver on their promise about being diverse, they need to use them more regularly.

Marvel went for quantity, not quality on this book. There was a great interview with Chris Cooper, a black and LGBTQ former editor of Marvel in the mid 90's which was eye opening. I can only imagine what he went through that he didn't say in that interview. This book even printed a few pages from Alpha Flight #106 to show when the character of Northstar came out. They only took a snippet of the issue, so out of context it feels weird and given the 90's art and writing, it's almost cringeworthy. At that time, people needed to be educated, so the dialogue leans that way and is bad.

I've complained a lot so far, but did I at least like some stories in here? I mentioned before the quality over quantity aspect, so there are a lot of stories jam packed into this and I think Marvel should have given everyone the same page count. Instead, you got some stories that are two pages and some that are like seven. So I question the editing on this book.

Sorry, the stories I liked. Well, I'm a big Runaways fan, so just a few pages of Nico and Karolina was good, especially when it features art from Kris Anka once more. The one or two pages we got of Hulking/Wiccan I enjoyed, but that is because I like them as character. There is a touching story about a cosplayer that went as She-Hulk and the whole story behind that. Finally, I thought the story about Daken and his long lost love was also sweet. So there are some gems in here. I just don't like the package Marvel put this in. Again, it's very self congratulatory, when they are not supposed to be the story here. That's my problem. It takes away from what the creators did.

It pains me to say this, but if you have your choice between this one and the DC one, I would pick up the DC Pride book. I would still say to give this one a shot because Marvel needs to see that some of these characters can sell and deserve a push. If they want to continue to be diverse, they need to show it, not talk about it.