Preview Marvel Comics’ First-Ever Issue Dedicated to Pride Month and LGBTQ Heroes
Unlike its cinematic counterpart, Marvel Comics has been steadily churning out LGBTQ+ heroes for years. Since the early 1990s, starting with Northstar, the franchise has featured and championed queer characters like Mystique, Nico Minoru, Wiccan, Iceman and more — giving them complex and multi-faceted backgrounds, personalities and storylines. Now the publisher is celebrating Pride Month with a special Marvel Comics Pride issue, the release of MARVEL’S VOICES: PRIDE #1.
This will be Marvel’s first queer-centered special, featuring writers and artists including Kieron Gillen, Olivier Coipel, Steve Orlando, Anthony Oliveira, Tini Howard, Vita Ayala, Kris Anka and Javier Garrón.
Writer Anthony Oliveira, who wrote the genuinely delightful “My Drag Brunch With Loki” for WAR SCROLLS #2, said, “When I was a very closeted, very lonely kid, these characters saved my life. It’s an honor to tell stories about them and to see the kind of stories queer people can tell about queer people deepen and grow.”
The Marvel Comics Pride issue will also feature the debut of a new mutant hero, Somnus, whose abilities give him control over others’ dreams.
Writer Steve Orlando had this to say about the new hero:
Somnus, Carl Valentino, is inspired not only by my own family history, but by my experiences with past generations of LGBTQ+ folks from across the country, people I wouldn’t have met without comics. While there is still plenty of work to do, we’ve also come a long way as a community. Somnus is a chance to explore how my own late queer relatives may have felt, living in more prejudiced times. He’s also a chance to celebrate past generations as a whole and acknowledge the strides we’ve made that they may not have lived to see.
We’re fans already. Somnus’s backstory will be revealed in Marvel Voice: PRIDE #1, along with other stories starring beloved queer characters.
Ahead of its release, check out the first few pages of the Marvel Comics Pride issue here:
