Marvel's Voices Pride #1 to introduce new hero Escapade

[Dante Milton]

Respectfully: SAME.

The power description paired with the imagery has me confused. Please, can anyone explain that scene to me?
She has a pair of dice. She somehow made the gunman jump? float? freak out? shrink? And the dice are either huge now or in the foreground.
My brain just isn't processing the visuals here. Please help.

I don't think that scene has anything to do with her mutant power, the article mentions a utility belt with tools and devices, so I think the dice are just an anti-gravity device.

Charlie Jane Anders confirmed on twitter that Escapade's (one of my favorite Janet songs btw) partner Morgan Red is also a trans mutant, which I think is probably a good thing. I think it makes it easier for Escapade and Morgan to live on Krakoa which makes it more likely they could appear in an X-book. Also, I think it's kind of funny they gave Escapade "blue hair and pronouns".

[jwatson]

I don't really get the power either but for some reason they make me think Mosaic. Or what Moasic's powers were suppose to be.

[Fokken]

I don't think that scene has anything to do with her mutant power, the article mentions a utility belt with tools and devices, so I think the dice are just an anti-gravity device.

Charlie Jane Anders confirmed on twitter that Escapade's (one of my favorite Janet songs btw) partner Morgan Red is also a trans mutant, which I think is probably a good thing. I think it makes it easier for Escapade and Morgan to live on Krakoa which makes it more likely they could appear in an X-book. Also, I think it's kind of funny they gave Escapade "blue hair and pronouns".

Ah. Okay. Thanks!!
And the Partner must be who is depicted on their laptop in those other panels.

[dragon1440]

Respectfully: SAME.

The power description paired with the imagery has me confused. Please, can anyone explain that scene to me?
She has a pair of dice. She somehow made the gunman jump? float? freak out? shrink? And the dice are either huge now or in the foreground.
My brain just isn't processing the visuals here. Please help.

See I thought she switched the dice into the air above (switching a pocket of air for the dice) and somehow changed the properties of the dice at same time to make them bigger and fall down on the guy. And anyone think dice is to reminiscent of Gambits cards, and they are both THIEVES....

[dragon1440]

I don't think that scene has anything to do with her mutant power, the article mentions a utility belt with tools and devices, so I think the dice are just an anti-gravity device.

Charlie Jane Anders confirmed on twitter that Escapade's (one of my favorite Janet songs btw) partner Morgan Red is also a trans mutant, which I think is probably a good thing. I think it makes it easier for Escapade and Morgan to live on Krakoa which makes it more likely they could appear in an X-book. Also, I think it's kind of funny they gave Escapade "blue hair and pronouns".

Escapade hs already been confirmed as part of a New Mutants arc coming up. Once again derailing that book from its original premise.

[Kingdom X]

Not every gay character or character of color needs to be segregated into what is basically an anthology book either. So far somnus is the only one to "make it out" that closet.

I’m also starting to get a little frustrated with the anthology/voices books. Marvel makes a point of getting creators who reflect the characters to write but make sure that’s only for 2-3 pages. I remember reading Jubilee’s spotlight in one of the anthologies and thinking the character hadn’t been written that well in years, but of course we had to go back whatever the heck she was doing in Excalibur.

Of course there are some characters that are really so small that they wouldn’t get to a chance to show up otherwise, but a lot of the times I leave being like “that was great! What exactly is stopping y’all from doing this year round?” I think at the bare minimum they could make Voices an actual anthology series that publishes monthly instead of one-shots when they wanna look good for a cultural heritage month or pride month.

[Dante Milton]

Escapade hs already been confirmed as part of a New Mutants arc coming up. Once again derailing that book from its original premise.

Yeah, I know. But if Morgan was a human character it could have caused conflict between Escapade and Krakoa during that story and she probably would have left after that arc. To my mind making them both mutants makes it more likely that they will show up after the New Mutants story. And the original premise of New Mutants was Sunspot wanting to reunite with his boyfri- er ... good friend Sam, and that story concluded. Ayala's run has mostly been about the New Mutants training the younger mutants on Krakoa, so I don't think an arc featuring Escapade necessarily derails that premise.

[Rift]

I like the Voices books as a concept. Sure, many of the stories are terrible. Sure, these characters are basically just brought in to do a basic-ass story for 2-3 pages, and then get fade back into the shadows. But it's better than getting nothing at all. My girl Surge's shining moment last year was when her shoulder and some of her hair made a cameo in a Voices panel. At this point, I take what I can get.

But yeah, it'd be cool to get an anthology mini-series. Like, 1-3 stories each issue, each giving characters a somewhat meaty story. Maybe it'd lead to better and more original stories than the glut of "two characters of [X group] discuss a random element of [their group], while fighting some rando," or "two characters of [X group] discuss a random element of [their group], while walking around and eating food."

[Dante Milton]

I understand being frustrated with the Voices books, it can feel like Marvel doing the bare minimum, keeping these stories confined to a self contained one shot can make them seem inconsequential, and the execution can be dodgy. And I absolutely don't want to sound like I'm defended Marvel, they are a corporation and as such they will never actually care about us, they just want our money. That said, as Rift already mentioned, I think it's better to get something rather than nothing and to let Marvel know that we want, and would support, more content like this.

I can also somewhat understand Marvel's reasoning for keeping these as a series of anthology one shots, although I don't agree with it. I think they do it this way because by limiting it to a one shot format they can mostly rely on that one book selling well, as opposed to an ongoing or limited series which they know has diminishing returns. I also think that outside of the X-books and Black Panther, Marvel comics don't generally deal with stories that focus on marginalized identities and are instead mostly concerned with stories about punching. They consider the kind of stories they do in the Voices books a genre within a genre and probably don't think there is a sustainable market for such a niche concept. Again, I disagree.

[Dizzystarr]

Just as pointless and cringe as those two Safespace and Snowflake from the New Warriors

[BobbysWorld]

While I think most people are agreed that Marvel's motivations here are mercenary and thus suspect, not sure I'd make the jump from that to 'story about a trans mutant by a trans writer is equally as cringe as two proposed characters infamous for their entire character concepts being tone deaf and oblivious' but hey. You do you.

[Rift]

What Bobby said. Escapade's journey is going to be told from an authentic experience from a writer who understands the issues, and we'll likely get a story not commonly told in X-Men comics. And Ayala's capable of tackling stories with nuance, avoiding the usual preachy pitfalls that come with some Voices stories.

But I will not tolerate any slander against Snowflake and Safespace. Their book could have been the next America (2017.) The fact that we won't ever get that New Warriors mini is a crime equal to the burning of the Library of Alexandria.

[Noodle]

Just as pointless and cringe as those two Safespace and Snowflake from the New Warriors

It's amazing how a certain group got what they wanted and it never got released, yet they still can't stop crying about it.

[Nicoclaws]

I wish we had more anthologies series, not necessarily about one real life minorities.
Like a Krakoan Divided (or was it United ?) We Stand. And get minority writers and characters written amongst the rest.

[ZuLuLu]

Somnus was MIA after his debut for a long ass time and the only reason he's getting use is because Orlando is now writing an ongoing.

I think it took so long to see Somnus again mainly because delays and re launch of the X- line because right after his debut Orlando said we would see him again soon.

Ayala introduced a ton of trans and nonbinary mutants and they haven't shown up either.

That's down to Ayala, there is no point introducing tons of characters if you are not going to develop them, Alyala has and an ongoing book and could have easily include anyone of them in the stories, we would not have known that some of these characters were even LGBT if they didn't post it on Twitter.

Look at the difference with how Ewing introduce Kobak Never-Held, in one issue they were given more background development than most of the characters that Alyala has introduced.

Dam if you do dam if don't.

People complained when they turned long term characters (Like Iceman or Kitty) into LGBT characters but when they make new characters people still complain. The characters exist so that if a writer who wants to use a LGBT character they can pick them up if they want to.

Not every character needs to be an A lister.

Yep. Is this a PR stunt, absolutely but Marvel is a business and pandering will always be a form of marketing.

Not every gay character or character of color needs to be segregated into what is basically an anthology book either. So far somnus is the only one to "make it out" that closet.

While there will always be room for improvement with how these characters are used, I cannot agree that Marvel have segregate it POC and LGBT from the main line books. X-Factor, Marauders, Excalibur, New Mutants, Way of X and Children of the Atom all had LGBT characters, the Voices anthology series is just another method of featuring them.

I’m also starting to get a little frustrated with the anthology/voices books. Marvel makes a point of getting creators who reflect the characters to write but make sure that’s only for 2-3 pages. I remember reading Jubilee’s spotlight in one of the anthologies and thinking the character hadn’t been written that well in years, but of course we had to go back whatever the heck she was doing in Excalibur.

Of course there are some characters that are really so small that they wouldn’t get to a chance to show up otherwise, but a lot of the times I leave being like “that was great! What exactly is stopping y’all from doing this year round?” I think at the bare minimum they could make Voices an actual anthology series that publishes monthly instead of one-shots when they wanna look good for a cultural heritage month or pride month.

Agree.

One thing I wish the X-line had done with there re launch is have a monthly anthology series similar to DC's Batman: Urban Legend, that tend to have 4 stories each with several parts. It also featured stories that were a mixture of fan favourites, old characters that have not been used for some time and new characters.

The reality is that outside of most X-characters cannot carry a solo and even on team books there is a limited amount of space.