Marvel’s Pride Covers Are (and Aren’t) What You Think
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Every year, Marvel and DC commemorate June with covers and stories centered around its stable of LGBTQIA+ characters. That tradition continues this year, but in Marvelās case, itās been deflating thanks to the messaging getting fumbled pretty badly.
On March 21 (Thursday), Marvel revealed its list of books coming out in June. Most of them are tied to its upcoming Blood Hunt event, and several comicsāX-Men #35, Amazing Spider-Man #52, Immortal Thor #12, and othersāhave āPride Alliesā variant covers. The titling would have you think that Marvel was celebrating Pride Month by focusing solely on alliesāaka, āthe straightsāāof its LGBTQIA+ cast, which went about as well on social media as youād expect.
Flash-forward to March 22 (Friday), where Marvel put out an announcement about the Pride variants: specifically, the eight covers (four each drawn by artists Betsy Cola and Davi Go) will pair an LGBTQIA+ hero with a prominent straight character (with the former getting primary focus) to āshowcase both the spirit of Pride Month and exemplifying the importance of strong allyship.ā You can see one such cover by Go below, which sees Northstar share the spotlight with Spider-Man.
On paper, thereās nothing wrong with thisāDCās doing the same thing with Batman and Nightwing, for instance, but these covers just have the standard āPrideā labeling. It also helps that DC got to control the narrative by revealing its Pride output before the solicits rather than the other way around. Whatās more, these covers are boosted by another annual Pride anthology celebrating its own stable of LGBTQIA+ characters, along with an one-shot honoring the late Doom Patrol writer Rachel Pollack, who gave the publisher its first trans hero in Coagula.
Supeheroes and queerness have always been linked togetherāitās part of why Robin exists. You can (and fans often do!) read A-listers like Spider-Man, Daredevil, et al as queer, either by pulling from scenes in comics or other versions of them found in movies and games. Giving these heroes the āalliesā label complicates things even further. What was probably an earnest attempt to celebrate a demographic of Marvelās audience now has a weird air over it, made worse by the fact that it came straight from the source.
Marvelās Pride Allies covers will run from June 5 to June 26.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whatās next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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