Marvel’s approach to Pride Month this year received not only external criticism but also concern from their own employees, as an Advocate article revealed last week. An anonymous Marvel employee spoke to the publication about their reaction to an internal email about Marvel’s “ally” variant covers, which many have said put the spotlight on non-LGBTQ+ characters during a month aimed to spotlight and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. “I thought, ‘they’re really erasing us,’” the employee told the publication.
What was different about Marvel’s approach this year? First, they opted not to call this year’s Pride special a Pride special. The Marvel’s Voices: Pride anthology, as they’ve called it in years past, was replaced with X-Men: The Wedding Special — which featured the wedding of Mystique and Destiny, the first time a wedding between two women was shown in a Marvel comic. The comic also featured additional stories that tied into the main story, by creators like Yoon Ha Lee, a trans science fiction author, and M. Louis, creator of the webcomic Agents of the Realm. While it served a similar function, showcasing stories about LGBTQ+ characters, it did so without the word “Pride” in the title (although it did sport an emblem on the cover that noted it was “A Very Special Edition of Marvel Voices: Pride.”)
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