The line-up of the creative teams and characters being focused on in the celebration of Black heroes, Marvel's Voices: Legacy #1 has been revealed. This is part of Marvel's Voices initiative as well as one of the projects they're releasing during Black History Month to honor their heroes of color. The heroes featured include Monica Rambeau, Miles Morales, Blade, and many other popular characters within the Marvel universe.
The creation of this initiative began with Angélique Roché's podcast, which started back in April 2018. Titled Marvel's Voices, the podcast features interviews with a variety of Marvel creators, including Mariko Tamaki (X-23) and Saladin Ahmed (Black Bolt). Last year, Marvel teamed up with Method Man and other black creators to adapt this podcast into a one-shot anthology called Marvel's Voices #1. Now, they're doing it again with Marvel's Voices: Legacy #1.
The complete line-up shared on the official Marvel Comics website and further revealed within the preview pages of Marvel's Voices: Legacy #1 itself includes six stories. The first story, called "Words Do Matter," features the web-slinging Miles Morales aka Spider-Man in a short by writer John Ridley and artist Olivier Coipel with Laura Martin on colors. The second story, "Good Luck Girl," features Domino in a high-stakes card game by writer Tochi Onyebuchi and artist Ken Lashley with Juan Fernandez on colors. The third story, "A Luta Continua," features a symbiote-infected Black Panther in a story by writer Nnedi Okorafor and artist ChrisCross with colors by Rachelle Rosenberg.
The fourth story, "Decompression," shows Ironheart aka Riri Williams superheroing around town in a short by writer Mohale Mashigo and artist Chris Allen with colors from Rachelle Rosenberg. In the fifth story, "Panic at the Supermarket," the main focus is on Monica Rambeau, though Thor and She-Hulk also make appearances in the story by writer Stephanie Williams and artist Natacha Bustos with Rachelle Rosenberg again on colors. The final story, "Nighttime Bodega Run," features the vampire-hunting Blade in the short by writer Danny Lore and artist Valentine De Landro with colorist Dan Brown. Marvel's Voices: Legacy #1 will be in comic book stores on February 24, 2021. In addition to this celebration of heroes of color, fans can also look forward to the Women of Marvel one-shot coming out this April.
A variety of covers will be available for Marvel's Voices: Legacy #1, including the main cover by Taurin Clarke as well as variant covers by Natacha Bustos (DEC200564), Olivier Coipel (OCT209084), Edge (DEC200565), Ken Lashley (DEC200566), and Ernanda Souza (DEC200563). Souza also worked on an array of variant covers for Marvel's heroes of color to celebrate Black History Month.
Marvel's Voices: Legacy #1 seems like a nice look into the diverse characters within Marvel's universe and could serve as an introduction to help readers get invested in characters they may not have read before. It would be nice to see this become an ongoing series showcasing even lesser-known characters of color that comes out not just during Black History Month but all year long. Marvel previously featured Native American and Indigenous creators and characters as part of this initiative as well, so increasing their visibility to a monthly book may also help make some of these lesser-represented characters become household names, encouraging their increased inclusion in mainstream comics. This could open the doors for other anthologies focused on underrepresented groups such as the LGBTQIA+ community as well as focusing on people with mental illnesses. The possibilities for representation are endless, and with programs like Marvel's Voices initiative, it's hopeful that we'll see more diverse characters in the spotlight sooner rather than later.
Source: Marvel Comics