The and the dominate a special “frame” that will grace a variant cover of Marvel’s Voices: Pride, a special one-shot debuting this June spotlighting the company’s LGBTQIA+ characters and creators.

around the world every June, in honor of the Stonewall Uprising in June of 1969. These celebrations usually include parades, festivals, and other celebrations. It is also a time to reflect on the lives and works of LGBTQIA+ artists, scientists, athletes, activists, and other pioneers. The Marvel Voices line features creators from marginalized and underrepresented populations working on a diverse range of characters, and to commemorate Pride Month, Marvel will release a new , with a special variant frame cover spotlighting the company’s various LGBTQIA characters—and the X-Men and the Guardians of the Galaxy are taking center stage.

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had the first look at the cover. llustrated by Luciano Vecchio, the characters will serve as a “frame” around the main cover art, hence the empty white space in the preview art. The whole left side of the cover is taken up by members of the X-Men and other mutants. Representatives from the X-Men include Northstar, Iceman, Mystique, and Shatterstar. The Guardians of the Galaxy make up the bottom left hand corner, and while there are not as many Guardians represented as there are X-Men, they still have a nice presence; the Guardians of the Galaxy are represented by Hercules, Marvel Boy, Moondragon, and, , among others. There are also plenty of heroes from outside the two teams, such as America Chavez, Black Cat, the newest Valkyrie, and Angela, once a member of the Guardians herself.

The special frame variant cover harkens back to another, older frame cover, published way back in 1986 to commemorate Marvel’s 25^th anniversary. The main difference was the 25th-anniversary frame ran on many covers, whereas this will be only on one. A large number of characters are featured here, and it is no surprise that the and the X-Men have the most representation, considering both books have always included themes of inclusion and diversity. The X-Men in particular have been progressive about representation - Northstar was one of the first openly gay comic book heroes, and he would pave the way for many others. There is still much work to be done for LGBTQIA+ representation in comics, but Marvel Voices: Pride represents a step in the right direction.

The X-Men and the Guardians of the Galaxy are two of Marvel’s premier and most popular teams, so it's nice to see them fighting for more representation for the marginalized. Marvel’s Voices: Pride #1, is on sale in print and digital June 23.

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