The Marvel’s Voices series of one-shots grows this year with Legacy, celebrating Black History Month. Packed with six stories that span characters like Miles Morales, Riri Williams, Domino, and Blade, you get a good selection of solid stories. These stories have different purposes in mind, of course, but each one is rendered in a way that’s entertaining on its own terms. This is also a book that highlights creators you may not be familiar with, but given the quality of the stories, you’ll likely know them better soon.
This comic opens with an introduction by Nic Stone, who is the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin and Shuri: A Black Panther Novel. It recounts Stone’s experience playing as Storm as a kid and, later in life, how her own children played as superheroes. The point being, representation matters. It’s a strong opening that helps get you into the mindset for what is to come.
The first story is by John Ridley and Olivier Coipel, who recently teamed up for a Batman story over at DC Comics. It tells a Miles Morales story mostly through captions. Coipel’s lines are gorgeous, especially with colors by Laura Martin. It’s a short but sweet way to remind us we’re all in this together.
Next, gear up for a Riri Williams story by Mohale Mashigo and Chris Allen with Rachelle Rosenberg. It’s all about Riri, Ms. Marvel and Shuri blowing off some steam and getting to see them with their hair down, so to speak. The bond between these characters is highlighted well and Allen’s detailed art style suits the cityscapes and Riri’s cool-looking armor.
The Domino story is one of the best of the bunch in part because it has the most pages.
Credit: Marvel Comics
Next is a short but cute story by Stephanie Williams and Natacha Bustos with Rachelle Rosenberg on colors. Monica Rambeau is going shopping at the grocery store and needs a little help from mom. It’s a light, fun tale.
Next up is a Domino story by Tochi Onyebuchi and Ken Lashley with Juan Fernandez set in Madripoor. This is one of the longer stories of the bunch and is well rounded with a beginning, middle, and end. It also has a nice message, especially given that Domino is a mercenary type of hero.
Following this is a by Nnedi Okorafor and Chriscross with Rachelle Rosenberg focused on Ngozi, a Nigerian Symbiote hero. A relatively new hero — her creation was back in 2017 — Ngozi story is the most political of the bunch. It’s about the people rising up against corruption and police brutality. Again, it’s so short it’s hard to gather its full purpose, but it gets the job done and more importantly reminds us people are fighting against bad cops and corruption around the globe.
The last story in this collection involves Blade by Danny Lore and Valentine De Landro with Dan Brown on colors. Set in a bodega in the Bronx, this is a story about family, but also about looking out for one another. It ends in a heartwarming way thanks to how Blade is used. The art has a moody element thanks to the cover of night and the action is tightly drawn. There’s a nice familial solution that’s worth a chuckle too.
Marvel’s Voices continues to be a good anthology series with each story holding a message that’s easy to understand, sometimes enlightening, and above all else resoundingly positive. More importantly, this book continues to highlight less familiar creators and give them a chance to shine. For a book like this, they achieved that and more.
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