Marvel's Voices Infinity Comic #97: "Unlike Any Other (Part 3 of 6)"

[alliterator]

"Legacy characters like Bobby, like Northstar, like Jessie Drake came of age when their stories were deemed "untellable", and I think – understandably – stories of queer suffering, of surviving tooth and nail, are less en vogue now, both for publishers and readers. But they’re still stories important to tell. Our scars still matter, even if not everyone understands them, or finds them harder to look at or market."
-- Anthony Oliveira



Emma Frost and Shela Sexton (also known as Escapade) are sitting in a fancy restaurant. Only...Shela doesn't remember how they got there. So Emma explains that there was an airplane and a Hydra hijacking that Shela herself stopped.

Comments

[deh_tommy]

Is this still written by Charlie Anders? This really doesn’t sound like Escapade.

And maybe this is just my own biases clouding my judgement, but it feels a bit uncomfortable how Escapade fawns over Emma here considering the former’s whole arc about Krakoa in the first place, especially when New Mutants ended with it turning out Emma was lying to her about the future to get her to join them.

[icon_uk]

Is that elsewhere in the story, because she doesn't seem to be fawning in these panels.

[deh_tommy]

Well, “fawning” is the wrong term, but the way she goes “why do you care about me, I’m not at all cool or stylish like you or your clone daughters, I’m not like you” indicates a level of admiration for Emma that’s kind of uncomfortable given their backstory together. But again, I’m probably letting my prejudices get the better of me, and Charlie Anders obviously knows infinitely more about Escapade than I do so if she says it’s cool then it’s cool.

[alliterator]

I mean, Escapade started off as an Emma Frost fangirl, so I think this is entirely within that realm of possibility. Even though she became disillusioned with her, that doesn't mean she stopped thinking highly of her.

[icon_uk]

It's written by Anthony Oliveira, and Charlie Anders has expressed herself delighted with it

[angelophile]

The sad thing is Emma could be talking about multiple people here.

[alliterator]

Per Anthony Oliveira on Twitter/x, she is.

[dan_ingram]

I like Escapade's character, but her powers make me deeply uncomfortable.

She can seamlessly impersonate anyone she chooses, taking their powers or abilities with no one around her being the wiser.

That kinda feels like a TERF argument

[alliterator]

"She can seamlessly impersonate anyone she chooses, taking their powers or abilities with no one around her being the wiser."

I mean, sometimes, sometimes not. Sometimes she switches and people DO notice, it all depends. Certainly, in this story, everyone notices.

"That kinda feels like a TERF argument"

Considering she was created by a trans woman, I really doubt it.

[huntleyhaverstock]

I read this last night after seeing the scans here, and it's a truly clever and moving story. Designing a story that can only scroll vertically downward around a character falling from the sky -- and not letting you in on that fact until halfway through, leaving you to think that the blue sky background is just lovely window dressing -- is a creative use of the medium, turning its limitations into strengths.

Emma may be a bastard, but we know that the one flaw in her diamond heart is the children she's lost and let down. This story plays to that beautifully.

And these scans, by necessity, leave out my favorite part of the narrative: Escapade has to work hard to stay switched with the passenger she saved. She could let go at any moment of this increasing physical strain, save herself, and let a total stranger die. And she refuses. She's a kid who's barely started living. No one would blame her. But she holds on to the switch tighter and tighter, knowing she could and probably will die, just to make sure she saves someone else. I dunno about you, but that's Spider-Man-lifting-the-impossible-weight-of-machinery for me right there.

Boring cis het white dude here, so feel free to take this with a grain of salt, but I read Escapade's powers as empathy made manifest. She can be anyone, and anyone can be her.