Ever since Marvel Comics brought back its first ever openly transgender character, the mutant Jessie Drake, in last year’s LGBTQ+ anthology Marvel Voices: Pride #1, fans have been desperate to see this underutilized character in comics again. Jessie has only appeared three times since her debut 25 years ago, and it is far past time that Marvel brings her back into the fold, especially with the new Krakoan Era of the X-Men making it so easy to gather mutants together.
The comics industry has seemingly been trying hard over the past several years to increase its representation of LGBTQ+ identities in both stories and creative teams. This clearly reflects the reality that there are many queer fans and allies who wish to have their lives reflected in the comics they read. However, both of the big two comic publishers, DC and Marvel, are still not entirely caught up with the progressive representation the LGBTQ+ community deserves, and Jessie Drake is a perfect example of this oversight, with Marvel having her show up in a queer-focused one-shot comic that felt a bit like pandering to the audience just to get a medal.
First introduced in 1994’s Marvel Comics Presents #150 as a young mutant girl being tortured in a government outpost called the Fortress, Jessie became the first confirmed transgender characters at Marvel in the following issue, when she came out to Typhoid Mary. Jessie has a fascinating mutant ability that allows her to do “empathic morphing,” meaning she shape-shifts into people she spends time with, an incredibly interesting power for a trans character. After these two brief appearances Drake was never seen again until 2021’s Marvel Voices: Pride #1 when she teamed up with the newly out bisexual Black Cat to destroy the Fortress once and for all. To be clear, it is amazing that Jessie Drake appeared in this Pride Month special, and Leah Williams, Jan Bazaldua, and Erick Arciniega – the writer and artists for the Black Cat story – should feel incredibly proud that a team of queer creators were able to make such a wonderful spotlight story. But clearly, as can be seen in the tweets below, Marvel fans want even more Jessie Drake than that one-shot was able to provide.
Over on Twitter the hilarious Carol Anne Talks Comics (@annecomics) posted a poignant message directly for the X-Office writers, using language that she knew would stand out to them. Writing in the newly developed Krakoan language created by Cypher, Carol Anne posed the question, “Where is Jessie Drake?” And that really is the question, isn’t it? Jessie appeared with Black Cat in the Pride Month special, but she has not been seen since then. There have been plenty of opportunities for her to show up on the island nation of Krakoa, a place where many mutants long forgotten or killed have shown up and become major players in the new era. Another fan, Jonathan Loves X-Men (@jonathan_eff) tweeted on Trans Day of Visibility, “Today would be such an awesome day for @Marvel to announce that Jessie Drake is going to appear in an ongoing X-Book.” Jessie Drake 100 percent deserves to join her fellow mutants on Krakoa, or have a story told about why she isn’t joining Krakoa, a character beat that could turn out to be just as good as having her join the X-Men.
The X-Office at present is filled with several queer and trans creators, so hopefully they already have a plan to introduce Jessie Drake into an ongoing book, or will see the fan desire on Twitter for more Jessie content. Marvel should definitely get a transgender writer and artist team to create an amazing new story for Drake, highlighting her experiences as a trans hero in a world that often denigrates both identities. Hopefully Jessie Drake will show up in a new Marvel Comics book sometime soon, because her LGBTQ+ fans on Twitter surely want more of her.
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Author: Alex Schlesinger
