Marvel Comics has a tradition of honoring Pride Month with variant covers featuring LGBTQIA+ characters. This extends even to those comics set in a galaxy far, far away. However, this year’s Star Wars variant covers are also notable for being produced by a team of LGBTQIA+ artists. This team includes Phil Jimenez, Javier Garrón, Paulina Ganucheau, and Rachael Stott.
Star Wars Pride Month Covers Revealed
The characters featured in the 2024 Star Wars Pride Month Covers cover a wide timeline. Half of them come from the High Republic era and most of them made their debut in prose stories. All of the characters, however, made their premiere in print stories rather than television or movies. Here are the characters featured in this year’s collection:
- Doctor Aphra, the most daring rogue archaeologist in the galaxy. She was introduced through Marvel’s Darth Vader series. Doctor Aphra has also headlined two solo series. The most recent of these won the 2024 GLAAD Award for Outstanding Comic Book.
- Ruu, a trans male Jedi from the High Republic era, who debuted in last year’s Tales of Life and Light short stories collection.
- Cair San Tekka and Xylan Graff, a couple who found love despite their families’ feuds in the novel The High Republic: Defy the Storm.
- Sinjir Rath Velus, a former Imperial officer who joined the Rebel Alliance after the Battle of Endor. One of the first gay Star Wars characters, he was introduced in Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy. This marks his first appearance in an illustrated story.
The four Pride Month variant covers can be viewed below.
The Star Wars Pride Month Covers will be available in comic shops everywhere in June 2024.
