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The addition of Tempo to the Marauders team shows how the X-Men have recently been changing for the better by including more diverse representation.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Marauders Annual #1, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
Ever since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the X-Men in 1963, this superhero team was used to investigate questions of bigotry and oppression. The X-Men comics established that mutants were hated by the rest of humanity, but that the X-Men were dedicated to helping humans and mutants alike. In this way, mutants were often used as a representation for real-life marginalized groups. Though this provided the foundation for some powerful stories, their effectiveness was sometimes undercut by the lack of diversity in the X-Men.
When the X-Men debuted, the superhero team consisted of four white boys and a white girl. All were presented as heterosexual (though Iceman came out as gay many decades later). This limited diversity prevented these stories from truly reckoning with the realities of oppression and prejudice. In later years, the X-Men became more diverse, adding characters of different genders, ethnicities and sexual orientations. This has helped to make stories about the mutant metaphor ring true. Most recently, the X-Men team known as the Marauders gained Tempo as a member. As a Black lesbian, Tempo is sure to bring a new and refreshing perspective to the Marauders’ mission of helping mutantkind.
Tempo’s mutant power grants her the ability to manipulate time. She can speed time up around her, or slow it down. Tempo was originally introduced as a member of the Mutant Liberation Front, a mutant terrorist group that opposed X-Force. However, she came to realize that their extremist ways were not for her and left the team. Despite her unique and formidable mutant power, Tempo has mostly remained a background character until very recently.
In Marauders Annual #1 (by Steve Orlando, Creees Lee, Rain Beredo and VC’s Cory Petit), Marauders leader Kate Pryde asks Tempo to join the team and she accepts. Previous issues of Marauders had teased that Tempo might be joining the team, but it becomes official here. Marauders Annual #1 also references Tempo’s lesbian identity. Before Kate asks her to join the Marauders, Tempo is in the Green Lagoon with her girlfriend, who breaks up with her. Tempo seems to feel pretty indifferent about this development, using her time powers to “fast-forward” through the breakup.
Tempo was previously established as a lesbian in the Age of X storyline, when a reality-warped version of her expressed love for the mutant Feral, but Marauders Annual #1 displays her LGBTQ+ identity more explicitly than it has ever been shown. Given the comic’s willingness to address this part of her, it seems likely that Tempo’s lesbian identity will continue to inform her perspective and will remain an important part of her character over the course of the series.
The mission of the Marauders team is to help mutants in need. Although the nation of Krakoa is a refuge for mutants, anti-mutant bigotry still occurs elsewhere in the world, and the Marauders make it their duty to stamp out this kind of behavior. The new Marauders team assembled in Marauders Annual #1 consists of mutants from many different backgrounds and walks of life. This diversity should prove itself to be a strength of the team, as it will give the Marauders a nuanced viewpoint and allow them to consider situations from several different perspectives. Tempo’s life experiences as a Black lesbian give her unique insight which she may be able to use when dealing with mutant oppression.
Tempo is not the only LGBTQ+ member of the Marauders. The team also includes Daken, a bisexual man, and Somnus, a gay man. Though they are all a part of the LGBTQ+ community, these three characters all have totally different backgrounds and personalities. The inclusion of such diverse characters marks an important step forward in representation for the X-Men and shows how far the series has come since its early days. The use of mutants as an allegory to represent marginalized groups is much more effective when the story also includes characters who are people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
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