#trinary

Alisa Tager is a young Black heroine, the slick & secretive Cipher; gifted w/ the mutant power of imperceptibility (ie invisibility, intangibility / phasing, inaudibility, telepathic cloaking), she first sought out mutant leaders for protection from a mysterious pursuer, then went on to act as their spy; in time, she gained training in her powers, as well as espionage, piloting & more, all of which she uses to aid her fellow mutants, like multiple rosters of X-Men & X-Corps!

Gabby knowingly doing something horrible to herself just because she doesn't want anyone else to feel pain. And brushing it off with humor. This low key hurts me!

Women in Comics Week 4 • Favourite obscure/underrated woman

The main plot of X-Men Red vol 1 is kicking off and the gang is assembled, including two Wolverines. There's a plot reason for Gabby's request, but it's the kind of thing you hear from a cop NPC when you're running around an RPG naked.

cast:

monet — the boss and benefactor. she spends a lot of time promoting the center and taking meetings.

trinary — she handles the accounts, files the forms, and takes whatever meetings monet can’t. basically the vice president.

rachel & karima — they’re the security team. it’s their job to make sure that the threats to the center stay off of everyone else’s radars, so that they can continue actually running the place.

elle & amara — programming specialists. they’re responsible for connecting with both the people who come to the center to give talks or performances and the donors who want to support the place. elle tends to deal more with the former while amara deals more with the latter, but they’re both responsible for planning events and making sure they run smoothly.

nekra — site manager. her responsibilities include addressing any day-to-day issues with the facility, brokering peace between patrons, and answering questions such as “are your events open to nonmutants?” (yes) and “where’s the bathroom?” (in the lobby, on your left)

the themes: everyone here is struggling to find a place. many of them are reeling from the loss of krakoa. rachel’s recently broken up with betsy, karima finally has her body back after being possessed for years, and nekra never even had a krakoa to lose. the center serves as an alternative to the isolationist krakoan model because the center encourages human/mutant interaction and cooperation.

if the recent NYX series was about the late teen experience, this one is about the early-to-mid twenties experience of trying to figure out what you can possibly do with your life that will mean something.

the dynamics:

monet and rachel — rachel is head of security but monet is the boss. rachel doesn’t love being bossed around, and monet doesn’t love her orders not being followed.

nekra and elle — nekra doesn’t necessarily want to like or care about any of her coworkers, but elle is so kind and poised that nekra can’t help but respond positively to her overtures of friendship.

trinary and karima — idealism vs practicality. karima takes on the role of older advisor who doesn’t want trinary to expect too much, while trinary helps karima learn how to hope again after everything she’s been through.

elle and rachel — friends who have fun together! most of the staff is friendly, but elle and rachel are the ones most likely to be found having drinks together on a tuesday night.

trinary and amara — they both cherish small moments of quiet at the end of the day, so they might, for instance, turn down an invitation for tuesday night drinks to go watch the sunset from amara’s balcony instead.

monet and karima — karima’s job is to protect the center and make sure that monet never has to enter the fight, but monet doesn’t especially love having someone else fight for her. basically, she hired karima to do this job that she really doesn’t like letting her do. she doesn’t like putting karima in harm’s way.

amara and nekra — these two are distrustful of and hostile to each other for a while until they inevitably get trapped in a bad situation where they have to rely on each other to get out.

the plot: definitely more episodic, with each issue focusing on two or three characters rather than all seven. one issue might follow monet and trinary as they go to a meeting but find that instead of meeting with a city council member, they’re being abducted. another issue is about nekra and the security team running around trying to stop a herd of bamfs from wreaking havoc on the place (or interrupting the meeting where elle is trying to convince a prominent mutant artist to debut her works in their gallery). another issue is set during a poetry slam that elle organized, when one of the poets tries to use poetry to hypnotize the audience. one issue follows monet and karima when monet gets attacked after an appearance on a talk show.

“Maybe it’s time we took the fight to them.”