Marvel Unveils New Character – Mosaic

It’s not exactly news that most of the top characters at Marvel date back to the Silver Age, over 50 years ago. Marvel has not introduced many breakout characters in the 21st century, although Miles Morales and Ms. Marvel are exceptions. Last week, Marvel announced a new character whom they hope will be another standout superhero. The hero named Mosaic will have his own series starting in October.     The backstory of Mosaic is that he starts off as Morris Sackett, superstar basketball player who loved his fame but is not very selfless. That all changes thanks to the Terrigen Mists that turn Morris into an Inhuman. His new powers allow him to move from person-to-person, inhabiting their bodies and absorbing their memories. The bad side of this transformation, though, is that Mosaic, who used to be one of the top athletes in the world, no longer has a physical body and must keep moving to stay alive.   Marvel Executive Editor Nick Lowe said about the character, “Morris goes from being one of the most famous people in the world to being no one. Now he not only has to do time in the bodies of people he never even would have noticed, but also deep into Marvel Universe events!” Axel Alonso, Marvel Editor-in-Chief, added, “One minute, Mosaic holds the world in the palm of his hand, the next, he has absolutely nothing, except for powers that will transform him into one of the Marvel Universe's most complex characters…”     There was a decent amount of fanfare to the announcement of Mosaic, and his origin does seem to have some interesting potential. However, Marvel pushing the Inhuman section of their universe hasn’t really made those series into top sellers, even with popular non-Inhuman characters like Beast and the Human Torch. Marvel continues to bet that the Inhumans will catch on the way mutants did, evidenced by the fact that they gave Mosaic his own series before he had even debuted – and not in response to fan demand. I’m still a little skeptical whether this will prove to be a hit, but it’s good to see Marvel trying to add new characters to their universe, especially when it's a character from an under-represented group in comics.     Although Mosaic will get his own series in the fall, curious readers can see him soon in next week’s Uncanny Inhumans #11. He will also be in a free 10-page issues story in August, available at Barnes & Noble stores. The first issue of the new Mosaic series, written by screenwriter/novelist Geoffrey Thorne and illustrated by Khary Randolph (Deadpool: The Gauntlet), will be released on October 6th.