And now… The fun stuff!
On ‘Black Widow: Forever Red’
It’s hard to determine who’s more excited about Black Widow: Forever Red: Margaret Stohl or the rest of us (including Lorraine Cink, who just couldn’t help but fangirl over Stohl). The way Stohl spoke about the novel, it’s obvious she has a lot of love and reverence for Natasha. She truly seems to understand the character, especially in terms of how she thinks.
What’s most fascinating is how much research Stohl did while writing the novel. She not only read every single comic issue that Black Widow has appeared in (both the good and the not so good), but she also read up on firearms and Russian espionage.
In terms of introducing Ava Orlova (Red Widow) into the canon, Stohl did it in order to give the YA audience someone to relate to, someone to embody as we’re introduced to Natasha’s life and history. Plus, as Stohl put it, seeing Natasha as a role model and mentor is strange! It’s not something you’d expect out of her, so seeing Nat in that position provides a lot of opportunity for character development.
When it comes to the parts that Margaret Stohl loved writing the most in Black Widow: Forever Red, she had a blast with all the Tony Stark puns she included. She also enjoyed writing in Avengers cameos. In fact, there was a large amount of Avengers cameos and banter cut from the manuscript. (Let’s just hope some of that makes it into the sequel!)
Related: All the ladies: Female-fronted comic book recommendations
So much Marvel love
As you can imagine, these Women of Marvel have a lot of love for the Marvel properties and each other.
If she had the opportunity, Bennett would love to write America Chavez (who she wrote for a hot second in A-Force). She loves America’s spirit and the fact that she’s totally unique. Bennett also threw out the idea of writing The Winter Soldier. She would love to explore his relationship with Natasha and title her first volume, “Bucky Bucky Bucky Bucky Rockin’ Everywhere” (which is an amazing title that needs to happen).
Bennett, as well as the other Women of Marvel, has also given quite a bit of thought as to who she thinks would be the best Marvel girlfriend to hang out with. Mystique would be Bennett’s pick, just because there are so many shenanigans that the two of them could get up to and, well, because she has some darkness to her.
Stohl would pick Kamala Khan because of her bubbly-ness (and because she’s totally obsessed with Ms. Marvel at the moment). She’d love to take Kamala out and just hang out with her. Plus, if she hangs with Kamala, maybe Captain Marvel would drop by…
Cink’s choice would be none other than Spider-Woman herself, Jessica Drew. She loves how real and honest Jessica is. Plus, Jessica Drew’s interactions with Natasha are some of her favorite things.
As you can probably tell, the Women of Marvel really know (and love) their Marvel ladies. Not only that, but they’re always excited to interact with other Marvel fans, too. During the event, Stohl mentioned that she loves seeing Kamala Khan cosplayers at conventions. Cink built upon that notion, saying that cosplay sends a huge message to Marvel about trends and character popularity, so the more we cosplay Marvel women, the more we’ll see of them. (We all should just cosplay Ms. Marvel so we get all of the Ms. Marvel things.)
Closing thoughts
The Women of Marvel book event was just a big love fest. You could tell all three women loved being in each other’s company and talking about their experiences. Though they haven’t spent all that much time together, Margaret Stohl, Marguerite Bennett, and Lorraine Cink have such great chemistry that just a few moments in their presence make you wish you had friends like them.
These ladies really understand how great of a relationship they have. “Whenever we have one of these panels,” Cink reflected, “somebody always says something that’s really insightful and touching to you as a human being and a comic fan and a female human.” (I can safely say that there were quite a few moments like this during their panel and they were wonderful.)
“The main point of this tour is that we love each other and it’s super fun,” explained Stohl. “It’s fun to do Women of Marvel panels and it’s fun to hang out with women who read comics and kick ass.” I couldn’t have said it any better. My night with the Women of Marvel was one of the best nights I’ve had in a long, long time.
Though I’m sure they were joking around when, at one point, all three ladies personally welcomed me into the inner Women of Marvel circle, just being in the presence of these women meant the world to me. Even just the thought that I could be in the Women of Marvel circle for a fleeting moment made me feel valuable and so thankful.
That’s what the Women of Marvel do. This is who they are and I’m so happy that they were able to bring their influence and positivity on tour around the country. It was an experience I’ll never forget. These women deserve all of the happiness and success in the world. If you haven’t checked out their work, I highly suggest that you do.
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