There’s nothing better than a night with the Women of Marvel spent discussing Black Widow: Forever Red and everything geeky.
Margaret Stohl has been traveling the country on a mini tour with some special guests for her fantastic new novel Black Widow: Forever Red, making a stop at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, Illinois, last Friday.
I’ve been waiting in anticipation for Margaret Stohl’s Black Widow: Forever Red for about a year now, so the fact that it’s finally here is so exciting!
Once I heard about the Forever Red/Women of Marvel book tour, I knew I had to make it to one of the stops. In addition to the tour being a promotion for Forever Red, it was also a chance to be in the presence of some of the fantastic ladies in the Women of Marvel club.
If you’ve never heard of the Women of Marvel, they’re essentially a panel of amazing women who “assemble to talk all things Marvel and more” on their podcast. They’re an empowering group of ladies who give great advice and insights into comics.
Accompanying Margaret Stohl at the Naperville event were Marguerite Bennett (author of Marvel’s A-Force and DC’s DC Bombshells) and Lorraine Cink (host and writer of Marvel’s “The Watcher”). While they were all there to talk Black Widow: Forever Red and other Marvel projects, they were also there to give advice and just level with attendees on how they got to where they are, as well as just geek out about things they love.
Basically, the event was the chance to sit and bask in their wonderfulness.
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On getting into comics
The night started off with a bit of an insight into how the ladies each got into comics. Their stories were quite surprising and different, to be honest.
Marguerite Bennett first fell in love with comics by watching Batman the Animated Series when she was about five years old. She loved it because it was different from other children’s media (which is generally sanitized and really bright in color). Every time she watched the show, she would think to herself, “Oh I’m watching a big kid cartoon. My parents wouldn’t want me doing this,” which obviously is a great motivator in itself!
From there, Bennett started diving into the world a bit more. Her first comic role models were not actually heroes (or heroines). She fell in love with Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy, the famous Gotham City sirens themselves! They had a big impact on her life in that they sparked her interest in villains and antiheroes (an interest which is evident in her social media handle, @EvilMarguerite).
Margaret Stohl had quite a different and unconventional start with comics. She started with video games. Stohl worked on Spider-Man and Fantastic 4 for Playstation 1. Working on these games drove her to read the whole line of books for the properties so that she was better able to create the games. While doing so, she read a lot of Mark Wade, which is kind of funny considering he’s now on the new Black Widow run.
On breaking into the industry and following your dreams
Bennett said it best when she said there’s no one right way to break into comics or follow your passion. She even went so far as to quote the legendary Stephen Sondheim by saying, “A moment will come, but opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.” Her advice? Work hard and don’t hesitate to jump on opportunities as they come.
Bennett’s no stranger to hard work. After she completed her undergrad, she worked three jobs while writing a novel. It’s because of her hard work ethic and humble beginnings that Lorraine Cink called her “The Oliver Twist of comics,” which made everyone at the event chuckle. (Mostly because it seems pretty accurate!)
As far as breaking into comics, Bennett’s novel ended up being her entire writing profile that she used to get into an MFA program at Sarah Lawrence where she studied under Scott Snyder, the head Batman writer. Bennett and Snyder remained friends after she no longer had him as a teacher because her writing intrigued him that much. So, he helped her get her foot in the door.
While Bennett had the help of Scott Snyder, Margaret Stohl had the help of her daughter’s teacher, Kami Garcia. No, really. The two of them met one day and came up with a great idea for a novel. When challenged by her daughter to actually finish something that she started, Stohl teamed up with Garcia and wrote Beautiful Creatures (which is now an international bestseller). From there, Stohl kept writing and pretty soon made it onto Marvel/Disney’s radar. It was her impressive body of work that landed her the opportunity to write a Black Widow novel.
In speaking about her journey, Stohl had two main lessons to teach: “Dreams do come true if you work your butt off,” and, “Embrace the inner suck.” Things worth achieving don’t come easy so you have to work for them (which includes getting sucky writing or storylines out of the way so you can get to the good stuff!).
Lorraine Cink had her work cut out for her as well when it came to getting a job with Marvel. Cink had always been a fan of geeky and nerdy things, so she and her friend started making fun YouTube videos about things they love. They ended up writing a super catchy tune called “Talk Nerdy to Me” (which you have to check out) and that’s what caught Marvel’s eye. As luck would have it, they just happened to have a job opening that was perfect for Cink.
Working for Marvel, Cink does a lot of live events and red carpets for Marvel.com, which means she’s constantly surrounded by Marvel and Hollywood’s finest. She has a pretty level head about it all, describing her job as, “[Getting] to be near famous people. They’re so shiny.” In addition to swanky Marvel events, Cink also hosts Marvel’s “The Watcher” and sometimes does on-screen promotions. In fact, the morning of the book event, Cink made an appearance on Access Hollywood on Marvel’s behalf!
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.
Want to get your hands on a free copy of Black Widow: Forever Red? Enter our giveaway! (Sorry, international friends! This giveaway is U.S. only.)