Margaret Stohl talked to The Fandom about the badass ladies, comic favorites, and worldwide action in BLACK WIDOW: RED VENGEANCE!
The Fandom had the pleasure of chatting with Margaret Stohl and a few fellow fansites about her latest Marvel YA novel, Black Widow: Red Vengeance, which is out today!
Red Vengeance is the sequel to Black Widow: Forever Red, which introduced the world to Ava Orlova aka Red Widow, another young survivor of the Red Room who developed stellar powers of her own. When she and Natasha are caught up in their old teacher’s quest for power, they travel the world and sacrifice everything to take him down.
But before that first book could be written, Margaret Stohl had to survive her first visit to the Marvel offices. “I was a hysterical wreck,” the author said. “Meanwhile, they’re like, ‘Pull yourself together, man, you’re one of us now,’ and I was like, ‘No, this is not possible.'”
The sequel shows Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow teaming up with Ava once again in the wake of their devastating loss, but Ava is trained, becoming a hero in her own right, and ready for revenge in ways that not even Natasha is expecting.
Without giving too much away, the story follows Ava’s move from Natasha’s mentee to an individual, powerful force. It was something Stohl enjoyed immensely!
“Really, Ava needs space to grow into the hero she is, and she needs to be able to see herself differently than how Natasha necessarily sees her … You have to be able to topple your heroes to keep your place in the world. So it’s been a really interesting character arc to play with.”
While they’re globetrotting through places like New York and Brazil, they certainly won’t be alone. There will be beloved comic and cinematic characters that will give an extra girl-power punch and Tony Stark is back in full bravado! Margaret Stohl joked that Marvel had to cut “about 70 pages” of her Tony Stark banter, saying “I can’t not make terrible Tony Stark jokes. It’s sort of my alter ego.”
Still, Ava and Natasha are the stars of this show, with a thirst for resolution and some mad fencing skills. “I love the idea of putting a blade in a girl’s hand and teaching them to be fierce. It’s a thing that we don’t often get in the way we raise our daughters,” said the author, whose own teen daughters have competed in fencing internationally.
Physical skills aside, Stohl, who jokingly described herself as a “human doormat”, says these characters have got the attitude heroes require.
“I would want their steely resolve and their general badass business, as well as their ability to take no shit ever from anyone.”
Creating a new character and a new storyline under the enthusiastic scrutiny of Marvel fans– about as loud and unforgiving as a fandom can be– can be “daunting”, according to the author, but that’s where true passion for these stories comes into play.
“I often say both Marvel and Disney are very good at finding the right spirit-partner for all of these franchises. It is actually so daunting that nobody should take these jobs if they don’t have a passionate conviction or love for those characters … These things matter intensely to me, that mattered to me growing up, that mattered to many of my teen readers and also to my teen kids, so it’s an honor.”
Black Widow: Red Vengeance is out today. You can order it now via Amazon.
Or, if you haven’t read Black Widow: Forever Red yet, it’s only 99c via Amazon!
Want to take your shot at winning the book? Check out our contest below courtesy of Marvel Press!
You can also follow Margaret Stohl via her: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Website
