We were lucky enough to catch up with Gabby Rivera, first Latina Writer for
MARVEL Comics. After writing her breakout novel,
Juliet Takes A Breath, Marvel reached out to her and asked her to build the backstory for the queer, latina, America Chavez over twelve issues released in two trades -
The Life and Times of America Chavez and
Fast and Fuertona.
Gabby spoke at length for the better part of two hours about her time working for MARVEL, her new series for BOOM, and her journey to get to where she is today. A lot of that we will be covering over the next few days in several articles, but since we had time to ask her a few questions of our own, we wanted to share those first!
CBM: I know you said that you don't make any decisions at MARVEL, but do you know anything about the rumors that America is going to be getting her own live action series on Disney+?
Gabby Rivera:
What?! You know more than me! (Laughs) Wow! Yes, I hope they use this crazy ass story I wrote! Because I didn't tell yall but she has like a luchador buff ass Grandma and I want her on a cartoon.
CBM: (Laughs) Yeah, it's a rumor that she might be in the Young Avengers.
Gabby Rivera:
So like I said, I don't know anything about a live-action America Chavez - that is all MARVEL. If you are a fan, you should let MARVEL know that whatever you want from them - that has nothing to do with me. That would be so cool if they made a live action series.
CBM: For your new series for BOOM, B.B. Free, is that going to be a limited series or is that going to be an ongoing title?
Gabby Rivera:
With B.B. Free for BOOM, that's gonna be an ongoing series. They're gonna do books of four because I think that's what they did for Lumberjanes. And Lumberjanes is incredible, whether you have kids or queers, or whatever it is - it's a beautiful story. Yeah, no I'm writing that now and right now I have an outline for twelve issues of B.B. Free and as long as we can get those twelve I'm super happy.
CBM: When you were a kid, who was your favorite hero?
Gabby Rivera:
Definitely my Grandpa, hands down.
CBM: Same here! What about any superheroes?
Gabby Rivera:
I never understood why but I really liked Rogue as a kid. I was a big fan of how she could take everybody's powers.
CBM: It definitely gave the writers a lot to work with, but I'm a Kitty Pryde fan myself. Were you surprised to learn you were the first Latina writer at MARVEL?
Gabby Rivera:
Well, kind of. I think that there have been Latino people who have written for them before but I happen to be the first Latina or Latinx, but yeah, it was a big deal!
CBM: If you could write another character for MARVEL Comics, who would you choose? Gabby Rivera: That's easy - I'd write a solo title about America's Luchador Grandmother, Madrimar.
Have you read
The Life and Times of America Chavez yet? Be sure to check it out!