The Marvels

Reflections

Hello there! This part contains my reflections, thoughts, and some details about the story. None of which is necessary, unless you really like me and wish to hear my ramblings :)

Warning: there are spoilers ahead! Please do not continue unless you have finished the book!

Let's start with conception. The character of Vidya Khan was created on Jan. 3rd, 2019, for Project Super's collaborative universe. That's why it's set in LA; if you've read my other work, you know I tend to set things in the northeast since that's what I know best, but Project Super's universe was west-coast centered, so I chose LA and just decided to keep it. I only wrote one paragraph before scrapping the idea, and all I had figured out was that Vidya Khan had missed the train, had to walk home, got thrown off an overpass, and discovered she could fly. There was no plot, no cryokinesis, no side characters. The story wasn't supposed to have a team at all--just one girl figuring out her own way.

I revisited the idea in August 2019, the reason being my college move-in night. I had never played Mafia before, so I was simply observing a game, and since I had my eyes open at all times, I knew who the mafia, the detective, and the nurse were. To my horror, when it came time to vote someone off, everyone was voting for the detective, who was frantically trying to prove his innocence. Do you have any idea how it feels to root for someone and watch as they vote them off, losing the game to the mafia? Feels rough, man, and that's what I wanted to recreate, and that's why I revisited the story. It was all always meant to lead up to the Vidya-Juggernaut-David standoff, in which you're not entirely sure who the immediate bad guy is, and you get this sick feeling in your stomach when everything goes wrong. At least, that's what I was going for. I hope I succeeded, or at least pulled a decent twist!

Do you know what my biggest problem was with the murder plot? The victims' names. You don't know how infuriating it is to have to come up with a new superhero name every time someone had to die. Fairy was an absolute joke, and I even used 'cheesebag' as a placeholder for Eagle Eye when drafting that chapter.

Also, you're free to imagine the characters however you wish, but if you were curious about my intentions: Vidya is South Asian; Echo is Black; Juggernaut, Lady Marvel, and Phase are White; and Flamethrower is Latina.

About Vidya's name: Vidya is a typically Hindu name, while Khan is a typically Muslim name. Vidya is fully South Asian race-wise but is of mixed religious background. Her mother's family is a mix of Christians and Hindus, while her father's family is of Muslim heritage. Speaking of her father, who I don't mention once in the book, he died when she was three. 

Now, the characters. I wish I could've done more with Echo, but I just didn't know what. Lady Marvel was my favorite point of view. You'd think that I, as someone who was in high school not so long ago, would find Vidya's voice easier. Writing the 34-year old woman was more fun, but I'm sure that when I'm actually 34 and go back and read this writing, I'll cringe.

Phase was supposed to play a much, much bigger part, but I cut it out because honestly, it would've made things more complicated (and I will not be telling you what that part is, because I forgot most of it and it no longer makes sense :). Also, for a very short while I was considering killing one of the Marvels because that would be the worst that could happen in terms of the super-killer succeeding, and had I gone with that plan, Phase would've been the one to die. It would've been fitting for the world: the kindest, actually heroic one is the one who dies.

Aisha, on the other hand, was always planned to die abruptly. She was the catalyst for Vidya losing her mind (along with Phase, if that had gone through). Although, there was maybe a single hour in the middle of a night when I considered making both Aisha and David the bad guys, in which Aisha would've eventually felt bad for Vidya, so she cut off from David and faked her death in an overly-complicated way that would still include Juggernaut so she could slip away. Obviously, I didn't go with that, and instead tried to make Aisha the best superhero friend Vidya had, before lasering her in half :)

Note, added 11/10/23: I'm aware there's a Marvel movie called The Marvels. In case you were wondering, I didn't name this book after the movie, and I wrote/published this book with this title (in April 2020) before the movie's title was announced (it was announced May 2021). I swear I wasn't trying to mislead anyone into thinking this was related to the movie or Kamala Khan's story. I also apologize if you initially thought this was Marvel fanfiction, because I've noticed a lot of people adding this book to their fanfic lists and then removing them lol.

Now, this is for readers who have read any of my other books: how does The Marvels compare?

Annnd that's all from me. Thanks again for reading <3