Afro-Latino writer David Betancourt grew up in a family of comic book readers. After his father, a Marvel fan, introduced him to comics as a youngster, he became intrigued by them.
Betancourt, who now writes for The Washington Post, got to live out a dream. He is the author of the new Marvel book, The Avengers Assembled: The Origin Story of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
In an interview with NBC News, Betancourt revealed his Marvel origin story. He was on a Zoom call with several authors to write a story based on a new Star Wars
publishing initiative. That call also included Lucasfilm creative director Michael Siglain.“I think he realized that I wasn’t just a writer covering Star Wars, but that I was somebody who was into it, who spoke the language. After the story came out, he reached out to me and said that he had spoken to some people who were looking for someone to write an Avengers novel and that I might be a good candidate for them,” Betancourt said.
He was excited to get this opportunity.
“It floored me because I had never written a book before,” Betancourt said. “I had written a comic book, but writing a 22-page comic book and a 300-page book are completely different worlds. I remember being very excited but also thinking, ‘Can I do it?’ So I took it as a challenge; there was no way I was going to say no.”
The book is about the history of “the greatest superhero team of all time” which includes the back story of the characters.
One of the hardest things to figure out in writing the book, Betancourt said, was what exactly to include.
“There’s 60 years of comics materials, not even counting the movies. We had to think what era we were going to be focusing on because the (Avengers) team is constantly evolving,” he said. “Marvel said it wanted an origin story and I said, ‘Then it has to be the original team and that was the original one that came out in 1963.’ That word ‘origin’ helped me narrow down what to focus on, so we took it back to the very beginning.”
The author is realizing a dream that he hopes other Black kids can also accomplish. He advises aspiring writers to write their own stories because they will never know where it will take them.
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