Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview – today I’m chatting to Alisa Kwitney about her new Marvel prose novel Rogue: Untouched, which is part of Aconyte Books’ ever-growing Marvel: Heroines range. Tackling a modern origin story for a well-known and much-loved X-Men character, this is a fun and fresh comic book adaptation that nicely hits that YA/adult crossover sweet spot. It comes out as a global ebook and US paperback on the 4th May 2021, followed by a UK paperback edition on the 22nd July, so read on to find out more about it!
Without further ado, let’s get straight on with the interview.
Track of Words: To start off, how would you describe your new novel Rogue: Untouched?
AK: Sookie Stackhouse Dead Until Dark meets X-Men: First Class. In other words, it’s a fresh take on Rogue’s origin that imagines her as a nineteen-year old diner waitress with a reputation for putting her last boyfriend in a coma. She’s not aware of her powers yet, and she dreams of getting out of her small town and enrolling in Tulane. Then two people walk into her diner and change her life. One is a Dolly Partonesque businesswoman who claims she is looking for promising young interns for her program. The other is a sweet-talking gambler hiding more than just the eerie red color of his eyes.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters in the book and what do we need to know about them?
AK: Oh, man, this is difficult. Well, the main characters are Rogue and Gambit, obviously. If you are an X-Men fan, there are a lot of other familiar faces, but I think part of the pleasure is stumbling into them. You know how it is the first time you saw the movie Bridesmaids and discovered that Jon Hamm was in it, even though he wasn’t credited or shown in the trailers? I want readers to have that experience. And I wrote this story so you can jump in without needing to know anything about anybody.
ToW: How much of a fan of Marvel’s mutant characters were you before you wrote this book?
AK: I was a fan back in my college days, when I started reading Chris Claremont’s stories. I was reading a lot of X-Men in the 80’s and 90’s, and also Alpha Flight and the New Mutants. When I started working as an assistant editor at DC, we got Marvel as well as DC titles, and when I had the time, I read the X-Men titles.
ToW: What appeals to you about the X-Men, and Rogue in particular, as characters to write about?
AK: The X-Men are superheroes whose virtues are their vices. That is to say, there is often something in their personalities or in the nature of their powers that is both an asset and vulnerability. Rogue (before she gets some of her issues worked out) is a perfect example of that. I discovered Rogue when I was just out of high school, and she seemed to embody so much of my adolescent female angst. Cyclops was clearly a male adolescent fear: Watch out or I may hurt you with the power surging uncontrollably out of me! Rogue was a more nuanced dilemma: If I touch you, I gain power, but I risk losing myself.
ToW: You set this in the present day – what prompted you to make that choice for Rogue’s origin story, and how did it affect the story you chose to tell?
AK: I wanted this to be an inviting place for a new reader to jump in. I didn’t think too much about the choice to set it in the present, until the pandemic hit and all of a sudden the real present didn’t resemble the present I was writing about. Then the book became a wonderful escape from all the weirdness of the pandemic present.
ToW: As a popular character, I imagine there’s been a lot already written about Rogue in terms of her past, her powers, her relationships with other mutants, and so on. How did you go about deciding which of the established elements to keep, which to adjust and what to just create from scratch?
AK: Some of Rogue’s origins I knew, and I had the idea for meeting Rogue back in her small town, just at the moment when she discovers who and what she really is. I felt that she would have a vague sense that she was wrong and different, and that the knowledge of her real nature would transform her understanding of herself. So I picked the elements of her comics origin that I could fit into that arc, and tweaked things so that it made for a more coherent narrative. As comics fans know, I completely backdated her initial meeting with Gambit, but when you look at where they both were from, it seems clear that they could have met earlier. Their paths could have crossed when they were both still in the south. So I crossed them.
As for what I created from scratch…I tried to use established characters whenever I could. But I realized that one cool thing about the X-Men is they have a wheelchair user, Professor X. I couldn’t shoehorn him in, and it seemed to me that maybe he didn’t have to be the only cool mutant who uses a wheelchair. The X-Men have always had stories that revolve around the treatment of minorities, which may be why the Marvel mutant teams were more diverse than most superhero teams.
ToW: You’ve written and edited lots of comics, and written prose novels in your own worlds – is this your first prose novel for a world like Marvel? How have you found it?
AK: I also wrote The New Avengers: Breakout, which was loosely based on Brian Bendis’ fantastic story arc in the comics. It’s fun playing with these characters – almost like getting to make your own movie. The hardest part is writing a detailed outline for approval, and then sticking to it. I didn’t do that well on that side of things, and had to get retroactive approval for adding a major character I hadn’t gotten approved.
ToW: What do you hope readers will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?
AK: I suppose I’d like for readers to get the satisfaction I’ve always gotten from my favorite superhero reads. The movies emphasize the spectacle of the fights. I love being in the head of a character who is neck-deep in trouble but able to think fast on her feet. Movies can give you special effects, but prose can put you more deeply into the skin of another person.
ToW: Do you have more Rogue stories planned in future?
AK: I definitely have more Rogue ideas, but I’m not yet sure where they will fit into my writing schedule.
ToW: Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on with Aconyte for future release, or anything else you’ve got in the pipeline?
AK: Right now, I’m working with one of my favorite artists, Alain Mauricet, on a creator owned humorous mini-series for AHOY comics. I’m also starting a Sandman podcast with my friend, story expert Lani Diane Rich. We’ll be reading the Sandman comics to start and then, once the Netflix series begins, we’ll be comparing and contrasting the comics to the TV show.
ToW: Lastly, if you could have one mutant power what would you choose?
AK: Practically speaking, I’d choose rapid healing factor, like Wolverine, as long as it didn’t come with rapid facial and body hair regrowth. For sheer fun, though, I’d go for prehensile hair, like Medusa.
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Alisa Kwitney was an editor at DC Comics/Vertigo and is the Eisner-nominated author of graphic novels, romantic women’s fiction and urban fantasy. She was one of the authors of A Flight of Angels, which made YALSA’s Top Ten List for Great Graphic Novels for Teens, and the YA graphic novel Token, named a highlight of the Minx imprint by PW. Alisa has an MFA from Columbia University. Her thesis, Till the Fat Lady Sings, a comedy of manners about college and eating disorders, made The New York Times’ new and noteworthy in paperback list.
Check out Alisa’s website for more information!
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Huge thanks to Alisa for taking the time to talk to me for this interview, for giving such great answers and insight into Rogue: Untouched. I can confirm that it’s a really entertaining read – check out my review here.
See also: all of the other Marvel-related interviews and reviews on Track of Words.
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