Marvel Entertainment have announced they’re partnering with children’s publishing giant Scholastic to release a series of middle-grade original graphic novels. According to Marvel’s website, this new line will focus on many of the company’s younger heroes, with the first release being “Miles Morales: Shock Waves” in Spring 2021. OGNs starring Shuri and Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel are slated to follow.
Each of these releases are to be helmed by acclaimed YA authors and comic creators, with “Shock Waves” being written by recent bestselling novelist Justin A. Reynolds, and illustrated by Pablo Leon. Reynolds’s debut The Opposite of Always was declared Best Book by The School Library Journal in 2019, and his second novel Early Departures will be available in stores this September. Leon’s three-part miniseries “The Journey” was nominated for a Best Digital Comic Eisner last April.
Other creators announced for the line include Nadia Shammas, writing the Kamala Khan book, and Roseanne A. Brown, handling Shuri. Shammas is a Toronto-based comic writer, best known for “CORPUS: A Comic Anthology of Bodily Ailments.” Brown’s debut novel A Song of Wraiths and Ruin became a New York Times bestseller after its release last month.
This announcement comes after the success of Shuri: A Black Panther Novel, a prose book released jointly by Marvel and Scholastic, written by Dear Martin and Clean Getaway author Nic Stone. The two publishers plan to continue releasing prose alongside their OGN releases, with Avengers Assembly: Orientation by Preeti Chhibber releasing this August. “The first books in our collaboration with Marvel have been enthusiastically received by critics and readers alike,” Michael Petranek, Executive Editor and Manager of Scholastic’s Graphix Media imprint, told Marvel’s website. “We are thrilled to bring fans of these amazing characters more stories to enjoy.”
