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Mighty Marvelites Soon See Spidey Shopping

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by Vince Brusio

Holidays are associated with traditional imagery that involves everything from snowflake designs, to snowmen, to shopping signs that tout ten percent off everything when the big day has passed into history. The question is what imagery can you call to mind that might be familiar to the kids outside of schools closed and the big fat guy in the red and white snow suit? Well, there are some people over at the House of Ideas that thought tinkering with tinsel time might be in order, so they came up with the concept of Marvel's Super Hero Adventures: Deck The Malls SC. Here in this PREVIEWSworld Exclusive interview with writers MacKenzie Cadenhead and Sean Ryan we learn that new novelties are soon to be in store for Mighty Marvelites.

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Vince Brusio: As kids, some of us can remember the excitement of getting the latest edition of the Sears catalog. We’d grab it from our parents hands as fast as we could, so we could flip to the back where we’d find the toys section, and then we would circle all of the things we wanted as gifts for the holidays. That excitement was contagious because it was so entrenched in the mood of the holidays. Do you see that kind of electricity striking sparks in Marvel's Super Hero Adventures: Deck The Malls SC? Stories so entrenched in the theme of holidays that it makes people anticipate the next wave of fun as soon as the current festivities have passed?

MacKenzie Cadenhead: Sean and I are huge fans of the holidays (no Grinches here!), so we were thrilled to launch the Marvel Super Hero Adventures series with a holiday themed story. But the holidays are just the backdrop for the action-packed adventure we’ve written for Marvel’s youngest fans. I have three little kids and Sean is the favorite uncle to his young nieces and nephews. While there's a lot of great content for slightly older children, we felt like we wanted more for the early reader set. We hope this series becomes the go-to for comic fans who want to share their love of Marvel with the littlest mighty Marvelites in their lives.

Sean Ryan: We're hoping that folks will love Deck the Malls and stay with the series. The second book we're doing in this series is set to come out in the spring, and it features Spider-Man fighting alongside the always lovable, Squirrel Girl. They find themselves having to protect a Central Park playground from Sandman. That was a blast to write, and I think I still have sand in my shoes from doing the research!

Vince Brusio: Can you give us some details about the characters featured in this book, and what their plights may be in between trying to make time for carols, cocktails, and cups of hot cocoa?

Sean Ryan: The main character of the book, and for the whole series is everyone's favorite wall-crawler, Spider-Man. He's doing some holiday shopping with his Aunt May. He's a little too focused though on the presents he wants to get for Christmas. It takes an attack from the villain in the book, Venom, to snap Peter out of it. As for Venom, he's very focused on getting Spider-Man. Christmas cheer is the last thing on his mid. Helping Spider-Man defeat Venom is Spider-Gwen! She sees Peter in the mall and wants to shop with him, but Peter is too focused on himself at the beginning of the story. It's not until later in the story, when they work together as super heroes that Peter sees the error in his ways.

Vince Brusio: The title of the book alone focuses on the shopping excitement that goes hand-in-hand with the holidays. With that focus in mind, what can you tell us about the format of the book? Will it be bookshelf-friendly? Will it be something that can be universally appreciated, meaning, people who may not necessarily be regular comics readers will nonetheless be attracted to it because of its content?

MacKenzie Cadenhead: We’ve always seen these books as combining the best elements of comic books and chapter books, and so they can be seen as a primer for both. There is dynamic full-color art on every page, cliffhangers to end each chapter, alliteration and word play, action and adventure. Though the books themselves are prose, the spirit is decidedly that serialized, visual storytelling of comic books. We’ve even included a single page comic at the end of each book. Our hope is that this series offers an entry point to the Marvel Universe for younger readers who will then become life-long comic book fans with their own weekly pull lists!

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