This is, like any creative business, a very tough business to break into. Thanks to social media and the fact that our community seems smaller and closer knit than something like film, it sometimes seems like it should be pretty easy to do, but it’s not. You have to do good work and keep doing it everyday. You have to work to make connections and you have to prove yourself over and over again. The overnight success idea is a myth in any business, including ours. People who break through “overnight” work for years on building relationships and creating/putting out good consistent work. Sure, a little luck and good timing is key too, but the only way to not fail at this thing (at any thing I suppose) is to keep doing it until the answer is yes. I’m sorry there are no magic beans or something. I wish someone would ask me that question and I could just hand them adorable magic beans and go “Yes, actually, use these! They rock!”
“I know we are all disappointed about the lack of a Black Widow film. Would it have been awesome to see Captain Marvel and Black Widow films announced? Totally. But I wasn’t expecting it. Feige has said on multiple occasions that, because Black Widow has been such an integral part of other films, she wouldn’t be the first woman to get her own stand-alone film. Is that total garbage? Sure! But Black Widow has still gotten some pretty kick-ass screen time; and, ultimately, isn’t it better to have two awesome female superheroes populating the Marvel universe instead of leaving Widow as the Token Lady? And this time, it’ll be a woman with actual superpowers (no offense, Nat).
It’s also worth mentioning that Black Widow, like Wonder Woman, would have been the safe choice here. Everyone knows Wonder Woman; her box office success is practically guaranteed. Black Widow is incredibly popular and well-established in the MCU; you can be sure she would have generated a good theater turn-out. But Captain Marvel is a complete unknown to most people; she’s only had her own stand-alone comic title for about two years, and she’s never been mentioned in any of the Marvel Entertainment properties. By taking a chance on Captain Marvel, Marvel is saying they believe in the power of a female superhero movie to stand on its own; they don’t need the, “Remember? You love Scarlett Johansson in black leather, guys!” audience for a lady movie to be successful. They’re going the Guardians of the Galaxy route and telling the world that an unknown female superhero is no more risky than Doctor Strange or Ant-Man. And I love that.”
[The rise of the Carol Corps] is amazing and I am tremendously grateful to have been present for it. I get emotional talking to these girls and women who say how much Captain Marvel means to them and that it’s inspired them. It’s very important to me that the Carol Corps not be identified strongly with me, though. Because as important as Carol Danvers is to me, I don’t own Carol and I will not be writing her forever. I would love it if the Carol Corps continued to exist outside of my personality. The friendships that I see forming from this group remind me so much of the friendships I formed on the Warren Ellis Forum. As much as it was about Ellis, it was also a community separate from him and those are my friends and colleagues today, fifteen years later. I hope that the Carol Corps surpasses my tenure on the book and that the friendships I see forming there surpass my own.