Thursday, March 31, 2016

Discussion: DC Superheros are Officially Getting YA Books

I'm not really one for discussions, but this announcement from the publishing company Random House Books released today really caught my attention, and I felt like it was only fair to let you guys know that this is officially a thing!

DC superheros are getting their own YA novels! You can read the announcement here. The breakdown is that 4 authors are going to each write a YA novel featuring the individual story of Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, and Catwoman. And these authors are authors the YA world is more than familiar with...

Leigh Bardugo, author of the Grisha series, will be writing the first book, of Wonder Woman. This is a going to be a completely new direction from her high fantasy series. Alina and Kaz's personalities seem very different from what I imagine Wonder Woman's is, so it's going to be interesting to see what Bardugo does with it.

Marie Lu, author of the Legend series and The Young Elites, is slated to write the second novel, the one about Batman. Given the dark and disturbing atmosphere in The Young Elites, I think Lu will be fine writing about someone who lives in shadows, but I don't think the portrayal of Bruce Wayne will be anything like I've ever seen her do. Fingers crossed!

Following, we have Matt de la Peña, author of The Living series and a few other individual YA standalones. I personally have never heard of this author before, so I can't say much about his writing style and whether he'll do justice to writing about Superman. But I have hope and faith in him.

And finally, we have the one and only Sarah J. Maas, a celebrity in the YA world with her Throne of Glass series and A Court of Thorns and Roses series. You'd have to be living under a rock to not know about her, because her works are amazing. She's to write the novel with Catwoman, and though I can sort of see her doing it, it's going to be a huge jump from her rich fantasies we're all used to reading about. But it's a great way for her to expand her writing genre, after all!

The trend I'm seeing her is that the authors (apart from Matt de la Peña) all have written a high fantasy series, with great amounts of success. I have no idea how they're going to do in a contemporary/modern day setting, but the superheroes part sort of works with fantasy aspects of their writing, so I'm not overly concerned about that. I know that these authors are more than capable of stringing together an unforgettable story, because all their works have left our hearts in shreds at one point or another.

My main concern? Die-hard DC comic book fans. I have nothing against them; in fact, I'm a pretty big Marvel movie fan myself. But I know without a doubt that once these books come out, there will be comparisons of the books to the original movies and comics left and right. And because these are adaptations, there will be differences in the books, like dialogue or character arcs. It's the opposite of when a book becomes a movie--now it's a graphic novel turned movie becoming a book, but I feel slightly hesitant on this. To me, it's going to be one of those hate it/love it series, because we're bringing in a whole new range of people into the YA world. I just don't want Bardugo or Lu or Maas to de la Peña's names or other works to be discredited because of this, in the event this series doesn't work.


All in all, I'm a bit on the fence about this idea. It's kind of the same feeling I get when I heard a book is going to be turned into a movie, because it can either be the next best thing, or the next opportunity to unfairly undermine the YA genre. 


What are your opinions? Am I the only one who feels this way? Do you feel like the publishing company is milking the superhero industry? Will this be the new golden era of YA? Is it a good idea to mix die-hard comic book fans with the YA fandom? Which of these authors is going to absolutely nail it? Yay or nay? Let me know!

12 comments:

  1. God, what is with all the remakes lately??? All I keep seeing from movies and TV shows are sequels and remakes and rehashes or books being made into movies or comic books being made into movies and now comic books being made into books??? I swear, nobody has any more imagination. It's really quite sad, actually. Even Pixar, notable for making original movies, seem to be bringing out sequels in the next few years!

    I know what you mean about those authors names being discredited; I can see so many vloggers posting vids about their reactions to this or people not giving the books a chance because of who the authors are. To be honest, I don't care too much about Marvel, I wouldn't be going to see every movie or anything, but I do feel that Marvel vs YA are two different fandoms. It'd be weird to mix them. Plus, I feel YA is a very female-oriented fanbase, and a lot of guys love Marvel, so would they be turned off by reading a YA book as they think it's only for girls? I don't know, only my thoughts.

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    1. I know! I've never heard of comic books being made into novels. In essence, it sounds like a legit idea, but is it actually? This will be the first, and it might either be an epic success or a complete fail. You're right, the YA fandom is mostly female-orientated, so bringing in a large die-hard male base fandom might be...interesting? I don't know many males who read YA literature, so it might be difficult for them to read it or praise it... I'm just concerned about males discrediting the authors, and spreading bad word about them even when they haven't read their other works...

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  2. I almost see a similarity between Celaena Sardothien and Catwoman. OMG THE SIMILARITY IS REALLY THERE HOlY HELL!

    I kind of compare this with all the adaptations of comic books and graphic novels into tv shows. Some are good but then some are just terrible. I am actually really excited for this because I love the authors and they pretty much have the world of YA in the palm of their hands. Excited for this and thanks for sharing :D

    Alex @ The Book's Buzz

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    1. This is definitely a new kind of adaptation! I've never heard of a comic book becoming a novel before, let alone on such a big scale! I agree with you, this is either going to be absolutely amazing or terrible. Fingers crossed that it will be amazing! Just think of the possibilities if this series does amazingly well! It could change everything and redeem YA's name in the media! :)

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  3. I was confused when some people marked those superheroes book as to-read on Goodreads, but the author is the well-known ya author. Thank you for explaining it! I dislike this idea. I mean, they already have comics and countless reboots, why do they need to write books about superheroes? I would rather those 4 authors released something new and original rather than remakes.

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    1. Agreed. This is such a strange concept, and I'm not quite sure what's going to happen. What I'm most afraid is that these authors are going to get some bad attention, and I don't want to see that happen, and for it to affect their future works. :(

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  4. Wait, whoa, what? All of these popular YA authors are writing about DC characters? Uh-oh= my opinion. As a die-hard superhero fan ( both Marvel and DC ), I'm not sure this is the best option, like you said. I think there are enough remakes about these characters and seems like just a play for money. I've been hesitant to pick up the Black Widow YA novel that went about the book community a few months ago just because I'm afraid it would tarnish what I thought about either the original character or the idea of superhero books in general. And what about comic books? Are people just going to ignore comic books, where the characters are already featured in a story with the bonus of pictures? But I have to admit, I'm a little curious as to Sarah J. Maas and her pick of Catwoman. That has potential, most likely. Thank you for bringing this to my attention! I really loved this discussion. :)

    -Megan, Books of Fascination

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    1. Oh, I've seen the Black Widow YA novel! Like you, I'm hesitant to read it, because I'm afraid it might ruin my image of Black Widow. But as on the fence as I am, I feel like I'm still probably going to read them (especially the SJM one!) just because I love the authors so much and want to support them in all the works they do. But as for the rest of the world...

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  5. I absolutely love anything related to superheroes. Comics, movie, tv shows -- you name it! So I'm actually really excited about this. I love Sarah & Leigh's books and liked Marie Lu's well enough. I haven't read anything by Matt de la Peña, but I'm dying to read his book, Mexican Whiteboy, & I've heard so many good things about his works so I'm super pumped to read all these. :D But I definitely see where you're coming from..I would hate for these amazing authors to get a bad rep. This is definitely a risky thing so I'm hoping it works.

    Loved this discussion!

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    1. I'm a big fan of superhero stuff too! I'm excited for these book, and I'll probably check out Matt de la Pena since I've never heard of him. Fingers crossed it's good!

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  6. I'm interested to see how this pans out.

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    1. Me too! I'm going wish for the best but also prepare for the worst...

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