Vita Ayala was born into the kind of magical cultural diversity that can only exist in New York City. New York was and still is a city full of people, full of colorful stories, and thankfully for Ayala's fans, full of convenience stores with spinner racks of comics that graced almost every city block. Ayala initially gravitated towards Marvel when they first laid eyes on a comic book with Storm and Bishop on one of those spinner racks. Like so many fans, Ayala saw in these two prominent characters of color a representation that would invest them in not only that book, but the Marvel Universe as a whole. Perhaps that belonging -- and their love of comics -- is why Ayala eventually found themself working in a place surrounded by stories, a local comic book store. Ayala, who has always had a love for writing, is a self-proclaimed compulsive writer eking out every day, hour, and minute they can to put pen to paper; even before they found the courage to publish or pitch them. They credit the final push to friendship and being encouraged to finally pitch their writing by Punisher writer Matthew Rosenberg. This week, Angélique sat down with Ayala to talk about the power of representation, the perspective that different writers can bring to our favorite characters, their new book MORBIUS coming out in November of this year, and why they believe that Klingons are Space Puerto Ricans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices