Welcome to 'Asked & Answered with the Women of Marvel'

What’s on your desert island mix tape?

What item would you save from a burning building?

What’s your most vivid childhood memory?

When I was a kid, a couple times a year I’d visit my grandparents in southern Illinois during school breaks. My clearest memories are of family dinners with all of my Greek cousins (I’m talking the size of a small wedding), of my grandpa Zip sneaking me Kit-Kats and Cokes for breakfast, and of spreading out on the carpeted living room floor with my grandparents’ collection of Vanity Fair magazines to read the Proust Questionnaire.

Based on the French writer Marcel Proust’s answers to a Victorian “confession album”—a parlor game where players are asked personal, deep or funny questions—the VF questionnaire was like the sophisticated aunt to the frothy pre-teen quizzes I more regularly devoured in the pages of Sassy magazine. I loved getting a glimpse into the minds of artists, writers, and performers I admired, being introduced to politicians and athletes I hadn’t previously known, and imagining my own responses to the questions that I would undoubtedly be asked myself one day (still waiting on that invite, VF). The questions weren’t about a biography or resume so much as they elicited a world view, a take on life. Of course, as a child of the '90s, I also grew up being taught that there was a direct correlation between what I ordered at the diner for breakfast and my career goals. So I’ve found myself asking people versions of these confession album questions for years now. I mean, what better way to get to know someone than to ask whether they’re more Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune, and on what occasion would they lie?

Last January, when Sana Amanat and I were on a (pre-Covid) road trip, talking about the 10th anniversary of the Women of Marvel panels, I said something along the lines of, “You know what we should do? A series of fun, rapid-fire Q&As with a bunch of different women who work at Marvel.” To which Sana replied, “Yes! Pass the snacks.” (Or something like that.) 

Thus was born Asked & Answered with the Women of Marvel. Every two weeks, we’ll highlight a different Woman of Marvel by asking her anything from "What’s the best advice you’ve gotten," to "When humans live on Mars, what one food must we bring?" From writers to artists to actors, directors, stunt-women, gamers, accountants—the list goes on—there are so many amazing women doing so many different, fascinating things in this big old Marvel Universe. What better way to invite the next generation of WoMs to go higher, further, faster than to peek behind-the-scenes with the ones who are doing it right now?

So when you mark your calendar for each new episode of the Women of Marvel podcast, set your alarm for Asked & Answered, too. We’ll be showing up right here in cyberspace every other Friday starting today!

Come to find out what gets Maurene Goo up at 3am, and whether Rainbow Rowell likes it salty or sweet. Stay to pose the questions to yourself, because who knows? You might just be the next woman of Marvel.

Read the first Asked & Answered with Marvel Studios' WandaVision head writer Jac Schaeffer here!

MacKenzie Cadenhead is a children’s book author and an old school (Read: former) Marvel editor — not old-old but let’s just say she knew Gwen Stacy when she was dead. She co-authors the "Marvel Super-Hero Adventures" chapter book series for young readers and is a proud Woman of Marvel. You can see what she’s up to over at Instagram @mackenziecadenhead.