Marvel will reintroduce a classic superhero this week, and this time, she’s a Latina. The new White Tiger, named Ava Ayala, debuts Wednesday in a new comic in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
The star of “White Tiger: Reborn No. 1,” Ayala was written in part by award-winning Chicago horror novelist and poet Cynthia Pelayo and Daniel José Older, a YA fiction and fantasy writer.
The comic is a part of Marvel’s Voices: Comunidades initiative, celebrating Marvel’s first Latino superhero, and features a major revival of the original White Tiger, known as Hector Ayala. Ayala first appeared in the 1975 comic “Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, No. 19,” written by Bill Mantlo and illustrated by George Pérez.
Ava Ayala is his younger sister. After her brother Hector’s tragic death at the hands of police, Ava puts on the White Tiger mask and suit to carry out her sibling’s work of defending the defenseless.
“White Tiger: Reborn No. 1,” contains two stories. Older wrote the first, “Reborn,” while Pelayo wrote the second: “The Song of the Coquí.” The stories are illustrated by Bruno Abdias and Moisés Hidalgo, respectively.
“This character was very easy for me to write,” Pelayo said of Ava. “I write a lot about grief. I write a lot about violence. I write a lot about history. So it was really easy to put myself in her headspace … and [her] internal conflict and struggle.”
Pelayo said that her only issue is that now she wants to “write so much more” of Ava’s story. “It’s been an absolute dream come true to work with Marvel,” said the Hermosa resident.
In the comic book, Ava becomes the new bearer of three jade amulets, known as the Amulets of Power. They are tied to a highly contentious relationship with a fear deity known as the Tiger God.
The comic also confronts the grief that Ava and her estranged niece Angela Del Toro experience after losing Hector, all while trying to keep his legacy alive. (Fans of the White Tiger recently saw his character in the live-action Marvel Television series “Daredevil: Born Again,” portrayed by the late Kamar de los Reyes.)
Pelayo said she feels a deep connection to Ava’s character.
Born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Pelayo moved with her family to Chicago when she was two. She grew up in Hermosa with her two older brothers and parents.
She pitched a few different ideas to editor Lauren Amaro before they settled on “The Song of the Coquí.”
The coquí is a type of tiny frog native to Puerto Rico. There are 16 different species of the amphibians, with at least one of them endangered. They’re named after their distinct mating chirp: “CO-KEE, CO-KEE, CO-KEE.”
Earlier this year, a now-deleted post on Reddit went viral after tourists in Puerto Rico discussed ways to exterminate the coquí frogs — despite them being protected under both U.S. federal law and the Puerto Rico Wildlife Act.
Pelayo said that controversy informed her take on Ava.
“Many of us were absolutely horrified to hear that,” Pelayo said. “So I wanted to use that story and the importance of the coquí … I really wanted to do something that honored [Ava’s] family and her love and admiration of Hector and her heritage.”
Pelayo is also an alumni of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a former journalist and the author of more than a dozen horror-themed novels, short stories and poems. Many of her stories recast classic fairy tales or explore Chicago’s dark history.
She was also the first Puerto Rican writer to win a Bram Stoker Award in 2023 for “Crime Scene,” a poetry collection centered around a murder.
This is her busy season, Pelayo said. Halloween is just around the corner, and she’s juggling various deadlines. But next year, fans can expect two more books from her.
Her next novel, “It Came From Neverland,” is a continuation of the story of Peter Pan, and it’s set in 1915. It’s set to come out in June 2026.
And she’s also part of “Ghosts of Where We Are From,” an anthology featuring dark literary fiction from some of today’s best Latin American authors, including novelist Agustina Bazterrica and artist Leopoldo Goût. That book will debut on October 1, 2026.
Pelayo added that it’s a great time to be a creative from Chicago.
“I love the boom that we’re experiencing with arts and creativity,” she said. “There is something so heartwarming and collaborative about the Chicago artist community. Everyone just seems so excited to create and to help one another.”