Brian Truitt

USA TODAY

Book will fill in the gaps in Emily Thorne%27s origin and show her making errors along the way

Erica Schultz co-writes the book with Ted Sullivan%2C a writer on the ABC series

The Marvel Comics graphic novel is out Sept. 3

Emily Thorne is bringing her TV soap opera to comic-book shops this fall.

The dangerous heroine at the heart of ABC's Revenge, played by Emily VanCamp, stars in the hardcover graphic novel Revenge: The Secret Origin of Emily Thorne, out Sept. 3 from Marvel Comics. The book is written by Erica Schultz and TV series scribes Ted Sullivan, Jesse Lasky and Wilson Pollock, with art by Vincenzo Balzano and Dustin Nguyen.

For three seasons, viewers have watched Emily Thorne take down various villains and bad sorts — physically, financially and everything in between — to avenge her murdered father, who was framed for treason when she was 9.

The graphic novel takes place years before she took the guise of a wealthy Hamptons socialite in the first Revenge episode, and the 19-year-old goes on her first mission in Switzerland after training under her Japanese sensei, Takeda.

"The parts of the history we're bursting to tell is the origin of the woman you see that shows up in the pilot, as differentiated from the girl who was thrown into (juvenile detention) when her dad was taken from her," says Revenge executive producer Sunil Nayar.

Emily is a master of cold, steely looks and finding ways to make people pay by using their own sins against them, yet she's still learning all of her moves and skills when she's pitted against an enemy with ties to those who ruined her and her family's lives.

"We're going to the beginning where when things don't fall into place, she has to think fast on her feet," Schultz says. "And she doesn't have the experience she has on the show, so there's going to be more mistakes and fumbles."

She adds that the Emily fans see on-screen is "the sum of all the lessons learned and beatings taken in this graphic novel."

Revenge watchers will see the first time she gave her "crocodile stare" and learned the power she could wield as a wig-wearing blond bombshell, according to Sullivan. The book also answers some important questions for fans, such as what made the girl who grew up as Amanda Clarke switch identities with her former cellmate and why she doesn't kill.

"There is a difference between Emily and a regular vigilante. She's not Charles Bronson — she doesn't put a bullet in someone's head," Sullivan says.

"She is a comic-book character. She has an identity — she's a rich person who poses as a socialite during the day and at night exacts vengeance. Because she is such a complicated character and has a lot of villains in her past, graphic novels are a really natural fit."

And it's not just "traditional fanboys" who read comics these days, Sullivan adds. "There's an often-underserved female audience out there, and Revenge, both as a graphic novel and TV show, can fill that void for a lot of fans looking for a kickass character."