The new Ms Marvel!

OK, I’ve been sitting on this one for a while, because I wanted to talk about it a bit, but not ruin it for anyone. I’ve decided it’s been long enough, if you haven’t read it by now, why are you waiting?

The new Ms. Marvel series debuted February 5, 2014 (even though the indicia says April, because Marvel likes to mess with our heads).  I love this standard cover.  I was sick the Wednesday it was released, and I ended up with one of the variant covers, which is pretty spiffy (costume design sketches, so I appreciate it a little extra).  But I still prefer this one.  Very simple, but it shows us a bit about our new heroine.  We get clues about her heritage, we get to see she has her own sense of style and design, and we know she’s a student.  And that’s just the first glance.

Anyway, onto the content.  The new Ms. Marvel isn’t quite Ms. Marvel yet.  We meet Kamala Khan in a convenience store in Jersey City (which, I’ll admit is weird.  I’ve always kind of wanted to see Marvel heroes live and work and fight crime outside of NYC, but Jersey isn’t what I had in mind.  I know, I’m a bit prejudiced against NJ).  She is with her friend Nakia, and another friend (we assume), Bruno.  We know Kamala’s family is from Pakistan (possibly Karachi, based on her conversation with a hallucination towards the end of the book), but she was born in America.  Nakia’s family is from Turkey, and they seem to want her to try to assimilate more.  We don’t know much about Bruno, but he does seem to care about Nakia and Kamala.

Kamala is still just a regular kid for most of this book.  Much of her introduction shows her dealing with the usual teen stuff of not fitting in, her parents not understanding her, etc.  There is the added struggle of identity.  Her family is Muslim and her parents are immigrants.  She wants to have their respect, and acknowledge her culture, but she also wants to go to health class, she writes Fan Fic about the Avengers, drools over bacon (but doesn’t eat it), and wants to make friends and go to parties, or in her words “be normal”.  Kamala sneaks out to a party, where she has a bit of a bad experience, and as she leaves, some weird fog rolls in.  As she’s walking in the fog, she begins to hallucinate Ms. Marvel, Captain America, and Iron Man.  They speak Urdu to her (I kind of wish at this point that Urdu was one of the languages I can figure out) and talk to her about her feelings, her struggle for identity, and her desire to be a superhero.  The book ends with her waking up/breaking out of something and looking like the old school Ms. Marvel, complete with blonde hair.

I’m really excited to see where this book goes.  We’re getting to see one of the youngest stand-alone superheroes (possibly the youngest now that Spider-Man Prime has grown up a bit.  How old is he currently, anyway?), and not only that, but this superhero is a girl, and from an immigrant family.  Following her through her trials and growth is going to be amazing.  And, we’re finally seeing a mainstream comic series aimed at teen girls!  This issue wasn’t one that I feel particularly attached to, but that’s mostly because it was just introducing us to our characters.  And at this point, I realize I haven’t mentioned Zoe Zimmer.  I already hate her.  Bruno refers to her as the “concern troll”, because she’s a micro-aggressive skinny white girl who thinly veils her racism and perceived superiority behind concern and “friendliness”.  I’d really like to slap her when we see her interactions with Bruno, Nakia, and Kamala.

I’ve gone on a bit of a ramble, but I hope my point is clear: this series is promising and exciting.  If you’ve been trapped under a rock and have only recently freed yourself, please proceed directly to your local comic shop and buy this book.  Meet our characters and get excited about it.  Then pre-order the next book and wait impatiently with me for the next one.