Marvel's re-creation of Ms. Marvel with the character Kamala Khan, a Jersey City high school kid and Pakistani Muslim, is a strong argument for why it is important to keep an eye on what the corporate behemoth is producing. At once timely -- exploring the Muslim experience in America at a moment in history when Wahhabi jihadists are destroying the Middle East -- and traditional -- the superhero as high-school nerd, e.g., Steve Ditko's The Amazing Spider-Man -- Ms. Marvel is everything a superhero comic should be. The credit goes to editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker, writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Adrian Alphona.
I realized on the train into work this past week that no superhero has been as strong and alone as the high school Peter Parker who Stan Lee and Steve Ditko brought to life in The Amazing Spider-Man #1 - #38, 1963 - 1966. More vulnerable than Superman, Batman and Captain America, Spider-Man nonetheless battled alone. All Peter Parker received from his peers was derision. Truly, the guy had a spine of stainless steel.
The new Ms. Marvel is not as edgy as the initial run of The Amazing Spider-Man. It is more whimsical. Kamala Khan is a NuHuman, part of the new crop of Inhumans that sprang up after the Terrigen Bomb was detonated releasing a cloud of Terrigen Mist that activated dormant Inhuman genes dispersed among the general population by the "Lost Tribes" of Inhumans.
In the 12 scans below Kamala goes to the mosque with a girlfriend and then tries to get a handle on her morphing powers while at high school.
The final scan is a flyer for an appearance that G. Willow Wilson made last month at my neighborhood comic shop. Sadly, wiped out from a weekend of training for an upcoming race, I stayed home and missed out on the event.
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