I’m a newbie to the Captain Marvel universe (if not the Marvel universe) but I had been intrigued by the description of Ms. Marvel—a Pakistani-American girl acquiring super powers and was curious to see how it played out. I was not disappointed.
Kamala Khan is a typical American girl, living in Jersey City, reading superhero fan fic, and feeling the pull of two cultures—her immigrant parents with their high expectations and strict rules and the teenage world of boys and parties and what she sees as “normal.” However, normal is going to become a distant memory for Kamala. One night, she sneaks out of the house to go to a party but not only is the party a total disaster but when Kamala leaves, she gets caught in a mysterious mist. Kamala has a vision involving Captain Marvel, Iron Man, and Captain America where she spills out her teenage identity angst and when Captain Marvel asks her, “Who do you want to be?” Kamala replies, “I want to be you.”
Kamala gets her wish but with a twist and ends the encounter with an interesting set of powers she isn’t even sure about the limits of. She can change form, change size, and has super strength but she keeps slipping in and out of a form that looks like Captain Marvel—all blonde hair, tight costume, and high-heeled boots. Kamala can barely believe it but in one of my favorite moments, thinks, “But it was real, wasn’t it? Right down to the horrifying realization that super hero costumes don’t include underwear.” Yes. It’s in her blonde form that Kamala saves the life of the resident high school mean girl, Zoe, and now Kamala really has to keep her secret identity secret. Needless to say, Kamala’s already complicated life is about to get even more fragmented. She needs to figure out her powers, an appropriate costume, and still get her homework done. Luckily, she has her friend, Bruno, to help.
One of my favorite quotes after the Supreme Court decision last month was, “Now we can just call it marriage.” and I thought about that line as I read this. As I understand it, Kamala is the first Muslim-American superhero but maybe someday soon, after more and more diverse reboots, we can get to a point were we can simply call them superheroes. This is a good start.
