Ms. Marvel

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Context

Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) is part of Marvel Comics’ efforts to draw the interest of a broader readership. Those stepped up during the 2010s.

Ms. Marvel was particularly successful, especially in digital sales.

She is a nerdy girl from New Jersey and a huge Avengers fan (particularly Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers)) with body-morphingImpossibly shifting into another form powers.

Kamala struggles to reconcile her everyday teenage life with her need to be a heroine, and against a sense of isolation caused by being a Muslim in America.

This profile includes S P O I L E R S.

Background

Pronunciation note

It’s Ka MA la (كمالة).

This Arabic word resembles the Indian given name Kamala (कमल), usually pronounced KUM-Uh-La, but it’s a coincidence.

Powers & Abilities

Kamala is somewhat obsessive about computer games (especially MMORPGs) and super-hero lore (especially the Avengers).

She has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the latter, down to the sort of trivial minutia that is normally the hallmark of a writeups.org or marvunapp.com  researcher.

That’s about the extent of her skills. She’s otherwise a sheltered girl with an ordinary life.

New Jersey got talent

She is smart and a superb, straight-A student. But unlike with many fictional depictions of nerds she’s not abnormally intelligent or technologically gifted. Howbeit, Kamala has a knack for applying high-school-level physics to her superheroic activities.

She’s also fluent in Urdu  (mostly because her mother prefers to speak Urdu to her daughter). As a consequence she can more or less communicate in Hindi (and sing along most Bollywood musicals).

Her most notable quality is probably her altruistic bravery, which comes naturally to her.

On the other hand she’s a mediocre liar, due to lack of practice.

With Bruno, testing her powers.

Inhuman power

Ms. Marvel is one of the New Inhumans (often infelicitously shortened to “NuHumans”). These are Humans with distant Inhuman ancestry.

These genes are not normally remarkable. But they will react to the Terrigen Mist and mutate their bearer. This happened worldwide in 2014.

Kamala seems to be one of the most powerful and versatile New Inhumans. Since the “condition” is hereditary, relatives of her were also activated by the Mist. That includes her cousin Kamran and, in a way, her brother Aamir.

Ms. Marvel can compress, expand and reshape her body. This is not unlike Mister Fantastic crossed with Giant Man.

Inhuman power — main practical applications

Modest attire

Ms. Marvel’s costume was modified to stretch along with her. This is done with a “biokinetic polymer” that is presumably derived from Reed Richards’ unstable molecules.

Even ordinary clothing will enlarge and shrink with her. Presumably, Kamala emits a tiny cloud of Pym particles when she uses her powers. But doing that requires some concentration, unlike with her stretchy costume.

Ms. Marvel also has a good smartphone with an extended data plan, usually kept in her boot. She is highly proficient with it. It regularly plays a role in her adventures, mostly to provide her with information.

Soundtrack

The invaluable Imogen Heap released an album during this span. And one of the songs (in collaboration with the Vishal-Shekhar duo) is partially in Hindi so eh, it’s a reasonably good fit.

History

Kamala Khan’s parents are from Karachi, Pakistan.

Her father managed to emigrate to the US to make a better life for his family. He found a stable job as a bank employee in New Jersey.

Though his wife remained wary of their new country, they had a son – Aamir. The birth did not go well. It was obvious that a new pregnancy would be too dangerous.

Kamala thus happened accidentally. But the childbirth — 5 years after Aamir’s — went fine. Relieved, her father called her “Kamala” ( كمال ). This is an Arabic word for “perfection” rather than a common Pakistani girl name.

(Incidentally this means that her name follow the alliterative tradition of the likes of Peter Parker, Reed Richards or Bruce Banner. It also follows the popular fiction tradition of characters with ludicrously fitting names. Since to the *exceedingly* literal-minded “Kamala Khan” can translate as “princess of great integrity”).

Kamala grew up as an ordinary, if somewhat isolated, Jersey upper working class girl.

Inhumanity to man

In 2014, the 16-year old Kamala sneaked out of her house to attend a student party on the shore. It didn’t go well as idiots made fun of her religion’s prohibition against alcohol.

She sulked off. But before she could get too far, she found herself lost in a strange mist.

The destruction of Attilan had released banks of Terrigen mist worldwide. Like a non-trivial number of Humans, Kamala had distant Inhuman ancestry. This heritage was nigh-undetectable, but enough for the Terrigen mist to mutate her.

(The matter of Inhuman ancestry among Humans is one of the subjects discussed in our previously-linked articles about the Inhumans).

We could be heroes

After hallucinating an encounter with her heroes (Captain Marvel, Iron Man (Tony Stark) and Captain America (Steve Rogers)), a confused Kamala discovered that she had body-altering powers.

She morphed herself into a facsimile of 1980s Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers). With the black leotard and thigh-high boots costume.

Ms. Khan promptly rescued one of the high school’s mean blondes – whom her drunk boyfriend had accidentally pushed into the water.

Kamala then fled and regained control over her body.

Ms. Marvel the younger

With her passion for super-heroes and determination to serve the greater good, Kamala Khan quickly found her footing as the newbie Ms. Marvel. She :

Doggo

Wolverine realised that the new Ms. Marvel was unknowingly an Inhuman. He warned Queen Medusalith Amaquelin of the Inhumans. Recovering and protecting emerging Inhumans was a high priority of hers, and Khan clearly was a strong potential.

Thus, Medusa dispatched her faithful Lockjaw to watch over Ms. Marvel. Not realizing Lockjaw’s nature, Kamala adopted it as a (rather huge) pet.

Later, Ms. Marvel was nearly killed battling a giant robot sent by the Inventor against her high school. Lockjaw and Medusa had her evacuated to New Attilan for emergency care.

However, Kamala decided to return to Jersey immediately. She saw it as her personal responsibility to rescue other youths kidnapped by the Inventor.

Earliest version of her costume.

Supporting cast

Kamala’s non-heroic life plays an important role in the comic. There are clear parallels between Ms. Marvel and the early Spider-Man run. Though the slice of life/soap opera aspect is much more modern thanks to decades of television refining the concept.

Abbu

Abbu (Urdu for “dad”) is a mustachioed and mightily-paunched gentleman of considerable stature.

He’s a loving and caring father. But he’s also conservative and wants his daughter to be a proper Muslim girl.

Ammi

Ammi (Urdu for “mom”) is a small, skinny hausfrauA woman who runs a household full-time. She was feeling more comfortable in Pakistan than in the US, and often still speaks in Urdu (though she’s comfortably fluent in English).

She’s a worrier, fears the influence of Shaytan  behind everything, and is convinced that all sorts of terrible things will befall her children. Apparently this is a result of the awful conditions and terrorism in Pakistan back when the Khans lived there.

Aamir

Aamir is Kamala’s big brother.

In recent years he grew enamoured with the aesthetics of salafi Islam  . He now dresses like a preacher man and spends much time praying, and studying the Book and hadithsAdditional Muslim traditions that aren’t in the Koran.. Which makes his parents grumpy since they’d rather see him get a job.

Aamir is protective of his kid sister — but not overprotective like Abu and Ammi Khan. He’s also more serious and perceptive than most people realize.

Nakia

Nakia Bahadir (aka “Kiki” though she hates it) is Kamala’s best friend and one of the few Muslim girls of her age in the area.

She’s Turkish American, and much taller and less nerdy than Kamala (neither being difficult).

She has an aura of aloof, pragmatic cool – and Left-wing views.

Bruno

Bruno Carrelli is Kamala’s other childhood friend.

He’s a fellow nerd, and an aspiring biochemist. His high school science project, a “biokinetic polymer”, intended to help with his college application, makes fabrics much stretchier and was used for the Ms. Marvel costume.

Bruno is in love with Kamala, but of course he’s too shy to tell her and she’s clueless because it’s a teen drama.

His family came from Italy but two generations ago.

Bruno is one of the employees of the neighbourhood Circle Q small convenience store, where many of the Coles Academic students (Kamala and Bruno’s high school) get to-go coffee and food.

Abdullah

Sheik Abdullah is a minister at the local mosque (or rather masjid – same thing, but in Persian). Though Kamala was convinced he was an authoritarian ogre, he turned out to be supportive of her efforts to do good.

Now that she has major responsibilities, Ms. Marvel gained a better understanding of some of his teachings, which she previously considered to be boring and too abstract.

Description

Kamala is 16, but she’s petite and on the mousy side. So she’s often mistaken for being 14 or so.

One assumes that Kamala has a Jersey accent. But it’s not reflected in her speech bubbles, so it’s presumably not a heavy one.

Clothing

She wears normcore teen clothing. But her favourite jacket sports the large lightning bolt symbol that was on Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers)’s black leotard costume.

She also has a Ms. Marvel messenger bag, a Captain America sweater (looking like Cap’s costume), and presumably other classic Avengers-themed pieces of clothing.

During the biting Jersey winter she wears an ushanka. And often sports a brown leather flight jacket with an “X” arm patch (like the X-Men wore during the 1990s).

She doesn’t normally wear a headscarf, except of course for a minimal one when she goes to the mosque.

On the other hand her strict upbringing means she exposes very little skin. For instance for physical education classes she wears tights under her sports shorts.

Ms. Marvel

The Ms. Marvel costume is actually a modified burkini – an extremely conservative swimming suit. Though Kamala would die of embarrassment rather than wear it to swim, it made a surprisingly good base for her costume, with the addition of boots and the Ms. Marvel pectoral lightning bolt.

The Ms. Marvel red sash would look stupid on a burkini, so she wears a red light scarf instead – which also evokes Carol Danvers’ earliest costumes. It’s the same one she uses when going to the mosque.

As often in comics, the length of the scarf is highly variable depending upon what’s artistically pleasing in any given panel.

Ms. Marvel first wore her barely modified burkini along with a simple mask and a fanny pack. Then a more super-heroic customization of the burkini done with Bruno’s help and sporting the Ms. Marvel lightning bolt.

Personality

Kamala is a nice kid with an ordinary life, but who has trouble fitting in and always feels a smidgen off-kilter.

She sincerely loves her family, but also feels some resentment about her culture and religion always making her different, and getting in the way of her being one of the cool kids.

As a consequence, most of her preferred activities are online, where she can be pseudonymous as a gamer and fanfic writer.

She doesn’t have many friends IRL. And there’s no Pakistani American community in her corner of Jersey (most people at the masjid seem to be Turkish American or Iranian American).

She’s proud of being a Jersey girl, though.

White hat

With her education, Kamala has a strong moral core and sees helping people as a super-heroine as an almost holy mission. The surah at the beginning of this profile is her favourite, though it’s probably the only one she knows by heart.

She’s reluctant to use genuine violence, even against animals, and will do anything she can to save all lives.

Her people skills are all over the place, since she’s at once spontaneous and somewhat shy. She can be a wallflower one minute and take centre stage the next.

The second often occurs due to her determination to do the right thing. She’s a natural at standing up to help other people and act heroically.

Be all that you are

Kamala was always daydreaming that she was like Captain Marvel – tall, White, blonde, buxom, powerful, independent, respected. However, once she got her powers she quickly adapted to being very few of those things.

Soon, Kamala decided that she would be herself, not Carol Danvers. And grow into her role by herself, with her own values and her own outlook.

Though she *could* morph into being somebody else, Kamala recognises that the Ms. Marvel ethos is to do things your own way. And be yourself.

Ms. Khan is quite stubborn, and highly responsible. She’s never impolite or disrespectful about it, but even adults will quickly see that she cannot be pressured into renouncing her moral priorities.

Absolute beginners

She is also funny – though like a real-world teen nerd would be, rather than through comedian-style dialogue.

She’s a total beginner, but she’s enthusiastic about being a super-heroine and 100% committed to the job.

She finds the mask and power to be liberating. She is much louder, defiant and assertive as Ms. Marvel than she is as Kamala.

She likes being out there and taking action by herself and doing it her own way. When she’s being Ms. Marvel in her own way, she’s free, content and unafraid.

Ms. Marvel sees herself as the protector of Jersey City. She’s a local and one of the very few heroes on this shore of the river.

Quotes

(Imagining that she’s talking to Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers)) “I want to be beautiful and awesome and butt-kicking and less complicated. I want to be you.” (the notion that being Carol Danvers is “less complicated” is pretty funny — ed.).

(Trying to orient herself during her first super-combat) “Just like a boss fight in World of Warcraft… just like a boss fight in World of Warcraft…”

(Discovering her healing factor) “I’m hungry like I’ve never been hungry before. Ravenous. Starving. Seriously, I need a thesaurus.”

“Time to level up.”

“‘Good’ is not a thing you are. It’s a thing you do.”

“This is Jersey City. We talk loud, we walk fast, and we don’t take any disrespect. So don’t mess.”

“I don’t like hurting stuff. Even giant sewer alligators. I mean… is it possible to help people without hurting other people ? Or, you know… reptiles ?”

(Hurriedly changing from her Ms. Marvel suit to formal clothing) “Super-hero costume: +5 to Dexterity. [But] shalwar kameez: +5 to bling.”

(Doing the Kermit the Frog flail ) “You’re Wolverine !! My Wolverine-and-Storm-in-space fanfic was third-most upvoted story on Freaking Awesome last month !!” (lowers the squeeing a notch) “Wow. Such athletic. Very claws. So amaze  .”

(Facing a giant robot) “I’d say ‘come at me bro’ but I have a feeling you’re gonna do that anyway.”

Ms. Marvel (examining a weapon): “It’s the good plant-gun, too ! The animator Plant-Man used against Sub-Mariner, not the vege-ray he used on the Human Torch !”
Agent Coulson: “You’re mistaken. That’s the vege-ray.”
Ms. Marvel: “It’s not ! The vege-ray has a longer barrel ! This is the one the Maggia made for him !”

Continued…

This profile continues in Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) profile #2.

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