Kamala Khan, Just Another Hero

Originally posted on Facebook

First of all I want to thank everyone who has come to Facebook to read this post. The website is still temporarily down after the malware attack and we are doing our best to get it back online. Never-the-less, after being a guest on BBC’s World Have Your Say earlier today, I wanted to touch briefly on the topic of Kamala Khan, Marvel Comic’s new Ms. Marvel.

Kamala Khan is to be the star of 2014′s new Ms. Marvel comic series from Marvel Comics. She actually first appeared this Wednesday in a short teaser at the end of Captain Marvel #17, but no true details were expressed in this single page beyond the fact that this girl is a fan of the current Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers. Yet, despite little being published by Marvel about the character, Kamala has received world wide press coverage this week. This is because the new character is to be a 16 year old, teenage girl that happens to be Muslim and the daughter of Pakistani immigrants to America. I would like to think that we’re in a world of equality, where such details of race and religion don’t matter, but that is not a current reality. Kamala is getting press, not because she is a new superhero, because she is a Muslim female in American comic books.

First off, as the old saying goes, all press is good press. Anything that might bring a few new readers to the world of comics should be considered good. The idea that a new Ms. Marvel title is getting major press over 3 months before the title is released certainly makes me happy. But this press comes somewhat jaded with a few groups looking frightfully at the title and its protagonist. I’ve seen many forum comments, and even heard voices on today’s radio program, expressing disdain or hesitance to check out Kamala’s story due to her religious and ethnic background. In fact, the BBC Radio show entitled the segment I took part in ‘Do We Need A Muslim Cartoon Superhero?’ So, do we need one? Certainly not, as we don’t need any new comic characters. But would it be nice to have one? I believe the answer to that would be the same if the new comic character was Catholic, Atheist, African, or Russian. The real question is whether or not Kamala will be a new and innovative character deserving of her own book.

Kamala Khan is not the first Muslim superhero. We’ve had Middle Eastern and Islamic characters for some time now, and recently even had a Muslim Green Lantern. This also isn’t Marvel’s first Female Muslim character, with Dust playing a great role in showing diversity and where people’s foolish prejudices lie in various X-Men comics. But this isn’t even Marvel’s first female, Muslim superhero of Pakistani descent. That honor goes to Faiza Hussain, a character created by Paul Cornell in 2008 that wielded Excalibur under the command of Captain Britain and the MI13. This is not new ground Marvel treads on, but they’re just as at fault for making it seem that way with their style of marketing to the mass media. It falls in with the recent advertising and marketing strategies applied since Marvel Now, and does work to catch big headlines and the attention of those who might not normally read comics.

But perhaps that says something wonderful about comic fans. Few truly ever complained about Dust or Faiza Hussain because they snuck into comics under the radar and without big Fox News or New York Times coverage. Comic fans accepted these characters and didn’t feel the need to fear or hate them. Why should Kamala be different?

Ms. Marvel, and therefore Kamala, will be written by veteran comic scribe and talented author, G. Willow Wilson. Wilson is a Muslim convert who had previously written several Middle Eastern characters quite wonderfully, both in comics and prose. She has worked on titles like Marvel’s Crossgen re-imagining, Mystic, and the Vertigo series Air. One of my favourites was her original graphic novel, Cairo. Wilson has proven she can write both young women and people of Islamic faith & Middle Eastern ancestry. I personally believe she will make this a tale about Kamala, a young teenager with super powers that happens to be a Pakistani Muslim, and not the tale of Kamala, the Pakistani Muslim that happens to have super powers. Why do I feel this way? It’s not just because that is what almost all of the descriptions of the series and character have stated, nor is it because Wilson has a good history writing on these topics. Sure, both of those statements are true, but I believe this because I’m relatively certain Marvel is aware that a soap box comic will not last. Sure, sales might start out great based on press, but Ms. Marvel would never make it past issue #7 if it became a preachy argument for or against Muslims living in America. For the comic to sell and be enjoyed by many, it must have a strong character and good story. Will Kamala’s faith and ethnicity effect her story? I’d certainly hope so. But to what degree? I say it is best we wait until Ms. Marvel #1 hits stores in February before we judge. I say this because you cannot judge a book by its cover, nor by its simple synopsis. You can’t judge a character or human simply by their religious values or ethnicity either. So let’s all go pick up Ms. Marvel #1 next year and judge it by just how well Kamala is written by G. Willow Wilson and drawn by Adrian Alphona, because pre-judging things is just a foolish way to miss out on something that could be truly amazing.