“Wow. Many Hero. Much Super. Such Girl”

After thirty years of domination by straight, white, adult and male fans, comics fandom is becoming a diverse hobby again. Thanks in part to the popularity of superhero comics on Tumblr and other female-dominated Internet fan spaces, female readers have recently emerged as a central constituency of superhero comics fandom. Marvel has sought to capitalize on this trend by producing comics that appeal to Internet-savvy female fans. Kamala Khan is notable because she self-identifies as a fan and participates in activities such as fanfic writing. This chapter explores the rhetorical strategies Ms. Marvel has used to court a largely female Internet fanbase, the subsequent backlash to these efforts, and what Ms. Marvel’s success implies about the future of superhero comics.

Interview with G. Willow Wilson

This interview with G. Willow Wilson explores Wilson’s perspective on Ms. Marvel as a diverse character—a diverse South Asian Muslim teen female character who happens to be a polymorph—in this historical political moment, as well as in the context of the history of comic books. Wilson and Mir also discuss comic book markets, shifts in readerships, and the future of comic books. The character and story of Ms. Marvel as a Muslim American teen help readers reflect on contemporary public political discourse.

More than a Mask, Burkini, and Tights

This chapter explores how the intersections of Kamala Khan’s identity are presented in her appearance, and how Ms. Marvel’s costume visually contests misrepresentations of Muslim women. Through an examination of scholarship on fashion and aesthetic practices as political action, this chapter argues that the character of Ms. Marvel does important political work to shift public perceptions of Muslims and to display pride in Khan’s background as a Muslim, daughter of Pakistani immigrants, superhero, and nerdy teenager. The creators visually portray her as a character who seamlessly moves between various categories, allowing fans to connect to this multifaceted identity. This chapter focuses on the transformation of Ms. Marvel’s costume as these changes connect to Khan’s larger identity issues. Furthermore, the chapter addresses how fans have engaged with the image of Ms. Marvel through online artwork, creating and wearing Ms. Marvel cosplay outfits, and using Ms. Marvel’s image to counter hate.

Classroom Heroes

This chapter explores the use of comics as pedagogical tools in interdisciplinary courses such as Gender Studies and Ethnic Studies. Specifically, the chapter investigates the ways in which the superhero comic Ms. Marvel is an important example of feminist and anti-racist pedagogy for these courses. By framing the textual analysis of the comic through gender and critical race theorists such as Sara Ahmed and Shireen Roshanravan, the chapter demonstrates the ways in which Kamala Khan, the protagonist, grapples with villains and difficulties that reflect the societal issues of sexism, racism, and Islamophobia. Kamala Khan’s battle against injustice resonates with many readers’ everyday experiences, and disrupts both genre-based and hegemonic structures of oppression and heroism. By teaching Ms. Marvel through the lens of gender studies and critical ethnic studies, this text enables students to gain a new perspective on race, justice, and “terror,” which allows them to be more just, empathetic learners.

“The Only Nerdy Pakistani-American-Slash-Inhuman in the Entire Universe”

As a Muslim Pakistani-American whose parents are immigrants, Kamala Khan occupies a neither/nor position familiar in both American “mulatto” literature and in postcolonial immigrant literature, wherein the mixed-race character is frequently marginalized, alienated, and Other. She is one of many examples in contemporary superhero comics both of an increased attention to the representation of people of color, and of a potentially ahistorical/apolitical postracialism. Ms. Marvel’s metaphorical mixed-racedness serves to place her in the vicinity of the postracial or in the lineage of the “multicultural” which preceded it, a vision of the world (or at least the nation) wherein race no longer has political significance, but is instead merely a signifier of multiculturalism. The political facts of being a Muslim and/or South Asian in America, and particularly in Jersey City, are either underplayed or ignored throughout Khan’s first Ms. Marvel series.

Mentoring Ms. Marvel

In Marvel’s 2014 Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan presented an intersectional symbol of female heroism. Referencing the original 1977 character (Carol Danvers), Khan’s portrayal as a Muslim-American teen from New Jersey represented key contrasts to the blonde New York super-heroine, despite the fact that she initially takes on Danvers’ form. Khan eventually encounters Danvers, who serves as a mentor to the teen superhero. The relationship would define both characters, finally providing Danvers with the opportunity to explore her own compromised feminism. This chapter reviews the troubled history of Danvers and documents the turns to redirect her narrative. The chapter analyzes both Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel as feminist icons Marvel desperately needs to engage growing female audiences for comics. Kamala Khan’s narrative reframes Danvers as an icon worthy of respect through the millennial gaze, and the intergenerational exchange between the two characters serves to promote both for millennial consumers.