The Marvellous Mircale of Ms Marvel

In 2014, Marvel launched a new comic book series titled Ms Marvel, following the stories of a Pakistan Muslim Teenager growing up in America. The series quickly took off and has become one of the most popular comic books in circulation, and me being included as someone who loves this series and considers it too be one of the best there is and one of the most unique. Though I have to be honest, I am incredibly surprised by the success of Ms Marvel, nothing to do with the story or art, but the purpose behind her existance. Kamala was clearly invented as a way to expand public interest in reading comics, with the popularity of the Marvel films at an all time high and a lot of new demographics wanting to read comics, Kamala is one of many characters that were created or reimagined for the sake of mass appeal. Which in itself is not a bad thing, there are plenty of cases where that has lead to a lot of great things (Robin being the best example of that). What surprises me is the near universal positive reception Ms Marvel got from both newcomers and traditional comic book fans. Comic book fans, like a lot of fandoms, will jump down your throat and scream their heads off should the creators attempt to differentiate from the norm for the sake of mass appeal, just look at what happened when they made Thor a woman. But no one has complained about Ms Marvel being used as a marketing gimmick.

The reason why I think this is, is because even though she has the title of an already existing character, Kamala Khan and Carol Danvers could not be more different people, the Carol Danvers Ms Marvel was different in every way, from personality, to race, to super powers, to relationships. Also Kamala has very different themes and stories behind her character, a lot of focus is given on her culture, relationship with her family and religion, but never so much that it feels like they've overbearing you with these ideas, but enough to make them feel present but not so much it feels like a gimmick. Also it's not like they're replacing Carol Danvers, she's moved onto being Captain Marvel.

The reason why people complained about Jane Foster's Thor and Miles Morales's Spider-Man is because they were replacing the existing characters and fulfilling a very similar purpose to the originals. Over time they've become more accepted, if anything i'd say Miles Morales is even more popular than Peter Parker right now. But Kamala Khan was different enough that she was worthy of being her own character and is still relatable to audiences even if they don't identify in the same classes as she does.

-Danny