Kamala Khan: Ms. Marvel Appreciation 2021

[Force de Phenix]

As a Muslim fan I thought Kamala being Inhuman was a good way to parallel her upbringing without being on the nose about it.

You could do it with X-men but not as well. X-men reminded me of school while Attilan was my masjid and community.

Although I get why you wouldn't want a Muslim character referring to themselves as Inhuman.

I think it's interesting how inhumans are a race and some members of that race follow rituals, have a language and culture, and even have a "country" that they can go to, but can choose to follow their own path if they choose to do so, like Ms. Marvel and other inhumans did.

It's like a parallel to what children of foreign born parents might feel when thinking about religion and their ethnic heritage. Especially being a new more visible minority that people once ignored, but suddenly realize for their own reasons be it positive or negative. Which is what inhumans were seen as. A foreign other that didn't belong in the world despite them always being a part of it.

[Drops Of Venus]

I think we're way overdue for a proper examination of Kamala's powers. Beyond that, this being a mini is just fine given how badly Kamala burned out. She doesn't need any ongoings anytime soon.

My concern is not her not getting an ongoing for creative reasons, but that she's not getting an ongoing at all because they don't think she's commercially fit for that anymore.

Look at similar characters who experienced a surge in sales during a specific time and had very long runs: Squirrel Girl and Jane Foster. Both were some of the most successful female Marvel characters to hold a solo in recent times, but after that initial success, they never returned to the same prominence again. Doreen basically vanished from comics (with the exception of stuff like Marvel Rising), and Jane got a new ongoing book that didn't last that long (much like Magnificent Ms. Marvel), and now she's basically demoted to minis. THAT is my fear for Kamala. I don't think this move is purely creative. I already had a suspicion that Magnificent had been cancelled (with the way it just abruptly ended even though Saladin was allowed to continue with his Spider-Man book), but seeing how long it took for them to relaunch and how they're not even betting on an ongoing anymore makes me think they are not as commercially confident on Kamala as before.

[maxhilary]

That does not Jedi hand wave the behavior we saw. That is a management issue.

It's not just a management issue, it trickled into the actual story. There were actual conflicts between the Inhumans and the mutants, so of course that would reflect onto the fans too.

There are X-Men fans who say stuff like, "the only good inhuman is a dead inhuman" when talking about Kamala. I don't get how defending people's hate is helping. "We hate you all, but we'll make an exception for just you."

If you've followed the anti-inhuman sentiment online for the past years, you'd see a lot that hate her for being inhuman, some because they want to like her, but they can't because they feel like it's contributing to anything Inhumans.

Well I'm obviously not talking about people who say they want all Inhumans dead. There are bad eggs in every group, that doesn't mean the whole group is like that. A lot of X-fans do dislike the Inhumans or still hold a grudge, but with that they're mostly indifferent to what the Inhumans are actually up to, we just don't care. And I don't see what's wrong with disliking a set of characters, particularly ones who were placed to replace other one at a point in time. It's not like actual story reasons didn't contribute to that animosity.

I don't see much hate for Kamala being an Inhuman at all, sorry. Most people like her just fine, and the negative reactions to her are largely from the anti-SJW/gaters crowd, always has been.

It feels a bit like Kamala's identity as an Inhuman is being given more importance than it actually has. Her being an Inhuman is nowhere near the most important aspect to her, and as time went on it became less and less relevant. She's an Inhuman, sure, but that doesn't mean she should be used in this strange continuation of Inhumans vs X-men animosity, when she largely operates as her own entity, like how Deadpool is a mutant but does his own thing. As an X-men fan I'm definitely not going to be gatekept from liking and appreciating Kamala just because she's an Inhuman. Those of us who like her aren't waiting around for her to suddenly become a mutant, I'd rather she doesn't get retconned as one either.

[Force de Phenix]

It's not just a management issue, it trickled into the actual story. There were actual conflicts between the Inhumans and the mutants, so of course that would reflect onto the fans too.

Well I'm obviously not talking about people who say they want all Inhumans dead. There are bad eggs in every group, that doesn't mean the whole group is like that. A lot of X-fans do dislike the Inhumans or still hold a grudge, but with that they're mostly indifferent to what the Inhumans are actually up to, we just don't care. And I don't see what's wrong with disliking a set of characters, particularly ones who were placed to replace other one at a point in time. It's not like actual story reasons didn't contribute to that animosity.

I don't see much hate for Kamala being an Inhuman at all, sorry. Most people like her just fine, and the negative reactions to her are largely from the anti-SJW/gaters crowd, always has been.

It feels a bit like Kamala's identity as an Inhuman is being given more importance than it actually has. Her being an Inhuman is nowhere near the most important aspect to her, and as time went on it became less and less relevant. She's an Inhuman, sure, but that doesn't mean she should be used in this strange continuation of Inhumans vs X-men animosity, when she largely operates as her own entity, like how Deadpool is a mutant but does his own thing. As an X-men fan I'm definitely not going to be gatekept from liking and appreciating Kamala just because she's an Inhuman. Those of us who like her aren't waiting around for her to suddenly become a mutant, I'd rather she doesn't get retconned as one either.

But it is an important part of her identity. It's how she got her powers. That's like saying Peter Parkers spider bite isn't important. He has been developed and is more than just a bite, but it's a part of his character's story. Just because they don't talk about the origin of Kamala's powers every chance they get doesn't make it less important or irrelevant, and doesn't downplay every other aspect of her.

Inhumans fans don't have the hate and animosity of X-Men fans because they're usually fans of the X-Men and know how not to hate fictional characters for creepy nonsense reasons, basically like the anti-SJW/gaters crowd. It was just a management issue that these people can direct at the editors, not the actual characters. It's childish, pathetic, and is a disservice to the comic book community to have hate (not dislike).

And any reasonable person knew they weren't going to cancel the X-Men, like the ones that knew Odinson and Tony Stark were coming back at some point, but that was the era of Marvel where people tried to fear monger and incite hate towards everything with the narrative of "shoving down our throats." And sorry, she was hated for many things and people piled the inhuman aspect on her. I'm not going to deny that real world misogynists and bigots aren't the majority of it and that it's more disgusting.

[CosmiComic]

An earlier comment (sorry I don't remember who) pointed out Kamala may not have become as popular if she was a mutant. I wonder it that's true.

[Vegeta]

An earlier comment (sorry I don't remember who) pointed out Kamala may not have become as popular if she was a mutant. I wonder it that's true.

Depends on the approach. If she had her own solo title as a mutant it probably wouldn't effect her popularity, if she was introduced in an X-Men team book she would probably be background wallpaper by now. A lot of her popularity is due to the heavy media push, which always focuses on her status as a part of the Muslim community and rarely touches on her Inhuman background.

Personally, I would have liked it if she had her own individual origin like Spider-man or the Hulk. (Transformed by some random accident) as the Inhuman guest appearances were always some of the weakest issues (imo). I think the Kamala has a lot of potential as this generation`s "Spider-man" as she has a very strong supporting cast of characters that are NOT just "fellow Avengers" (Nakia, Zoe,Bruno, her parents, etc.) as well as dealing with a actual personal life and the issues that pertain to that. Honestly, she really just needs a decent "rogues gallery" and some more heavier hitting plot lines.

[CosmiComic]

Depends on the approach. If she had her own solo title as a mutant it probably wouldn't effect her popularity, if she was introduced in an X-Men team book she would probably be background wallpaper by now. A lot of her popularity is due to the heavy media push, which always focuses on her status as a part of the Muslim community and rarely touches on her Inhuman background.

Personally, I would have liked it if she had her own individual origin like Spider-man or the Hulk. (Transformed by some random accident) as the Inhuman guest appearances were always some of the weakest issues (imo). I think the Kamala has a lot of potential as this generation`s "Spider-man" as she has a very strong supporting cast of characters that are NOT just "fellow Avengers" (Nakia, Zoe,Bruno, her parents, etc.) as well as dealing with a actual personal life and the issues that pertain to that. Honestly, she really just needs a decent "rogues gallery" and some more heavier hitting plot lines.

But would she have gotten the solo push if she was a mutant?

I don't mind the Inhuman origin. There's only so many ways one can get superpowers. I also don't get the whole "rogues gallery" thing. I assumed she's not necessarily just about fighting villains as much as other heroes.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Honestly I'd say she has the most rogues out of the Champions or All New Avengers. Everybody else has about 1 or 2 if they are lucky.

Not even Sam and Jane have rogues built for them. They just bounce off Cap/Thor villians.

[CosmiComic]

That's kind of expected, isn't it?

[Vegeta]

Honestly I'd say she has the most rogues out of the Champions or All New Avengers. Everybody else has about 1 or 2 if they are lucky.

Not even Sam and Jane have rogues built for them. They just bounce off Cap/Thor villians.

None of the foes she fought really leave an impression though. The only ones that really come to mind are the parrot headed Inventor character and maybe Discord, as he is her friend ("frenemy?") Josh from school. Inventor comes off as too much of a silly joke character though.
Weirdly, I feel like the best villain battle was with loser turned Jersey big deal "Shocker." (If I remember correctly it was also the story that explained how Kamala's embiggen powers worked?)

[Vegeta]

But would she have gotten the solo push if she was a mutant?

Mosaic was also a solo Inhuman title and he didn't receive anything near the push Kamala got. So I don't know how being a mutant or not would affect it.

I don't mind the Inhuman origin. There's only so many ways one can get superpowers. I also don't get the whole "rogues gallery" thing. I assumed she's not necessarily just about fighting villains as much as other heroes.

Well, they say a hero is only as good as the villains they face. A hero running around only putting out fires or cleaning up after a hurricane isn't going to be as exciting on panel as Daredevil fighting Bullseye to the death or whatever.

[CosmiComic]

Mosaic was also a solo Inhuman title and he didn't receive anything near the push Kamala got. So I don't know how being a mutant or not would affect it.

Ok. I'm not sure how exactly Marvel chooses who gets pushed

Well, they say a hero is only as good as the villains they face. A hero running around only putting out fires or cleaning up after a hurricane isn't going to be as exciting on panel as Daredevil fighting Bullseye to the death or whatever.

If that were true, most of these heroes would have equally well known villains, yet they don't. And doing heroics outside of combat isn't inherently less exciting. It just depends on the character. Different media do it all time

[Tofali]

None of the foes she fought really leave an impression though. The only ones that really come to mind are the parrot headed Inventor character and maybe Discord, as he is her friend ("frenemy?") Josh from school. Inventor comes off as too much of a silly joke character though.
Weirdly, I feel like the best villain battle was with loser turned Jersey big deal "Shocker." (If I remember correctly it was also the story that explained how Kamala's embiggen powers worked?)

I beg to differ, most of her rogues gallery are well thought out characters that can stand the test of time. Even the new ones that were introduced in the recent run, Stormranger and Monopoly I can see them being reused multiple of times in the future.

[Force de Phenix]

A hero running around only putting out fires or cleaning up after a hurricane isn't going to be as exciting on panel as Daredevil fighting Bullseye to the death or whatever.

The problem Marvel currently has is that they're very hero focused and make a lot of villains heroes/anti-villains.

Knull is boring and they're trying to use Thanos as Marvel's answer to Joker. They should have created someone as memorable as her.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

None of the foes she fought really leave an impression though. The only ones that really come to mind are the parrot headed Inventor character and maybe Discord, as he is her friend ("frenemy?") Josh from school. Inventor comes off as too much of a silly joke character though.
Weirdly, I feel like the best villain battle was with loser turned Jersey big deal "Shocker." (If I remember correctly it was also the story that explained how Kamala's embiggen powers worked?)

True but most of the established characters took time to build and get better as characters. Kamala, her friends and her villians deserve the same treatment.