Firstly, please just let this be a positive space. This is just a bit of light relief to mitigate the constant (and mostly earned) negativity on the boards of late. Being a bit snarky towards Wells' run is fine as long as it's on topic.
Kamala Khan is going to die in ASM #26*!
This baffling decision has inspired me to take a few minutes to see if I could think of something that could be salvaged from it. Just a bit of fun, which I like to do whenever something REALLY stupid happens in fiction I enjoy (that being Spider-Man and Ms Marvel in general, not this awful run) that I’m so blindsided I can only find it funny.
So, I invite anyone to spend a little time to throw in something that can somewhat redeem Kamala’s apparent death next issue. Something to get you to buy the issue or, more importantly, the following ones.
There’s no restrictions, other than ASM #1-25 have happened as is. If you want to chuck in your own ASM #20.Kamala extra issue to flesh things out that’s cool.
Also, there’s no need to be serious.
If you want to, say, have the entire cast of ASM turn out to have been clones since just before One More Day thus also wiping that from existence and you can do it in just one issue that also featured Kamala’s apparent death, then go nuts!
Be creative! Have fun!
Anyway, here’s my take:
I'd have it be Norman.
Everyone is fighting the Scribble Man (chuck in the Avengers, X-Men and, fuck it, the Justice League, too, as obviously he is the biggest and bestest villain ever) and Spidey has the battle drawn towards Oscorp as Peter discovers that Norman, behind his back, has continued working on the trans-dimensional tech he used previously in the arc (possibly drawing him back this time). The idea being to banish TSM once and for all, but also to give Osborn another tainted heroic moment.
Everyone is battling in the tower, trying to reach the lab at the top with the portal tech (why is it always the tower top of or a super low basement?), with Kamala getting separated and ultimately discovering something** that Norman has kept hidden, something that tells the audience that the evil is still inside him waiting to come back.
I’d then have Norman appear behind her and kill her in some way that, with comic book logic, can be attributed to the battle inside the tower. Maybe impaling her with a chunk of debris to mirror his own impaling.
For the shock, I’d say do it right off, but it’s better to give Kamala some good offense to treat her character with due respect. Cut between everyone vs the Scribble Man and Kamala’s battle with Norman.
There’s a bunch of reasons for this, but mostly I’d try to give the book some momentum going forward, i.e. we now know Norman is going to revert at some point. It gives a lot of story potential, albeit a reverting to the status quo, but at least it’s a reason to keep reading rather than a jumping off point.
If Kamala dies defeating the Scribble Man (as memorable and important as he is), that’s just the end of the story. Nothing is gained moving forward from it. Wells is moving straight on to Doc Ock, which doesn’t build on the previous arc (which was MJ’s anyway!).
Now, there is a problem using Norman as you’d want it to be someone Kamala can fight on returning and get a big win. Possibly set her up with a new nemesis, and obviously you can’t use Norman for that as he is Spidey-Man’s big bad.
However, the best makegood would be to bring her back in ASM, too, which leaves Norman on the table for a giant fisting (phrasing!). Run a couple of miniseries alongside it.
If they’re doing a whole bringing her back as a mutant thing, it makes no sense to do it in a non-X-Men book, but that’s just par for the course on this whole run. Lol.
Also, Paul and the kids are killed offscreen by, oh, let's say... Moe.
*or is she? You decide!
**Preferably, I’d have actually used Kamala during the run, being installed by the Avengers to keep tabs on Norman (which I think has been established?) and had her fixated on a room she can’t access. As I can’t rewrite the previous issues, I’d have Kamala do a flashback in the issue, I guess. She takes the opportunity in the fight, perhaps the entry is damaged, to check this room.