THE PROBLEM WITH KILLING KAMALA
Ms. Marvel is undoubtedly coming back. A common rumor is that she will be reintroduced as a mutant (possibly with her MCU powers) prior to the release of The Marvels in November. Indeed, her inevitable revival is probably the reason Lowe and Wells thought this stunt would be acceptable.
Even though it is temporary, her death in The Amazing Spider-Man #26 is still problematic for several reasons. Here is CBR user Huntsman Spider summarizing the problem better than anyone else:
“The optics of killing off Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel are the absolute worst at this time, given the ongoing tensions around greater representation and incorporation in the superhero genre of people and groups that aren’t typically included as main or important characters in mainstream superhero stories. The idea that, in spite of what Kamala represents to a lot of fans and readers who have seen her as an inspirational symbol, she can still be killed off in a book belonging to a more prominent hero with a long-established legacy and pedigree will likely not sit well with a good number of people.”
(Huntsman Spider, 2023)
The first major problem is that it will give racists ammunition for several months. Within hours of the leak, the leader of the ComicsGate movement Ethan Van Sciver has openly embraced these news. Several YouTube videos of ComicsGate members literally celebrating her death have also popped up. Even if we assume she will be back by fall, an entire summer of racists using Kamala’s death as ammunition is still unacceptable. Given the mass reach of social media and that internet time is a thing, an entire summer of online racism is more damaging in 2023 than in 2003. Marvel cannot afford empowering an online hate group for that long.
If Ms. Marvel had to be reintroduced as a mutant, there is no reason she had to die for it. Plenty of characters went from non-mutants to mutants and vice-versa without dying. Quicksilver went from mutant to Inhuman without dying. Franklin Richards was introduced without powers and was retconned into being a mutant later, and then retconned back into a non-mutant. “Death” has never been a common denominator in the human-to-mutant or Inhuman-to-mutant conversion process of the Marvel Universe. It is one of the reasons why Kamala’s death comes off as cheap shock value.
Even if Kamala “had” to die, why kill her in a Spider-Man book? A smarter option would have been to give her her own miniseries. Another option would have been to give her a prominent role in an X-Men title where she could be reintroduced as a mutant later this year. If for some odd reason it had to be a Spider-Man book, it would have made more sense to do it in Miles Morales. Miles and Kamala are close friends and teammates on the Champions, whereas Peter and Kamala have only interacted on a few occasions.
If she “had” to die in The Amazing Spider-Man, maybe it could have worked if she was at least a major character throughout Zeb Wells’ first twenty-five issues. Instead, Kamala appeared in only twelve panels leading up to ASM#26.
Another problem is where and how she dies. No one in the leaked panels has any connection to her. In other words, it appears that Kamala dies with none of her close ones by her side. No friend or family member appears to be there. No one else from her supporting cast seems to be there either. Miles Morales and the Champions are also missing. Norman Osborn is there, which is a strange choice given he is the character responsible for a female fridging from fifty years ago that inspired this one (more on this below). The closest civilian stand-in she gets besides Mary Jane (whom she also has no connection to) is maybe Paul – a character that isn’t even a character but a non-entity created by Wells simply to keep Peter and MJ apart, and who has become an internet meme, laughing stock, and symbol of laziness within the Spider-Man fanbase. If the Wells run will be remembered at all, Paul will become an example of everything to avoid in a superhero comic.
The marketing leading up to this was remarkably tone-deaf. This entire issue was marketed months in advance as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Gwen Stacy’s death. The problem is that anytime someone compares a comic death to Gwen’s, they imply permanence. Gwen’s death is one of the only deaths in comics that “can’t” be undone. It’s a taboo in the industry. It’s part of why racists are happy and have so much ammunition from this. It’s also why many Spider-Man fans were worried that Wells and Lowe would kill Mary Jane “for good”. Thus even if Ms. Marvel comes back, it was simply irresponsible for Lowe and Wells to send the message of permanence and to muddy the waters of her death like that for months in a row. They introduced doubt into the equation and did nothing to alleviate the fears but insist that it’s a good story. That isn’t good enough.
Even more tone-deaf is the fact this issue will be released at the end of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. To offer an analogy, imagine if Marvel “fridged” Shuri’s Black Panther or Storm from X-Men in a February.
The upcoming Fallen Friend mini further suggests that a core intent here was to make Peter Parker “sad” – a core theme found in the Women in Refrigerators trope.
Regardless of how we look at it, this was a terrible decision on Marvel’s end.