Ms. Marvel #2 Review

Writer: G. Willow Wilson / Artists: Takeshi Miyazawa, Adrian Alphona / Marvel Comics

Here at BNP, we love Kamala so much that in order to keep staff writers from going Smash Bros melee on each other–we just switched off on reviewing. First there was Omar and Oz reviewing Ms. Marvel. (What would their wrestling team name be anyway as both of their first names start with the letter O?) Their double team champion reign has come to an end. Now it’s me and Leslie’s time to shine in the sun with Kamala Khan, and I got the call this month!

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Catching back up with Kamala’s adventures in her home city where her superhero alias is being trampled upon and nothing is going right, we see the return of the tension between her and almost bae Bruno who is still dedicated to helping her but is attached by the lovely Mike aka Michaela as Leslie gushed about last issue.

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We see the strain superhero-ing is doing on her young teenaged life as her mom, who revealed some issues back that she knew of her secret identity is not impressed with the current events surrounding her character and wants her to back down some. Ms. Marvel is further made out to be what Kamala is not in the media and she’s not happy about that as the situation escalates further. Kamala is getting the rawest of deals but there’s nothing she can do but press forward.

A truly pivotal scene in this issue had me holding my breathe as my eyes first landed on the panel where the Ms Marvel creative team first show us a glimpse of Tyesha (LOVING HER NAME, BTW!), a young woman who Aamir knows as she is surrounded by three men and questioned. I don’t have to tell you of all the gross examples of islamophobia been seen online and off for you to know that is is a jarring reality for many Muslims here in the U.S. and in other countries. (On a related topic, Malala Yousafzai had a great smackdown word wise regarding the toxic islamophobic views of Donald Trump which you can check out here) The Khan siblings had every right to be worried and bust onto the scene thinking of the worst, prepared to defend Tyesha.

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And that’s what Ms. Marvel does best: we’ve been given  a superhero with actual relatable problems. Actual relatable issues that we may be seeing in our neighborhoods and communities. The way the story was able to switch from what I was hoping wasn’t possible harassment of Tyesha to effortlessly back to the topic of gentrification and how it was continuing to plague where Kamala calls home done quite well. Pair that with all the small problems on her plate and a fun art style that carries the story along, it works. It works in this renumbering of the issues in the series where we have a fresh-faced Super hero who we still love and are still excited to see.

9 chants of EMBIGGEN not enlargement out of 10

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  • Carrie McClain is writer, editor and media scholar. Other times she's known as a Starfleet Communications Officer, Comics Auntie, and Golden Saucer Frequenter. Nowadays you can usually find her avoiding Truck-kun and forgetting her magical girl transformation device. She/Her

  • Show Comments

  • Alberto

    This book is amazing. I feel that this issue works better as a second issue than the first issue works as a first one, I mean, Issue 1 was great, but this one is even better. And that’s difficultdifficult with number twos. Still sucks that the book is 4 bucks now.

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