Not Quite Ms. Marvel
In the world of superhero comics like Marvel and DC, there are many characters and heroes with diverse backstories and ways they acquired their superpowers. Of course, we’re all familiar with the Avengers, a superhero team featuring characters like Iron Man, Spider-Man, and others.
However, the Ms. Marvel character, Kamala Khan, stands out among the Avengers. Unlike Captain America, with his background as an American soldier and the Super Soldier Serum that turned him into a superhero, or Iron Man, with his family’s wealth and the technology he used to create an advanced suit to fight crime, Kamala Khan is a Pakistani-American Muslim teenager living in Jersey City, New Jersey, who gains shapeshifting powers after being exposed to the Terrigen Mist. She then takes on the name Ms. Marvel and begins her journey as a superhero, all while trying to balance the expectations of her immigrant family and her life as an ordinary American teenager.
The character Kamala Khan first appeared in the comic All-New Marvel NOW! Point One #1 (2014) and eventually got her own series, written by G. Willow Wilson, titled Ms. Marvel Vol. 3 #1. Before Kamala Khan gained her superpowers, Wilson made sure we understood who she was and, most importantly, what kind of person she aspired to be. The comic opens with a scene where Kamala presses her face against the counter at a deli and inhales the aroma of a bacon sandwich — which is, of course, off-limits for her to eat. Nakia, her Muslim friend who wears a hijab, feels that Kamala is embarrassing herself. Then, Zoe dismisses it with casual insensitivity. This opening scene certainly illustrates that Kamala exists in a space where she is never quite one thing or the other.
At home, Kamala spends her evenings writing Avengers fan fiction, something her mother cannot understand. The atmosphere at the dinner table is described as very quiet, with affectionate tension as her father reads a Urdu-language newspaper, her brother Aamir prays constantly, and Kamala sits in the middle of it all, dreaming of a different life as an American child who loves superheroes. She loves her family dearly, but at the same time, she feels trapped by the rules of this diaspora family.
This came to a head when Kamala ran away from home to attend a party thrown by the popular kids at school. Kamala did this solely because she believed that if she acted like them, dressed like them, and spent time with them, she would eventually be accepted as one of them. Unfortunately, all she got was public humiliation. Zoe mocked her family in front of everyone while she was drunk. Zoe mocks Kamala’s Pakistani background as something embarrassing that Kamala herself should be grateful to have escaped. The moment is devastating precisely because it exposes the logic behind Kamala’s longing. She wasn’t trying to fit in. She was trying to disappear into a version of herself that the world would approve of.
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After leaving the party, Kamala was exposed to the mysterious Terrigen Mist that was sweeping through Jersey City. As she was exposed to it, Kamala saw many things; she met Captain America, Iron Man, and Captain Marvel, the heroes she had always idolized speaking in Urdu. When she asked them about it, they said that they speak all languages of beauty and hardship.
It is a quietly stunning moment. The American icons she has spent years looking up to suddenly address her in the language of her parents, a language she sometimes pretends not to understand. Through these figures, Kamala is asked one direct question. She thought that if she disobeyed her parents, her culture and religion would be more accepting of her. What happened instead? She answers honestly. They laughed at her.
This vision serves a purpose beyond being merely a hallucination or a dramatic plot device. It forces Kamala to confront the fundamental issue in her approach to her own identity. She has treated her Pakistani Muslim background as an obstacle to becoming who she wants to be, when in reality it is simply part of who she already is. The powers she gains after this moment are not a reward for the person she wanted to become. Rather, they emerge from her true self.
When she realized she could change her appearance while using her powers, she immediately transformed herself into Carol Danvers: the original Ms. Marvel blonde, white, wearing the classic costume. She took on this “form” to save Zoe, who was about to drown in the river. Zoe was the very same person who had insulted her just a few hours earlier . Such an irony in which Kamala saved someone who had looked down on her, while literally wearing someone else’s face.
This incident is closely tied to the concept of mimicry proposed by Homi Bhabha. As he put it, “Almost the same, but not quite” (1994). He argues that colonial subjects often imitate the dominant culture to gain recognition, but there is always a gap ,a residue that cannot be erased. Kamala in Carol Danvers’ body is almost the same as the hero she idolizes, but not quite. The performance is flawless on the surface, yet beneath it, Kamala remains entirely herself. The fact that she chooses this form instinctively, without a second thought, speaks volumes about how deeply she has internalized the belief that her own appearance is not heroic enough.
Atlast, Kamala realizes she cannot fight or move effectively in someone else’s body rather than her own. This turning point is significant in the comic. She transforms back into her true self and improvises a costume from what she has on hand. She is now a superhero in her own body, with her own face, wearing clothes that look nothing like any hero that came before her. For the first time in the story, Kamala stops trying to be someone else.
