Meet Kamala Khan — Marvel’s Muslim superhero

As part of its upcoming All-New Marvel NOW! Initiative, Marvel Comics is launching the Ms Marvel comic with an entirely new character — a 16-year-old Muslim superhero of Pakistani descent called Kamala Khan. DC Comics re-launched its Green Lantern series last year with an Arab American-Muslim superhero Simon Baz, while Haroon Rasheed launched Pakistan’s very own female superhero called Burka Avenger this year. And now, it’s time for another Muslim superhero.

Kamala isn’t your average teenage Muslim girl. Though she lives in New Jersey and juggles the identity crisis that’s often part-and-parcel of growing up as a Muslim-American, her shape-shifting is of a literal sort. She fights family expectations as well as villains.



According to the Huffington Post, Kamala is the brainchild of Marvel editors Sana Amanat and Steve Wacker, who concocted the character together after Amanat entertained Wacker with anecdotes from her Muslim-American childhood. When author G Willow Wilson heard about the project, she was eager to jump on board as the series’ writer, particularly as she’s written a graphic novel before in 2008 called Cairo.

“I wanted Ms Marvel to be true-to-life — something real people could relate to, particularly young women,” Wilson said in a press release. “High school was a very vivid time in my life, so I drew heavily on those experiences — impending adulthood, dealing with school and emotionally-charged friendships that are such a huge part of being a teenager.” She added, “It’s for all the geek-girls out there, and everybody else who’s ever looked at life from the fringe.”

The inspiration behind the character “stemmed out of a desire to explore the Muslim-American Diaspora from an authentic perspective and yet, this story isn’t about what it means to be a Muslim, Pakistani or American.”



“This is ultimately a tale about what it means to be young, lost amidst the expectations bestowed upon you, and what happens when you get to choose,” says Amanat.

Marvel’s other titles with female or minority leads include an X-Men series highlighting women, and the Mighty Avengers series which has several non-white faces, reports The Times.

The new Ms Marvel series will debut in February 2014 but she will first appear in the upcoming All-New Marvel NOW! Point One Special.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2013.

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