Marvel has a stellar tradition of creating successful and strong teenage superheroes. From the X-Men and Spider-Man to Nova, from Kitty Pryde to Cloak and Dagger, from Runaways to the girls and boys of the Avengers Initiative and Avengers Academy, it’s an area that where Marvel has proven time and time again that they excel.
Marvel’s most recent teenage hero to gain some notoriety is the latest adventurer to claim the title of “Ms. Marvel.” In a way Ms. Marvel is fast becoming the poster child for “how to do it right.” In an era where comics are trying new ways to promote diversity among their characters in order to facilitate diversity among the readership, Ms. Marvel stands out as particularly unique. We’ve had females front their own title, and we’ve seen plenty of teenagers get their own books, but Kamala Khan is also a Pakistani-American and a Muslim.
And she’s also from Jersey City.
NYC is pretty full, you know.
Despite this, diversity is pretty meaningless if the character is not compelling. Luckily, Kamala is one of the more endearing and fully realized creations to come out in quite a while. In many respects a regular teenager dealing with all the pressures and stress inherent in that specific time in a person’s life, Kamala also deals with the extra pressure of her Muslim heritage, including ultra-strict parents and a very traditional older brother. All of this is presented in a manner that doesn’t alienate the non-Muslims in the audience. It’s all too easy for the “diversity” aspect to dominate the story and character, but Kamala is just a person that happens to be ______.
In short, Ms. Marvel is one of the better comic titles and characters Marvel has pumped out in recent memory. Though her current title ended with the latest world-shattering event, Kamala will be back in her own title along with joining the Avengers when the “All New All Different” Marvel kicks into gear.
With so much attention, I’d love to to see her in Marvel Legends form as soon as possible. While not perfect, an overlay on the Smaller Spider-Girl body might serve the character well. If I had my choice, though, I’d want a completely brand new smaller body that could be used for other smaller teen girls.
The main roadblock in making a stellar Ms. Marvel figure would be her super-power. Kamala has polymorphic abilities that include the ability to stretch her limbs, or increase the size of her feet and/or hands. I’ve never been a fan of figures that are permanently stretched like the Mr. Fantastic figure from a handful of years ago, because I like to have a “neutral” version as well as one using their power. To me the best way to accomplish her power set would be swappable parts. One set of long limbs, one set of regular sized limbs, a pair of oversized fists, all of which can be swapped onto any of the others so you have a nice range of options, from long-armed big-fisted, to short-armed big-fisted, to just long-armed and so on. This would make for a fun and dynamic toy that would do justice to the character.
I realize that might be asking for too much, so if we could at least get a pair of swappable arms, I’d probably be happy enough with that. As long as we got a pair of big fists to go with the long arms.
The brand new Ms. Marvel appears to have taken root and quickly become a fixture in the Marvel Universe for the forseeable future, in no small part to G. Willow Wilson’s dynamic storytelling abilities and mastery of character beats. It would be great to not have to wait around forever to get a figure. With so many Avengers-related lines coming out, she’d literally fit in anywhere . . . even a Spider-Man line. Don’t know, don’t care, just want one as soon as possible.
