Ms. Marvel #9 Review: From Jersey City To Space

By Alex Widen | Aug 3, 2016

As July came to a close, fans got a double dose of the new Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan! She weighs security versus liberty at home and takes on Annihilus abroad!

Ms. Marvel #9

Writer: G. Willow Wilson

Artists: Takeshi Miyazawa & Adrian Alphona

Colorist: Ian Herring

It’s hard to argue that one of the greatest new characters to hit the Marvel Universe within the past few years is Kamala Khan, the new Ms. Marvel. The teenage Muslim-American superhero fan girl learned she was an Inhuman thanks to accidental exposure to a Terrigen Mist cloud, gaining elastic powers and a new purpose in life! Over the past two years, Kamala has saved Jersey City from the Inventor, Loki, Dr. Faustus, Hijinx (a Canadian ninja), and an army of her own clones!

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Following the post Secret Wars relaunch, however, Kamala has found her civilian life diminishing as her career as Ms. Marvel grows. She’s joined a team of Avengers and interacts more with her mentor, Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), but often at the sake of her school work or social life. In this current arc, Ms. Marvel’s zeal to impress Carol may be putting her at odds with her city and her best friends.

Being the protege of Captain Marvel means that Ms. Marvel is on Carol’s side in Civil War II, at least for now. Kamala’s been tasked with guiding a pet project of Carol’s to allow a team of civilian volunteers to handle some “precognitive crime fighting” by responding to visions of the future by the Inhuman Ulysses. Ms. Marvel agrees with the philosophy of stopping crimes (and criminals) before the fact, at least until one of those visions leads her to one of her friends, Josh.

Responding to a vision that Josh was going to cause an explosion at the local high school the next morning, Becky leads the rest of the “Carol cadets” in detaining Josh in a citizen’s arrest. Understandably, Kamala is torn once the idea of arresting potential criminals before they commit a crime happens to a friend. Her internal moral debate quickly begins to put her at odds with Captain Marvel, as well as her other pals Nakia, Zoe, and especially Bruno (who suffers in the cliffhanger).

Wilson is probably doing a better job of making the “security vs. liberty” argument better than Civil War II is. The idea of preventing crime before it happens via targeted precognitive arrests sounds like a good idea until it stands revealed for what it is: profiling. Wilson wisely turns the tables on expectations by noting that a middle class white man who has been rejected by a lover fits the profile of a domestic terrorist, even if he hasn’t done anything wrong, nor would have.

A schism is beginning to emerge between Kamala and Carol, which is a critical part of Khan’s growth and development. As much of a fan of superheroes as she may be, now that Ms. Marvel’s among them, she is bound to disagree with some of their tactics, even those who are her mentors. The cadets’ actions fairly bluntly demonstrate (via a camp and uniforms) how Carol’s philosophy can easily devolve into fascism when taken to a logical conclusion.

Lately, Adrian Alphona has been drawing prelude segments detailing Ms. Marvel’s family’s original path from Pakistan to Jersey City. The previous issue handled her grandparent’s flight during 1947’s partition of India (which created Pakistan). This one handled her parents immigrating to America before Kamala was born, which is a tale which should resonate for anyone. Miyazawa covers the present day antics with all of aplomb of an exciting manga series.

While Kamala’s struggles in her series have mostly come from within for much of the last nine issues, this Civil War II tie in has allowed Wilson to focus on developing all of her cast while also presenting an engaging moral dilemma to her readers. More is learned about Zoe and Josh, and Bruno may end up paying the ultimate price for Kamala’s folly. Some of Wilson’s metaphors are a bit blunt (Nakia literally calls herself a “background character”), but are overall effective.

For a look at some of Ms. Marvel’s struggles from without, we are served well with All-New All-Different Avengers #12. Written by Mark Waid, drawn by Mahmud Asrar and colored by Dave McCaig, it concludes an adventure in the Negative Zone which saw Ms. Marvel and the rest of the team escape being enslaved by the warmongering insect man, Annihilus! Unfortunately, Vision and the rest of the team realize that they accidentally left Spider-Man (Miles Morales) behind!

What follows is an exciting challenge to rescue Miles as well as destroy Annihilus’ latest universe threatening doomsday weapon. The catch is that due to the limitations of the quantum bands (the plot device of the day), only one Avenger can swap out with Miles (or anyone else stuck in the Negative Zone) at a time. Unable to fight Annihilus as a team, they all have to use their wits and clever uses of their powers to foil the plot and get everyone out cleanly.

Waid also focuses a subplot on the new Wasp, Nadia Pym (who is Hank Pym’s long lost daughter). Initially worried that the original Wasp, Janet Van Dyne, would disapprove of her, Nadia quickly finds Jan to be a gracious and exciting mentor. Their fun together serves as an amusing juxtaposition to the harrowing adventure the rest of the team face in the Negative Zone. Ms. Marvel gets a critical moment in the battle as well as settles some of her differences with Nova.

Asrar provides some of the same exciting and visually stunning artwork here that he did on previous work such as Image Comics’ Dynamo 5. Waid gives him a pulse pounding finale and Asrar delivers, adding tension to an already complicated battle. The fact that the Avengers stumbled upon Annihilus’ plot by accident may irritate some readers, but it falls in line with classic superhero tropes from the past and is executed well. All in all, fans of Ms. Marvel got a great double dose!