Magnificent Ms. Marvel No. 1 review: Alien invasions amid parental strife
By Alex Widen
A new creative team with a new volume! Yet will this inject new life into Ms. Marvel?
Magnificent Ms. Marvel No. 1
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Minkyu Jung
Inker: Juan Vlasco
Colorist: Ian Herring
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Over the past decade, Marvel Comics often has a variety of reasons for relaunching an ongoing series with a fresh “number one.” Typically it is done to try to artificially boost sales; other times it is meant to signify a shift in the creative team. After five years, Ms. Marvel was written and co-created by G. Willow Wilson, who has since gone on to handle Wonder Woman for DC Comics. Despite her steady hand, sales for Ms. Marvel had dropped steadily since its last relaunch in 2016. Perhaps it was the boost in price, or simply diminishing returns. As a result, a new adjective has been tacked on with a new squad of creators to match.
Image by Marvel Comics
Saladin Ahmed, best known for Black Bolt and Quicksilver: No Surrender, co-wrote two issues of Ms. Marvel as a means of easing into a new role here. And by and large he picks up where Wilson left off. He follows long on the idea that Kamala Khan is destined for greater things, not just in Jersey City but across the galaxy. As an alien father tells his daughter about Kamala’s legacy at some point in the future, the teen heroine in the present defends her town from a super villain!
Image by Marvel Comics
Was This Villain Inspired by Rob Liefeld?
Named Deathbringer, the rogue reeks of being designed with a 1990s mentality. He dons a skull face, spiked shoulder pads, spandex, a katana and an Uzi. Despite the design, Ahmed has created a new villain, rather than utilize a leftover from Marvel’s bankruptcy era. The only other characters named “Deathbringer” in Marvel history were either from their 80s licensed Transformers comics or the father of a minor Moon Knight villain. It is a shame a genuine villain from that era, like Kurt Busiek’s Bloodshed, didn’t have a cameo!
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Rather than one of Jersey City’s few “master” villains like the Inventor or Chuck Worthy, Deathbringer is akin to a nuisance in an odd costume, like Hijinx the Canadian ninja. He begins the issue on his knees and things don’t get better for the baddie from there. Yet when he almost nicks Ms. Marvel with fire from his gun, Deathbringer earns her ire. Kamala calls him “jerky,” which is an odd line from her, as she smashes him with a nearby garbage dumpster! Ring the bell, it’s over!
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The gist of the issue, which quickly becomes obvious, is that the alien’s narration of Kamala is a lofty exaggeration, at best, of who she really is. Legacy and time often cloud the memory of what was real, after all. In this case, the issue showcases that while Ms. Marvel may have gone far from her origins, her life isn’t anywhere near as easy as it seems. While the police and most of the public may adore her as Jersey City’s champion, she does get grief for the property damage that’s inflicted in her wake. It is a fair point; more gets wrecked in a superhero brawl than is typically stolen in a heist!
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In Fairness, It Has Been a While since the Origin Was Referenced!
As always, Kamala spends much of her time juggling her life as a civilian and as a super-heroine. As Spider-Man is more than aware, this means she’s usually always running late for something. In this case, it’s a hang out session with Nakia at the latest Lebanese juice bar that’s opened up in town. After some friendly banter, Nakia gets around to asking Kamala how she got her powers in the first place. This gives the series a chance to offer a recap to any new readers checking it out!
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For many fans, Kamala Khan today is what Peter Parker was in the Silver Age — a very modern teenage superhero. Much as Peter was able to relate to the youth of his generation (or any generation), Kamala easily embodies the Millennial or younger generations. The idea that even though readers may be intimately aware of a superhero’s origin while the rest of the cast are not was once touched by the web-slinger. 1986’s Amazing Spider-Man No. 275 has a similar scene.
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Kamala was once a very normal Muslim American teenage girl before a cloud of Terrigen Mist unleashed by the Inhumans’ leader Black Bolt activated her latent Inhuman physiology and bestowed upon her elastic super-powers. Inspired by Captain Marvel, the heroine she most idolized, Kamala assumed her retired mantle as Ms. Marvel. Yet things haven’t always been easy for Kamala. And as she races home, Kamala learns the tension with her parents has reached a fever pitch!
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Is Home Where the Arguments Live?
At the end of her initial volume (the first Ms. Marvel No. 19), Kamala admitted to her mother Ammi that she was secretly a superhero. It was during the crux of the third Secret Wars crossover and the world was on the verge of collapse. Ammi took it well and kept Kamala’s secret from her overprotective father, Abu. And by and large, G. Willow Wilson did little with it afterward. Ahmed, on the other hand, leaps on it immediately as a source of interpersonal drama for the Khans!
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Tiring of lying by omission to her husband, Ammi has told him that their daughter is Ms. Marvel. And while Abu isn’t surprised that Kamala has chosen to use her super-powers to help people, he’s concerned about the risks she takes to her life. It naturally exaggerates the tug of war between all parents and children once adolescence is reached. Ammi and Abu still want to protect and be symbols of order for their daughter, yet Kamala is quickly becoming her own woman.
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Abu angrily seeks to reestablish order in his daughter’s life, as well as protect her as best he can. Powers or not, what kind of father would he be if he willingly allowed Kamala to race around the city being shot at by uzis every day? It’s also implied that he has his own secret — perhaps related to his heath. But as usual, Kamala’s life as Ms. Marvel gets in the way, even during arguments with her parents. The city’s most beleaguered business, the Circle Q, is being attacked by a monster!
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The Shop May as Well Be Called “Target One!”
Seriously, the sheer amount of times the Circle Q, which is owned by Bruno’s parents and where he works part-time, has been attacked or demolished by this stage is staggering. The shop’s insurance premiums have to be six or seven figures by now — perhaps half that of the Daily Planet. Regardless, this time it’s a wolf-man in ghastly armor. Kamala’s best friend and sort-of boyfriend, as usual, has invented a plot-convenient gadget. Bruno determines it’s an alien!
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Yet much like with her parents, the real drama is on the fringes of the action. Bruno and Kamala have their own tension now, in a limbo state of being more than friends, yet less than lovers. He’s had to adjust to her life as Ms. Marvel and being her glorified sidekick, at best. Despite the Circle Q being trashed for the dozenth time, he’s more concerned by the fact that Kamala’s domino mask can’t hide the fact that she’d been crying recently. As Kamala says, now isn’t the time for that drama!
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Both the wolf-man and a raptor style monster at the waterfront look scary, yet seem to be easily smashed into a strange goo by Ms. Marvel. Bruno suspects there is more to the attacks and the alien substance than meets the eye. Unfortunately, the alien signal blips on Bruno’s machine for a third time, and this time the location is all too familiar. It seems that the Khan household has turned into a set from Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, and Kamala’s parents are the stars!
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Maybe She Meant Beef Jerky?
Aside for colorist Ian Herring, this is a brand new creative team for a new run. Saladin Ahmed had the choice to run with what Wilson had done, or choose a drastic new angle or direction. For the most part, he has chosen to remain in her sandbox and embellish what she had crafted. This issue alone wisely picks up a subplot which was mostly abandoned for three years and brings it to the fore. While the interplay between Kamala and her friends often carried the book, her parents had faded into being background furniture for a while.
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Beyond that odd use of the line “jerky”, Ahmed does a great job capturing Kamala’s voice. While few can quite capture her with the ease with which Wilson did, Ahmed does well enough that longtime fans will barely notice. As always, Kamala straddles the line between eager humility and confident sass, and constantly spins more plates than she can keep aloft. Ahmed also wisely doesn’t have Kamala’s entire cast in this issue, instead building up to them gradually.
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In fact the only demerit is a similar one to what plagued Wilson’s runs — the obligatory villains. One of the only downsides to having a series with a great lead surrounded by a terrific supporting cast is that it becomes easy to ride on them too long. The interaction of the cast and the soap opera thrill of their dialogue often becomes more important than the plot or the “threat of the month.” At best the obstacles merely become metaphors for whatever Kamala is dealing with — much like the arc where she cloned herself.
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Why Fix What Isn’t Broke?
Wilson did establish a rotating rogues gallery, albeit a tad too gradually. Chuck Worthy, Lockdown, the Doc.X virus and ultimately the Inventor would all return to plague Ms. Marvel more than once. In between were some more fun villains, such as Hijinx or Kaboom. It will remain to be seen whether Ahmed will play with more of them. The angle of Zoe’s ex and the series jock Josh being the super villain Discord is too juicy a tidbit to keep in the background forever. All of that sounds better than yet more generic aliens — who will likely merely be misunderstood.
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A Kubert School graduate, Minkyu Jung has mostly been at DC Comics so far, drawing issues of Batgirl, Nightwing, and Gotham Academy. As such, he brings a lot of experience handling young superheroes with teenage casts, and brings all those skills to this run. His art is incredibly solid, thriving with the action sequences and some clever staging. He and Ahmed seem to be giving Ms. Marvel a bit of a “rope-a-dope” where she shrinks to catch a foe off guard from behind as a giant.
Image by Marvel Comics
Next. See How the Wilson Era Ended with No. 38!. dark
Flanked by Ian Herring’s always legendary colors, Magnificent Ms. Marvel comes close to living up to its ambitious adjective. The cover may promise “a brand new era,” but by and large it offers a continuation of the same. Yet this isn’t in itself a bad thing; G. Willow Wilson crafted a brilliant heroine and a wonderful cast and setting for her to play in. All that was needed was a bit more exaggeration and development of antagonists or plots which, after five years, even Wilson admitted were beyond her. If Ahmed can truly offer that extra edge, then this truly may be magnificent, and Archie‘s Reggie Mantle will have to pick a new adjective to go by!