Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal

by G. Willow Wilson

[Nessa Luna]

This year I started to get into Marvel more and more. I watched (almost) all the movies, I watched some of the TV shows and recently I have also started reading the comics. The first comic I read was House of M, which I enjoyed very much. Then there was Civil War, and the latest I read was Ms. Marvel.

I have this game on my phone, called Marvel Puzzle Quest which is basically Candy Crush but with Marvel characters and SO MUCH COOLER! You can collect superheroes and villains and play with them, earn points and upgrades for your characters so they can level up and such. I got Kamala Khan a while back and though I had no idea who she was, she looked awesome and her powers were really cool. Then I found out she was Ms. Marvel I thought she was even cooler, and now that I've read this comic she is the coolest.

Kamala is a Muslim girl (I believe her parents were originally from Pakistan) who lives with her family in New York. She has a brother who is kind of obsessed with praying, a very protective mother and father, and a best friend who I guess kind of has a crush on her? At least, that's what it felt like to me (he might have just loved her as a friend and felt protective over her but idk?). One night, Kamala sneaks out to go to a party and the city of New York is surrounded by a mysterious mist (ha ha ha). After this, Kamala finds out she has these strange powers... What has happened to her?! For those who have seen Agents of Shield, I think you all know what happened to Kamala. I for one knew almost immediately (mainly due to the fact that I already read somewhere that she was Inhuman), so there wasn't really much mystery for me around her getting her powers.. Oh well.

I really loved this comic, because I just loved Kamala right from the start. She is a bit of a fangirl, she really loves the Avengers and even writes fanfiction about them! But she wants to be cool, she wants to belong with the 'crowd' and that is why she wants to be like Capt. Marvel. I also liked the fact that she's a Muslim, because that is something I don't see very often - or in fact I haven't read about a Muslim character before. At least, not that I know of. But yay for diversity!

The style in this comic was really nice, I loved the drawings, and I loved that there were some phrases in Arabic(? I'm sorry I don't know what language it was so I am just guessing, idk if 'Arabic' is an actual language or not), though I don't get why some were translated, when others weren't. And I just love the humour that is in Marvel's comics, something they translated into the movies really well.

I got through this first volume at top speed, because I just enjoyed the story so much, and I loved the characters and the art and oh wow I think I have found a new favourite superhero! I really hope that they plan on adding her to the movies in the future, maybe for the Inhumans movie coming out in... 2018? Anyway, I will certainly read the rest of the Ms. Marvel series, and hopefully read more comics with Kamala in it?

My opinion on this book in one gif: