Ms. Marvel Resurrects Herself In Record Time

Everyone groaned over how distasteful the killing of Ms. Marvel was in Spider-Man #26, a move purely for shock value that wasn’t even that shocking. Comic book deaths being pulled as cheap stunts and then quickly reversed is as old as the hills at this point, and sure enough, here comes a new book where she’s alive, well and lively. The only difference is that normally the Big Two wait a few months before doing this.

And if you had to guess, what do you think the big change is? Yup, just like everyone figured, Kamala Khan is a mutant now. The book is called “Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant.” The only part we guessed wrong was we thought Khan would be given construct powers to better match the TV show. She’s still a stretchy superhero in the comic universe (which we’re fine with), but there IS one TV element that has been brought over…her actress, Iman Vellani, is co-writing this story.

“I want to make it very, very clear that we are not retconning her Inhuman origin,” Vellani claims. “That’s a part of Kamala’s identity that Marvel editorial and myself would very much like to keep and protect. Our book will absolutely reflect all those core themes of identity that the Ms. Marvel comics have consistently explored, only now there’s a whole new label that Kamala has to learn to accept. It’s going to be pretty crazy.”

We have no idea how Kamala is supposed to be mutant AND Inhuman but the X-side of Marvel has been playing around with an instant resurrection mechanic that’s essentially made it impossible for those with the X-Gene to die. Perhaps this gene was implanted into Ms. Marvel’s body to bring her back to life. It’s all very stupid, but at least the TV actress being involved is a cool element.

You know what would have been better though? Launching a new Ms. Marvel book, hiring Vellani to write it, and NOT killing her first. I don’t think the sales would have been that different.