Ms. Marvel and those Persian guys: unpacking Kamala Khan’s layers of crazy

ABSTRACT

Upon her introduction as the new Ms. Marvel in 2013, the Pakistani-American superhero Kamala Khan was celebrated, by audiences and critics alike, as a welcome addition to the world of superhero comics. Familiar superhero tropes and ethical dilemmas were given an added twist for Marvel’s first Muslim protagonist as the teenage girl strives to reconcile her newfound powers with the moral authorities of her family and her faith. Many comics scholars reserved special praise for the nuanced and unobtrusive way in which the new Ms. Marvel introduces American readers to Muslim culture by following its eminently ‘relatable’ heroine on her search for moral guidance, whereas others were more sceptical of the extent to which the comic’s representation of Muslims can be considered progress. This article probes this ambivalence by analysing the cultural authorities invoked in the first eleven issues of the series. Instead of resolving the critical disagreement, a close reading of Kamala Khan’s implicit and explicit appeals to authority allows for a more complicated and richer understanding of the comic’s, as well as its eponymous intersectional superheroine’s, ambiguity.

KEYWORDS:

• comic books
• graphic novels
• Ms. Marvel
• Kamala Khan
• Muslim Americans
• Persian poetry

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. All italics in quotations from the comic are also in the original. Unless stated otherwise, all quotations from numbered issues of Ms. Marvel are included in the trade paperback collection Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal (#1–5) and the graphic novel trade paperback Ms. Marvel: Kamala Khan (#1–11). (Both collections also contain the short narrative ‘Garden State of Mind.’).

2. ‘I am a shape-changing, mask-wearing, sixteen-year-old Super “Moozlim” from Jersey City.’ (Ms. Marvel: Garden State of Mind) (Wilson 2018a, 2018b).

3. Introduced in 1968 as a supporting character to the (male) Captain Marvel, a series focusing on Carol Danvers, the first Ms. Marvel, began in 1977. As suggested by her then-uncommon title, the character edits a women’s magazine when she does not battle assorted evildoers (Stevens 2020, 6–7).

4. ‘There are layers of unpackable crazy up in here.’ (Ms. Marvel: Garden State of Mind).

5. Rushdie (1996) completists will remember Farid ud-Din Attar’s 12^th-century poem The Conference of the Birds as the inspiration for his misfire debut novel Grimus.

6. Marvel also wisely refrains from including the punishments mandated to unrepentant sinners for such mischief in the next ayah.

7. For example, after the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, the Orlando Sentinel published an opinion essay that even quoted the verse in its title (Anwar 2016). UC Berkeley included the Q5:32 in a Facebook post, to which one reader appended the more strident verses that follow the quotation (UC Berkeley 2016).

8. Safi gives Ladinsky credit for creating ‘mystical,’ even ‘great poetry,’ which is more generous than what poetry translator Alex Forman thinks (this is from a review of another one of Ladinsky’s pseudo-Hafiz books).

an awfully-written, narcissistic, colossally unintelligent act of charlatanry which derives its success largely from exploiting (and grossly perpetuating) some of the most shameful traits of the American public: ignorance of Islam and Islamic languages, unbridled consumerism, poor literary sensibility, stereotypes of ‘The East’ and reviewers’ reticence to say anything negative (Foreman 2010; these are 50 words from a 6,000-word screed.).

9. Judging from images available online, the Islamic Masjid of Jersey City which the Khans frequent is based on the actually existing Islamic Center of Jersey City, although it looks as if the latter has had to instal barriers, presumably to protect it from vehicle attacks (Islamic Center of Jersey City 2022).

10. Issues #6–7 are drawn by Jake Wyatt instead of Adrian Alphona.

11. The quotation’s attribution to the Buddha is comprehensively debunked on Bodhipaksa’s (2013) website Fake Buddha Quotes (‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buddha!’).

12. ‘This is all so weird. I thought I was finally starting to figure things out. It seems like anytime you want to learn something, you have to unlearn something else.’ (Ms. Marvel, #9).