In 2014, writer G. Willow Wilson and artists Adrian Alphona and Jamie McKelvie introduced Marvel Comics readers to Kamala Khan, a nerdy New Jersey teenager who, like many a Marvel teenager before her, comes by great powers and great responsibility. But Kamala (pronounced Ka-MAL-a, not KA-mala) was also unlike anything else Marvel had done before: a Pakistani-American Muslim girl deeply steeped in her religious and cultural heritage, bringing her own unique struggles with identity and community to the blueprint provided by the likes of Peter Parker.
Ms. Marvel became a huge hit and now, finally, it’s her time to shine on Disney+. We’ve got our first look at the show, which features a delightfully nerdy aesthetic touches (word balloons and fanfic scribbles pop in and out of frame) and a slightly different set of powers than comic book fans associate with the superhero. Reportedly, that’s because Ms. Marvel’s canonical powers — elongating, shrinking and enlarging her body however she wants — proved almost impossible to render even for Disney’s vaunted CGI department. Expect Ms. Marvel fans to be a bit miffed at the changes, but it’ll all (probably) work out if the show delivers on the story and the characters. We’ll know for sure on June 8.
