Much like the Goonies, superheroes never say die. Exciting comic book news comes from Entertainment Weekly this Friday, with word that Ms. Marvel star Iman Vellani is co-writing a new Ms. Marvel comic as a part of the character’s embiggened reintroduction to Marvel Comics. Before we share the details, you should know that Marvel recently killed Ms. Marvel after the character sacrificed herself earlier this year in Amazing Spider-Man #26. Ms. Marvel’s death elicited mixed reactions from fans, but like most things in comics, there’s always a plan.
Vellani will co-write a new Ms. Marvel comic alongside Ms. Marvel TV writer Sabir Pirzada. Carlos Gomez and Adam Gorham supply the art, with Sara Pichelli creating covers for the series.
“This was way scarier than joining the MCU for me,” Vellani tells Entertainment Weekly. “Those projects feel like they live in their own dimension, so I guess I can separate myself easier. But you can hold a comic book! I’ve never written anything before in my entire life, but I have read many comics, so I just wrote what I would want to read. I was given a very professional tool to write what is essentially my own fan fiction.”
The new comic is titled Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant, which refers to Kamala Khan’s second life on the printed page. Kamala’s mutant lineage was teased in the final episodes of Ms. Marvel, a plot detail continued in the comics. Even though Kamala is dead, Professor X and some of Marvel’s mutant community live on Krakoa, home to a complex system that allows the island’s inhabitants to cheat death. Thanks, Egg and the rest of the Five!
Before you sharpen your pitchforks, Vellani and Pirzada won’t be doing any Inhuman erasure regarding Ms. Marvel’s heritage. Instead, Kamala’s mutant awakening adds to her complex past, giving the character a more complex background than your garden-variety Child of X.
“I want to make it very, very clear that we are not retconning her Inhuman origin. That’s a part of Kamala’s identity that Marvel editorial and myself would very much like to keep and protect,” Vellani says. “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.”
Vellani continues, “Hopefully those readers who are kind of getting into the comics after the Disney+ show are are going to have something fun to look forward to on shelves.”
Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant features a costume redesign by Jamie McKelvie, who designed the character’s original costume. In discussing his collaboration with Vellani, Pirzada says the young actress knows her stuff better than he does. “She was throwing out references to specific comics that came out before either of us were born. She has a very great eye for what makes for a good sequence on the page as drawn by an artist. It was very impressive to me to see her throw out all these references to different artists that she’s been following through the years.”
As a hardcore Ms. Marvel fan, I can’t wait to see what Vellani and Pirzada bring to the character upon her return. Kamala is one of Marvel’s most essential characters in decades, and it’s nice to see her legacy grow with each new idea and evolution. Bring it on!
Iman Vellani returns as Kamala Khan in The Marvels, flying into theaters on November 10, 2023.