Sometimes being a superhero has deadly consequences, as Kamala Khan learned when she sacrificed her life in the pages of 2023's The Amazing Spider-Man #26. But it turns out there was a secret architect behind Kamala's temporary demise - Kevin Feige.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man writer Cody Ziglar pointed to Feige as the mastermind behind the Death of Ms. Marvel storyline. As spotted by ComicSXF, Ziglar made the claim during an appearance on The Amazing Spider-Talk podcast, saying Feige wanted to promote greater synergy between the MCU and Marvel's comic book universe.
“It was funny watching when the whole Kamala stuff was going down,” Ziglar said. “[The Amazing Spider-Man writer Zeb Wells] had told me months before the plan, which was, Feige was like, ‘Hey, I don’t do this very often but, can you please do this to make things in line with Marvel because we have some stuff we want to do with Kamala,’ so [Wells] was like, ‘F***, I’m the guy that drew the short straw? People are going to be very mad that I have to kill Ms. Marvel.'”
Kamala didn't actually stay dead for long. She was soon revived by the X-Men, following the discovery that she carried a dormant mutant gene and could be brought back to life via Krakoa's Resurrection Protocols. That's where the MCU synergy in question comes in. Her death and resurrection proved to be a way of reworking Kamala (originally depicted as an Inhuman) to become a mutant, just as she is in the MCU.
While it's not exactly surprising to learn that Marvel wanted to create further synergy between the comics and the MCU, it is interesting that Feige himself was apparently the driving force behind the move. Feige has technically been in control of Marvel's publishing line since his promotion to Chief Creative Officer in 2019, but this is a rare example of him having an overt hand in a comic book storyline. Is this a sign of things to come for Marvel's comic book line?
These days, Ms. Marvel actress Iman Vellani and writer Sabir Pirzada are chronicling Kamala's further comic book adventures in the limited series Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace. The character will also soon star in Marvel's new NYX series, which is part of the X-Men: From the Ashes relaunch kicking off in July 2024.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
