Ms. Marvel has made a swift return to comics in more ways than one, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's own Ms. Marvel, Iman Vellani, is co-writing the new series.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, The Marvels star confirmed she’s writing the upcoming comic alongside Ms. Marvel TV writer Sabir Pirzada.
“This was way scarier than joining the MCU for me,” she said. “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.”
Vellani shot to fame as the MCU’s Kamala Khan and has shown she’s no stranger to comic books. In fact, she’s a bit of a Marvel geek.
“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, she said. “I was given a very professional tool to write what is essentially my own fan fiction.”
In the comics (and spoilers for The Amazing Spider-Man #26 ahead), Kamala sacrificed herself by trading places with Mary Jane Watson in order to fool The Emissary, and ultimately, save the universe. Nobody expected her death to be permanent, but nobody expected the MCU’s Ms. Marvel to pen her return either.
The upcoming comic is titled Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant — a nod to the revelation in the comic books (as well as the MCU TV show) that Kamal Khan is, in fact, a mutant.
“I want to make it very, very clear that we are not retconning her Inhuman origin,” said Vellani. “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.”
Carlos Gomez and Adam Gorham are on board as artists with main covers from Sara Pichelli.
IGN’s Ms. Marvel Season 1 premiere review gave it 8/10 and said: “Ms. Marvel is already making a strong case for Kamala Khan as an exciting new addition. This coming-of-age story includes some familiar elements of a teenager struggling to figure out the path ahead. Still, the teenager's Muslim faith and her parents’ expectations offer a new perspective.”
Want to read more about Ms. Marvel? Check out all the confirmed mutants in the MCU so far as well as how Ms. Marvel approaches Muslim and South Asian representation.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
