Review of 'Magnificent Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
The art in this volume was very on point. Continuing the feel that I had enjoyed in previous volumes. The frames are dynamic and varied, while remaining easy to follow. I really prefer this to the hyper shiny and or detailed muscular style that more adult super heroes are often treated to.
Obviously in a title like Ms. Marvel young cis women are celebrated in ways that were still pretty unusual only a short time ago - plus she has two parents. Kamala's place as a fan and someone who kicks butt, remains pretty delightful. But that's still pretty narrow representation. That said, with the assumed heterosexuality, there's really not very much gender and sexuality diversity amongst the characters of Ms. Marvel in general. The way that Kamala and the alien prince were thrown together physically and emotionally was also very awkward.
Race is obviously a main point of diversity …
The art in this volume was very on point. Continuing the feel that I had enjoyed in previous volumes. The frames are dynamic and varied, while remaining easy to follow. I really prefer this to the hyper shiny and or detailed muscular style that more adult super heroes are often treated to.
Obviously in a title like Ms. Marvel young cis women are celebrated in ways that were still pretty unusual only a short time ago - plus she has two parents. Kamala's place as a fan and someone who kicks butt, remains pretty delightful. But that's still pretty narrow representation. That said, with the assumed heterosexuality, there's really not very much gender and sexuality diversity amongst the characters of Ms. Marvel in general. The way that Kamala and the alien prince were thrown together physically and emotionally was also very awkward.
Race is obviously a main point of diversity in this book, combined with the fact that Kamala is not a WASP and in fact Muslim, is what made all of the angry white dudes uncomfortable. There's of course the debate about the importance or not of representation in capitalism. On the one hand, the ever presence of Iron Man in the background is really annoying and a very deliberate choice that is feeling more and more propagandist to me. But on the other hand, I do think that normalizing Pakistani super heroes and normalizing Muslim super heroes in a world that is increasingly racist and increasingly Islamophobia is a net positive. Maybe next time we can have a Muslim Pakistani super hero who fights gentrification and is not being brain washed by a Elon Musk stand in.
Besides the tough medical diagnosis, disability vs ability is not touched upon as far as I could tell. And the diagnosis is very very by the check list.
And while I certainly feel like I should read more of Ahmed's work to see if this is a consistent problem for him, but I did feel like this particular volume suffered from more conventionality then I had come to expect from Ms. Marvel. The one thing that stood out, although not unique to this volume, is her relationship with her parents and the way they are involved in the first part of this story.