MS. MARVEL #1

Capsule Review

I sampled a few issues of this newest Ms. Marvel when they hit digital about year ago, and thought it a very good book that I didn’t particularly like. After checking back in with this new re-launch, I’m a fan. Kamala Khan’s life has gotten more complicated since I saw her last — her powers are more evolved, she’s joined the Avengers (!), and it looks like it is harder than ever for her to juggle her school and personal life with her superhero duties. All of which makes for grounded and believable internal conflicts in the story of a teenage girl who changes her shape and pals around with Iron Man. The art in this issue is split between Takeshi Miyazawa and Adrian Alphona (the Dreaded Deadline Doom strikes already?), but both artists are excellent, and Ian Herring’s nuanced colors hold it all together. G. Willow Wilson’s script reflects a writer that has become very confident with her subject — about half the issue is devoted to two-thirds of a love triangle which deeply concerns our hero, but she doesn’t figure in those scenes at all, save by her absence. And the rest of the issue features Ms. Marvel fighting the twin forces of a giant frog and creeping gentrification — the kind of plot you’d expect from the late, great Steve Gerber! Wilson makes them both work in this throughly delightful book.

Approachability For New Readers

There’s plenty of backstory but it doesn’t get in the way of our tale.

Read #2?

You bet. And I expect I’ll go back and give Ms. Marvel’s first issues a second chance, too.

Sales Rank

#18 November

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