Ms. Marvel is officially returning to life as a mutant in Marvel Comics in a new series co-written by the MCU's Kamala Khan actor Iman Vellani. After Kamala sacrificed her life to save Mary Jane Watson in the recent The Amazing Spider-Man #26, fans speculated that she would return to life as a mutant in order to align with Ms. Marvel's status as a mutant in the MCU. Now, the series Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant will prove those fans correct.
First announced in a report from EW, the new series will be co-written by Vellani and Sabir Pirzada, who has written for the Ms. Marvel Disney+ series as well as the 2022 comic Dark Web: Ms. Marvel. The series will be drawn by artists Carlos Gomez and Adam Gorham, with covers by artist Sarah Pichelli. Ms. Marvel will make her official debut as a mutant in the X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 one-shot on July 26 before the first issue of Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant is released in August.
The X-Men Are Resurrecting Kamala Khan as a Mutant
Kamala Khan's heroic sacrifice was recently honored by her fellow heroes in the one-shot issue Fallen Friend: The Death of Ms. Marvel. A special "post-issue scene" released on the Marvel website featured Kamala's inevitable return to life would establish her as a mutant in the comics, as well. But Vellani made it clear in the EW announcement that they are not forgetting her previous status as an Inhuman.
"I want to make it very, very clear that we are not reconning 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 said. "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."
Ms. Marvel's New Mutant Status Comes With a Brand-New Costume
The X-Men's annual Hellfire Gala is known for its displays of extravagant mutant high fashion, so appropriately Ms. Marvel will be debuting an all-new costume when she is resurrected. Kamala's new X-Men costume was designed by artists Jamie McKelvie, who also designed Carol Danvers' Captain Marvel suit and Kamala's original Ms. Marvel costume in the comics. This new look is shown off in the variant cover for Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #1 by Stanley "Artgerm" Lau.
Ms. Marvel became a breakout star when she first debuted in her self-titled series in 2014. Beloved for her bright personality, her intense fandom of her fellow Marvel heroes, and her visually dynamic powers, her status in the Marvel Universe continued to grow. She was a key member of both the Avengers and the Champions, and played big roles in several crossovers and team-ups. Kamala Khan also holds a unique place in comics history as Marvel's first major Muslim superhero. For Vellani, this legacy made writing the character's new series all the more intimidating.
"This was way scarier than ing the MCU for me," Vellani told EW. "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."
"It was actually a very humbling experience to work with Iman, because she knows her comics even better than I do, and that is saying something," Pirzada added. "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."
Kamala Khan's Powers Will Not Change to Match Her MCU Counterpart
When the Ms. Marvel show premiered in the summer of 2022, a major point of contention among comics fans was that her powers in the show did not match the ones she has in the comics. Rather than being able to stretch her body and shrink and grow her size (which Kamala refers to as "embiggening"), the MCU version of Ms. Marvel's powers were more energy-based, allowing her to create hard-light constructs that more closely matched the cosmic powers of fellow MCU heroes like Captain Marvel and Monica Rambeau. However, Vellani told EW that her powers in the new comic series will stay the same as they have been on the page, giving the actor a new set of abilities to play with that she didn't get on screen.
"Oh my God, I love it. You can do anything with those stretchy powers," Vellani said. "I like to make it a little vague enough for the artist to surprise me when I get the sketches back, and they always do. It's honestly so liberating to be able to pitch ideas and everything gets accepted because they can just draw it. There's no need to worry about budgets or effects."
Comics fans can see how Kamala Khan responds to being resurrected and her newfound status as a mutant when Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant is released on August 30.
Source: EW
