After the controversial reveal of Kamala Khan's divisive death in Amazing Spider-Man #26, Marvel has announced a one-shot focused on the young hero titled Fallen Friend: The Death of Ms. Marvel, and while the story could end up lovely, the cover features the wrong heroes to honor Kamala's death.
Kamala Khan was first fully introduced as a Muslim Pakistani-American from New Jersey with Inhuman stretching abilities in 2014's Ms. Marvel, co-created by writer G. Willow Wilson and editor Sana Amanat among others, and since then she has become a beloved and inspiring Marvel hero, as well as a beacon for positive Muslim representation in media.
The one-shot Fallen Friend: The Death of Ms. Marvel is written by Kamala co-creator G. Willow Wilson, who herself practices Islam - with additional writing from Saladin Ahmed and Mark Waid and art from Humberto Ramos, Takeshi Miyazawa, and Andrew Di Vito - so while the story will almost certainly honor and respect the character's life, the cover by Kaare Andrews, while beautiful, includes heroes who have basically no relationship with Ms. Marvel.
The Champions Should Be The Heroes Present At Kamala's Memorial
After a major leak of Kamala's death forced Marvel to formally announce the character's surprise ing, many fans have perceived it as a disrespectful sales gimmick for Amazing Spider-Man and the Ms. Marvel-focused MCU film The Marvels. Kaare Andrews's cover for Fallen Friend, which again is quite stunningly illustrated, centers on the grief and anguish of Peter Parker - who barely knew Ms. Marvel - instead of honoring Kamala Khan, and also features the heroes Captain Marvel, Wolverine, Iron Man, The Thing, and Captain America. While Kamala has no doubt interacted with all of these heroes throughout her decade-long career as a superhero, she has truly only had meaningful interactions with Carol Danvers.
The heroes who should be featured on the cover are Kamala's peers from the teen superhero team she founded alongside Nova and Miles Morales, The Champions. Formed after the three powerful friends left the Avengers following disillusionment from watching the adult heroes' actions in Civil War II, as an attempt to heal the public's trust in superheroes, the three friends quickly added Brawn, Viv Vision, and the young time-displaced Cyclops into their ranks. Forming the world-saving Champions was one of Ms. Marvel's greatest contributions to the world of superheroes, and her close friendships with Miles, Sam, and Scott became a cornerstone of her career. It is truly bewildering that none of these heroes would be present on the cover for Fallen Friend, because while Kamala was a huge super-fan of heroes like Captain Marvel and Wolverine, her actual meaningful friendships were with her Champions teammates.
Ms. Marvel's Family And Meaningful Relationships Should Be Honored
It is also incredibly surprising that none of Kamala's family is seen on the main cover since a major part of her story revolces around her close relationship with her parents Yusuf and Muneeba, her brother Aamir, and her friends Nakia and Bruno. Fallen Friend is still two months out from publishing, and with at least 3 variant covers planned to be released there will hopefully be some featuring the Champions as well as Kamala's loving family, but the fact that Fallen Friend's main cover doesn't feature a single one of them is a surprising and controversial decision.
With Wilson and Ahmed behind the writing of Fallen Friend, who have both written Kamala Khan beautifully in the past, the one-shot will hopefully properly honor Ms. Marvel's life and death, but many fans still wish that the main cover for the issue centered on Kamala and featured the friends and family who meant the most to her.
Fallen Friend: The Death of Ms. Marvel #1 from Marvel Comics debuts on July 12, 2023.
