Kamala Khan, a.ka. Ms. Marvel, is getting a new creative team for the first time in her nearly five-year history.
Marvel announced Friday that writer G. Willow Wilson—who co-created the character in 2014 with artist Adrian Alphona and editors Stephen Wacker and Sana Amanat—will conclude her run next year. A new Kamala Khan comic, The Magnificent Ms. Marvel, will launch with a #1 issue in 2019 as well as the new creative team of writer Saladin Ahmed and artist Minkyu Jung.
Wilson’s last issue will be February’s Ms. Marvel #38, which will mark the five-year anniversary of the character. Ahmed and Jung’s series will debut in March.
This is without question the end of an era for Kamala Khan, the first Muslim superhero to have her own series at Marvel Comics. Kamala has become a staple of the wider Marvel Universe too, appearing in team books like Avengers and the junior super hero squad, Champions. Her own title has been a massive success for the publisher, both garnering headlines and earning space on bookstore shelves outside usual comic book outlets.
Entertainment Weekly had early word of the announcement.
“I started having this conversation with Sana about the possibility of bringing someone else on about a year ago,” Wilson told EW. “We had planned up through the end of this year, which would take me to five years on the book. This was coming out of a project we originally anticipated would only have about 10 issues, and I will leave having written 60. It just seems so incredible that this character, who was just going to be a fun project for both of us loosely influenced by Sana’s own experiences growing up, had become a cultural phenomenon that was going to outlive us both. Given that was true, I really wanted to be cognizant of the fact that superheroes thrive with a multiplicity of voices telling their stories. I wanted to leave on a high note.”
Wilson is currently writing Wonder Woman for DC Comics as well as a forthcoming creator-owned comic for Karen Berger’s imprint, Berger Books, with Dark Horse. That series is called Invisible Kingdom, and it will see Wilson collaborating with imaginative artist, Christian Ward. Wilson has penned an open letter farewell to the character on Marvel.com.
Ms. Marvel’s new writer, Ahmed, is a rising star at Marvel, having written the critically-acclaimed Black Bolt and currently writing Miles Morales: Spider-Man and Exiles, which stars a weathered alternate future version of Ms. Marvel.
Here’s some of what Ahmed had to say to EW:
“Without giving too much away, there’s going to be big-canvas Marvel scope happening in this book, while still maintaining that intimate tone that people have loved about it,” he says. “I think that Kamala’s earned her superlative. She’s been around for a few years and she’s been magnificent. We kind of wanted to announce that this was her leveling up — as she would probably put it.”
He continues, “I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised by the change of tone in the art. All of the artists who have worked on Ms. Marvel have been stellar, so it’s not that anything needs changing, but there’s a different tone as we go into this new number one, and the art reflects that. It’s not ‘gritty Ms. Marvel,’ but it’s darker and more atmospheric.”
The full announcement from Marvel is below:
Marvel is excited to announce that this spring, Eisner Award–winner Saladin Ahmed (Black Bolt, Exiles) and rising star Minkyu Jung (Batgirl, Nightwing) will take the reins of one of Marvel’s most beloved new characters in THE MAGNIFICENT MS. MARVEL #1!
“I think she’s really the face of everything that’s new and fresh and exciting and ‘21st century’ at Marvel, and with superheroes in general. To be given stewardship of that is a big deal to me,” Ahmed told Entertainment Weekly in an exclusive announcement. “It’s always thrilling being given responsibility over a beloved character. It’s particularly meaningful for me to be taking over from Willow.”
“It just seems so incredible that this character, who was just going to be a fun project for both of us loosely influenced by Sana’s own experiences growing up, had become a cultural phenomenon that was going to outlive us both,” current Ms. Marvel writer G. Willow Wilson also told EW. “Given that was true, I really wanted to be cognizant of the fact that superheroes thrive with a multiplicity of voices telling their stories. I wanted to leave on a high note.”
For more information about THE MAGNIFICENT MS. MARVEL #1, stay tuned to Marvel.com!
THE MAGNIFICENT MS. MARVEL #1
Written by SALADIN AHMED
Art by MINKYU JUNG
Cover by EDUARD PETROVICH
Variant cover by ELSA CHARRETIER
Variant cover by BABS TARR
On Sale 3/13/19
Argghh! I’ve loved Wilson’s work on this title – the supporting cast is wonderful. Sounds like the new book will head in a different direction, which is probably wise — I don’t know if anyone could duplicate Wilson’s unique style.
Best of luck to her in her future work!
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