The Beat team has been speculating for months on the future of Ms. Marvel and the interesting circumstances surrounding her recent death in Amazing Spider-Man #26, but it seems we finally have our answers. Courtesy of an Entertainment Weekly exclusive, it’s been revealed that Kamala Khan will return as an Inhuman/mutant hybrid in Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant, a four issue mini-series launching in late August.
The series will be co-written by Iman Vellani, the actress who portrays Kamala in the MCU, and Sabir Pirzada, a writer on the Ms. Marvel Disney+ series and the writer of last winter’s Dark Web: Ms. Marvel. Carlos Gomez (Rogue & Gambit, X-Terminators) and Adam Gorham (Star Wars: Darth Vader, Immortal Hulk) will provide interior artwork, along with covers by Sara Pichelli (who also provided the first cover for the original 2014 series). Jamie McKelvie has designed a new costume for Kamala, a character he initially created the designs for 10 years ago.
Vellani, a first time comics writer, long time comics fan, shared her excitement to jump into comics, and emphasized that Kamala’s Inhuman heritage will remain with the character, even as she becomes a mutant:
“This was way scarier than joining the MCU for me. 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.”
“I want to make it very, very clear that we are not retconning [sic] her Inhuman origin. That’s a part of Kamala’s identity that Marvel editorial and myself would very much like to keep and protect. 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.”
Pirzada praised Vellani’s passion and dedication to the project:
“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. 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.”
Here’s a brief description provided by Marvel on the premise of Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant:
After being brought back via Krakoan Resurrection Technology, Kamala is shocked to learn she is mutant. But before she has a chance to come to terms with this revelation, the catastrophic FALL OF X will throw her world into chaos…and a secret mission on behalf of the X-Men.
In a bonus page from Fallen Friend, revealed on Marvel.com this past Wednesday, we learned Cyclops has plans for the future of Kamala Khan, and it has been confirmed that she will make her triumphant return in the upcoming X-Men: Hellfire Gala. This is the third annual Gala, and is expected to lead into the imminent Fall of X sweeping across the mutant world.
Interestingly, according to an Empire interview with the character’s co-creator Sana Amanat, the original plan for Kamala was to introduce her as a mutant:
…when we were thinking about the character of Kamala back, back, back in the day in 2012, 2013, when [G.] Willow [Wilson, comic book writer] and myself were ideating, we originally wanted to make her a mutant. That was the whole intention, to be able to do that.” In the series, they were able to get back to that initial idea. “Is she a mutant, question mark?”
Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant will take the place of the previously solicited CLASSIFIED series, and the first issue will be available in comic shops and digitally on August 30th.
The really galling thing about this move was that Marvel really undercut retailers here. They didn’t even have 2 full business days to sell Fallen Friend, a $4.99 book, before Marvel made this reveal that essentially made it instantly moot. That “bonus page” is on Marvel’s own website, so they get the clicks and the shops get nothing. And I am sure many shops will have a few copies of this in their “half off” box. And what makes it worse was that the reveal that Kamala would “die” in ASM #26 came, by sheer coincidence, 2 days before the final cutoff for orders on Fallen Friend (a comic which was solicited as “classified, but trust us” in so many words). So the shops that ordered this will get left holding a comic no one wants.
Even from a budgeting standpoint, was it worth producing a $5-$6 comic with 3 writers, 3 artists and 2 colorists which is rendered moot continuity wise almost immediately? They could have remade Kamala into a mutant without all the bombastic energy and mean spirited, huckster-ish sales tricks, but they didn’t, because they didn’t want to.
It is as if Marvel resents retailers for still relying on them for sales, and almost acts deliberately to make their lives and professions as miserable as possible out of pure, childish spite. But I guess Brian Hibbs or any other shop runner would reply, “No, duh, and DC is little better.” The literal second Marvel and/or DC can completely avoid retailers and sell directly to customers at equal levels and not lose any sales, they will do it, and they will actively laugh as thousands of retailers lose their livelihoods. If this mess made anything clear, it is actively contempt that Marvel has for the direct market.
I guess you missed all the statements made by various creators about how much they hate the customer base. since about 2008.
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