Since Muslims are cast as either villains or tragedies, Volume 1 of "Ms. Marvel" provides a refreshing change by not only depicting a Muslim as a hero, but as a relatable person. Kamala Khan is a 16-year-old first generation Pakistani-American living in Jersey City and even before getting superpowers, she didn't feel like a normal girl with a normal life. "Why do I have to bring pakoras to school for lunch? Why am I stuck with the weird holidays?" she broods. Then, one night, Captain Marvel appears and gives Kamala her former Ms. Marvel mantel and the polymorphic powers that come with it. But being able to shape-shift into a blonde superhero only further complicates her life instead of simplifying it, as she once believed it would.
Even if you're not Muslim, Kamala's struggle to fit in is relatable to all teenagers. In the second chapter, there are a series of panels that depict the struggle Kamala has shape-shifting back and forth between herself and Carol Danver's Ms. Marvel. It wonderfully represents that reflex we all have to be someone else, someone other than who we are, and the struggle we have with our identities.
However, if you are a Muslim, this book will really hit home. For example, in the beginning of chapter one, there is a poignant exchange between Kamala's best friend, Nakia, and Zoe, a popular white girl from their school. After Zoe compliments Nakia on her headscarf, she immediately asks whether Nakia's father would honor kill her for not wearing it. Nakia replies by saying that not only did no one pressure her, but that her father wants her to take it off. This scene is important for two reasons. The first is that American Muslims, at one point or another, come across this warped image people have of us, especially if we don't seem fully Westernized. There's this notion that we live our lives caged by an antiquated ideology and are watched over by brutally strict parents. And the evidence of this brutality is the headscarf. Not only does this scene dispel that myth, but it adds a dose of reality. When Nakia said that her father doesn't want her to wear the scarf, I immediately thought of the parents I knew that didn't want their daughters wearing a headscarf because they were terrified of what people would do to their child. Like this scene, there are many moments in the comic that struck a familiar cord in me.
There were also a few scenes that ran, if not counter to my experience, at least notably different. In chapter two, Nakia and Kamala sit behind a partition, and Kamala speaks over it to ask the Sheikh why it's there if no partition existed in the Prophet's mosque in Medina. Though the point of the scene was to highlight the partition, as it is a point of discussion in the Muslim community, I couldn't get over the fact that Nakia attended the same mosque as Kamala. Nakia, who is Turkish, goes to the same mosque as Kamala, who is Pakistani. Personally, as a teen, the gender segregation didn't bother me, but the ethnic separation did, and it still does. Just as some churches have almost, if not all, black patrons, and others have almost, if not all, white patrons, some mosques have the same divide along ethnic lines. Pakistanis have their own mosque, Afghans attend another, and Arabs attend another. As I've gotten older, I've seen the ethnic divide ease up a bit, but it's still prominent.
Another weird incident in this comic is that Kamala goes to a convenience store and longingly whiffs the aroma of BLT sandwiches, which is weird to me because I don't know any Muslim who's ever longed to taste bacon. (Not to say that they don't exist, but given that -- at least in my language -- pork is referred to "the meat that has no name," I never found the idea of ham appetizing.)
However, those moments when Kamala's experience differ from mine are as worthwhile as those experiences that I really relate to. I really wish I read this comic as a high schooler because the lessons that Kamala learns in this story are ones that I've had to learn; like how to be the best version of yourself and all the reasons why it's not worth trying to be someone you're not. It would've been much more enjoyable had I learned those lessons on her journey, or at least alongside her.
