The latest MCU hero is about to grace our screens, but do you know who Ms. Marvel is?
In terms of comic book history, Kamala Khan is Marvel’s first Muslim character to get her own title. Khan initially appeared in Captain Marvel #14 in August 2013, and then went on to star in her own book Ms. Marvel, which premiered in February 2014, less than a year later. Khan is a teenage Pakistani American from Jersey City, NJ, with polymorphing abilities who discovers she has Inhuman genes during the “Inhumanity” event and takes over the role of Ms. Marvel from her idol Carol Danvers after Danvers becomes Captain Marvel.
Khan’s most well-known ability is elongation, which allows her to stretch her limbs, torso, and neck to incredible lengths. Her additional abilities include the capacity to change her size, both shrinking and expanding. She can lift up to 75 tons when she expands. Khan has exploited this power to make her body as paper-thin as possible. Khan possesses a healing component that allows her to repair bullet wounds while she is not using her polymorph skills. Khan, on the other hand, feels quite exhausted if she heals extensively. She has the ability to shapeshift into other people and inanimate objects, however, she rarely does so.
Ms. Marvel comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Kamala Khan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a Muslim American kid growing up in Jersey City. She’s a Super Hero megafan with an enlarged imagination, especially when it comes to Captain Marvel. She is an enthusiastic gamer and a voracious fan-fiction scribe. Kamala, however, feels out of place at school and sometimes even at home—until she gains superpowers like the heroes she idolizes.
Khan’s powers differ in the live-action series compared to the comic book—she gains the ability to harness cosmic energy and create constructs from a magical bangle. While some fans may be angered by this, changing her powers up a bit allows for something new to be seen with the character and aligns them closer to Captain Marvel’s own powers, which thematically feels right. The essence of the character is what’s important and from what we’ve read and seen so far, there’s no worry.
Will you be tuning into ‘Ms. Marvel’ when it debuts on Disney+ tonight/tomorrow?
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First and foremost, Kev is a dad to three wonderful children. He’s also an uber Kevin Smith fan (all Smith’s movies are worth a watch, even Yoga Hosers) who has cried during Kermit’s monologue in The Muppets and once owned two VHS copies of Spice World. He loves all pop culture, particularly the MCU and Star Wars. The Evil Dead franchise is his favorite horror franchise, though the original Scream is his favorite scary movie. He bleeds Eagle’s green in the (suburbs of the) greatest city on Earth, Philadelphia. Go Birds!