"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Ms. Marvel, Vol. 2: Generation Why (2015)

Okay, so after having a few misgivings about the first volume of Ms. Marvel, even though I enjoyed it as a whole, I thoroughly loved volume 2.  Fast, fun, and action-packed, and it plays around with some cool themes.  Though Kamala is still going through some growing pains, as would any young superhero, her comic seems to have found its footing nicely by this point.

As Kamala becomes better acquainted with the scope and limits of her powers, she takes on her first major baddie in a big way.  The Inventor has a talent for advanced tech and a habit of making teenagers disappear, and Kamala is determined to get to the bottom of it.  Along the way, she starts dipping her toes into the larger world of in-universe superheroes (to her utter delight.)  She gets to fangirl as she fights alongside one of her heroes, attracts the interest of some of her Inhuman brethren, and acquires a partner/pet in the form of Lockjaw, the giant teleporting bulldog (only in comics, people.)

Some casual comic crossover is still weird for me, like seeing Avengers interact with X-Men – movies have taught me that never the twain shall meet – but I love seeing Kamala brought a bit into the fold, especially meeting Wolverine.  While I’m still new enough to comics that the big names crossing studio borders feels a little “celebrity cameo,” a young hero meeting one of her idols is great (It helps that Kamala isn’t part of the MCU, though she could make a hugely entertaining movie someday.  How many years away are we from Marvel making a movie about a Muslim female hero of color?)  It reminds me of Tony and Spidey in Captain America:  Civil War, but if anything, Kamala is even more excited and Wolverine more irritated – awesome.

With volume 1, I complained about how I felt the comic handled Islam and Kamala’s relationship with her religion.  I feel a lot better about volume 2.  Kamala has a cool, important conversation with her imam, and even thought she goes in dreading it as only a teenager can, he winds up providing a calming, nonjudgmental presence with valid advice, despite the fact that Kamala confesses that she can’t actually tell him what’s going on with her.  I really like that, and I also like that, while Kamala’s parents are rather dismayed at the arrival of Lockjaw, they consent to letting her keep the dog, albeit outside.  Much nicer – it feels like Islam is a part of her life that includes both peace and struggle, rather than simply one of her biggest “problems.”

For the sake of spoilers, I won’t get too much into the Inventor and the missing teenagers plot, but I like that, too.  The plot brings up interesting questions about the current young generation:  how they behave, the way they’re perceived at large, and what people think of their potential.  In fighting the Inventor, Kamala also stands up for herself and other young members of the “selfie generation,” arguing against the unflattering assumptions made of them.  I like that – with most of the teen superheroes I’ve seen, the teen part usually involves sneaking out of the house for hero-related duties, trying to balance school with hero work, and struggling to maintain social status amidst their secret identity.  It’s cool that this comic, while incorporating that kind of stuff, also uses Kamala’s adolescence to comment on young people and what they can be capable of.

Warnings

Comic book violence and some thematic elements.

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