Depending on your socio-political views, you may choose to agree or disagree with me when I say: Islamophobia is in the air. Be it the USA, UK or even Myanmar, there are a good number of people out there who view Muslims as a community that is troublesome and refuses to integrate. In the midst of all this, it was a pleasant thing to read when Marvel announced that the leading character in their new comic book series will be a Muslim girl.
Background
Just like all other super-heroes, this one too has a story — Kamala Khan (a.k.a. Ms Marvel) is an American teenager of Pakistani lineage who hails from New Jersey. Her superpower? Shape-shifting.
As per the comic series, Kamala comes from a conservative and orthodox family (possibly hinting at a crisis between her Muslim and American identities). She has a father who wants his daughter to become a doctor, a paranoid mother and a conservative brother.
While this ‘identity crisis’ talk does not seem refreshing, it surely is not stereotypical either. The name ‘Kamala’ rhymes with ‘Malala’ — again, it can either be a hint that all Muslim females need to be saved, or just a coincidence. It is a question that needs to be asked: will Kamala be portrayed as an independent Muslim female, or is she going to be viewed as just another Muslim girl who is dominated by the patriarchy?
Another thing worth noting is Kamala’s identity crisis. Muslims in the West are often told that their western identity cannot be reconciled with their religious identity. Will Kamala’s identity crisis offer meaningful insight?
Can Ms Marvel Counter Islamophobia?
Kamala is not the first superhero with a clearly defined religious identity. However, therein lies the difference: unlike the other superheroes, Kamala Khan is not a superhero who just happens to be Muslim. In fact, the most interesting part about this new comic book character is not her heroism but her identity — Kamala Khan is more interesting than Ms Marvel.
The fact that Marvel’s new character has a Muslim background is indeed a welcome note. Yet, it is not something to celebrate or be ecstatic about. At best, Marvel is just trying to identify a new niche market in the form of a growing Muslim community. Even if equality or social justice might be the hidden message behind the creation of Ms Marvel, a comic book cannot tackle a concept such as Islamophobia that has existed for centuries. Islamophobia will not vanish just because we have a Muslim superhero — not even if Superman were to convert to Islam.
A superhero from the minority community can be a good thing if he/she does not enforce racial or ethnic stereotypes. In case of Kamala, this remains to be seen. Yet, at the end of the day, a superhero’s identity is not a metric for heroics and virtues. Marvel deserves applause simply for re-affirming the belief that heroes can come from any community.
What crimes does a specifically Muslim super-hero fight against? Avenge? Crimes against Muslims or general crimes?
As someone who’s been reading comic books, specifically Marvel comics, since I was a kid I’m curious as well as to how the new Ms. Marvel is going to be handled. You could certainly make the argument that in the past the company had at best a so-so track record in its portrayals of different groups of people and religions, and of course let’s not forget that Marvel is the home of at least one character that I think most people reading this might see as showing a bit of a one-sided view of the Middle East (Sabra, an Israeli super-woman who wears a white-and-blue costume and is basically in the pay of the Israeli government), if that tells us anything. As I understand it the writer of the new ‘Ms. Marvel’ is herself Pakistani-American and so I would imagine is sensitive to the concerns of Muslims in handling this project. I think without seeing the new book that we should give Marvel the benefit of the doubt here, but I’ll reserve a final judgement until I’ve had a chance to read it.
I think we should probably give Marvel the benefit of the doubt for the time being (and as a DC fan I really hate doing that). They do have other minority characters and the Black Panther, Ororo (Storm), Northstar (Homosexual), Forge (Native American) etc have all been treated quite well, not as simple tokens and ethnic/racial clichés. It’s really up to the writers. I also doubt Marvel execs thought “ooh let’s have one of those Muslims as a character” it was more likely a writer who first presented the idea and was given the go-ahead. And let’s remember the X-Men is all about acceptance and prejudice and that’s been running for years. OK sometimes it’s more soap-opera than anything else but at least they try. Sometimes.
In fact I just did a quick search and found this on the BBC – the writer who first thought up the character is a convert to Islam and what they say about role models seems to bode well, at least for the first few issues.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25114565
Also on Marvel’s own site there’s a kind of Q&A with the writers who reveals more about the comic. My one complaint would be the conservative Pakistani family. Do they ALL have to be conservative? Isn’t it a bit of a lazy way of creating friction, can nothing else take its place?
http://marvel.com/news/story/21466/all-new_marvel_now_qa_ms_marvel
Just a continuation of Marvel’s multi-cult bs.
“Kamala Khan is more interesting than Ms Marvel.”
Ridiculous. Absurd. How can this be when Kamala Khan is a brand new character? The real Ms. Marvel is one of the most epic heroines in the Marvel Universe. Not only was she the ultimate All-American hot piece of tail, she was also a military intelligence officer, Tony Stark’s go to gal, herald for Galactus, and is where X-Men’s Rogue got her superhuman strength.
Besides, you don’t fight Islamophobia by creating fantasy, you fight it by exposing the bias in reality, which this blog is pretty good at doing.
But is she more powerful than Shaloman?
http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/s/Shaloman.htm