M is for …Ms. Marvel

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Ms. Marvel is more of a title than a character. Or maybe a job description. The big boots have been filled by several women in the comics: Carol Danvers, Sharon Ventura, Karla Sofen, and now Kamala Khan. In all these versions, Ms. Marvel has been a character I knew little about. But recently, I picked up a few graphic novel collections that have me hungry for more of her stories.

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First I picked up Captain Marvel: Higher, Further, Faster, More. People were talking about it on one of my Goodreads groups and I was intrigued. Plus that cover. So much swagger.

And Carol Danvers, at least in this collection, is quite the swaggering hero: confident, righteous, and headstrong.  She's a grown woman in a way that superheroic women seldom get to be. She's got a love life, a history, and a lust for adventure. I liked her a great deal.

But then I started to hear about Kamala Khan, who after being exposed to the Terrigen Mist became Ms. Marvel.

So, I checked out Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal and Vol 2: Generation Why. It's been a while since I

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was really drawn to a teenaged character, but I loved Kamala right away. For one thing, she's totally geeky. She's an unapologetic gamer girl, who squees all fangirl over superheroes. She writes FanFic.

She's happy with who she is, not angsty or pouty, wishing she were a blonde cheerleader. While her feminist tendencies might get her in trouble at the mosque, it's clear that her family loves her for who she is and that she is surrounded by good friends.

I'm looking forward to more of her adventures.

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This post is part of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. I'll be writing about superheroes I love all month. You can check out other bloggers and see their creative takes on the challenge here.

Don't forget to check out my own superhero stories: