by Luis Arias
Earlier this week Marvel Comics announced that the new Ms. Marvel would be a Pakistani-American Muslim from New Jersey. She is the first solo Muslim-American to be featured as the lead character in a monthly comic series. Her name will be Kamala Khan.
While not the first Muslim character in Marvel’s universe, Kamala Khan is the first to carry her own series—and challenge traditional Muslim roles. Pop culture historically played an important role in tackling difficult societal issues, from Elvis Presley gyrating on the Milton Berle show, Sinead O’Connor protesting on Saturday Night Live, the first interracial kiss on Star Trek, to pop artists like Banksy and Andy Warhol. Of course comics and the zines have been at the forefront of these movements with Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor series and Punk Magazine. The comic series carries the potential of bridging the gap between Muslim and non-Muslim Americans.
Khan’s creators are themselves Muslim Americans who, partly drawing on their own experiences of living in America aim to portray her as someone struggling with her faith, while battling super villains and juggling school work and family expectations.
Over the years American pop culture portrayed many struggles of immigrants and their children in assimilating in America, struggling to preserve their culture and religion, while at the same time going through universal generational struggles with their parents, siblings, and friends. Yet few have focused on the Muslim experience, and it is an important story to tell.
Kamala represents the modern Muslim-American teenager, going through these struggles. The series writer G. Willow Wilson said, “It’s for all the geek girls out there and everybody else who’s ever looked at life from the fringe.”
Marvel created the famous and popular X-Men, which tackles difficult themes of racism and hatred. The comic’s creator Stan Lee, has said, “The whole underlying principle of the X-Men was to try to be an anti-bigotry story to show there’s good in every person.” Any teenager—or even adult—who know what it is like to be different readily identifies with the characters. Kamala Khan’s story promises to touch similar themes.
It is only through education, through sharing the stories, made possible by free speech, can fears and hatred—which are behind all extremist ideas—can be overcome. Kamala Khan promises to tackle these issues. And that is good news.
Luis Arias is Foundation Relations Manager at the American Islamic Congress
