It looks like Kamala Khan isn’t as dead as we once believed. After Ms. Marvel, otherwise known as Kamala Khan, sacrificed herself earlier this year in the comic Amazing Spider-Man #26, it seemed like the end of the road for the valiant superhero. She was even commemorated in a special issue titled Fallen Friend: The Death of Ms. Marvel. However, death in comic books is far less permanent than death in real life, and it looks like Ms. Marvel is already on her way back to life. But that’s not all: it seems that Iman Vellani, the actor who plays Kamala in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will be co-writing the new comic that brings the ink and page version of Ms. Marvel back to life, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Vellani will co-write the new comic alongside Sabir Pirzada, who is a TV writer for Ms. Marvel. The upcoming issue will be illustrated by Carlos Gomez and Adam Gorham, and Sara Pichelli will create the main covers for the issue. The new comic’s title will be called Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant, a nod to the Disney+ series finale, as Kamala is now an official mutant. This also gives us some reasoning behind her resurrection, as mutants from the X-Men comics are particularly prone to resuscitation.
Mutant vs. Inhuman, or Mutant and Inhuman
Of her new role as a comic-book writer, Vellani admitted some nervousness over her new role, “[t]his was way scarier than joining the MCU for me,” she said. She continued, noting that “[t]hose projects feel like they live in their own dimension, so I guess I can separate myself easier. But you can hold a comic book! I’ve never written anything before in my entire life, but I have read many comics, so I just wrote what I would want to read. I was given a very professional tool to write what is essentially my own fan fiction.”
The character of Kamala was originated a decade ago by G. Willow Wilson along with editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker. The original artists for the comics were Adrian Alphona and Jamie McKelvie. Originally, Kamala was an inhuman whose powers originated from the Terrigen Mists. This origin may seem to contradict her newfound status as a mutant, however, Vellani has promised that her new status as a mutant will not replace her Inhuman storyline. It will, however, add to the complexity of her identity, especially given the conflict between Inhumans and mutants.
Vellani noted, “I want to make it very, very clear that we are not retconning her Inhuman origin. That’s a part of Kamala’s identity that Marvel editorial and myself would very much like to keep and protect.'” She continued, saying that “[o]ur book will absolutely reflect all those core themes of identity that the Ms. Marvel comics have consistently explored — only now there’s a whole new label that Kamala has to learn to accept. It’s going to be pretty crazy.”
Along with the announcement, a new character sheet was released for Kamala, showing her in new X-Men garb, as well as the cover for the issue, which shows Kamala in her new uniform.
via Collider