I haven’t read Ms Marvel for a while. I thought the first couple of big arcs were pretty good. The story cribbed a lot from the earliest days of Spider-Man I felt but that’s ok. This was a new hero for a new generation and like Spidey was dealing with more mundane problems like school drama, issues at home and the like as well as getting into scrapes with low to mid level super crime. It was classic stuff the tickled my nostalgia while offering a new heroine with a new perspective and set of problems to deal with. Unfortunately somewhere along the way Kamala stopped acting like a hero for me, never took responsibility for her actions and suffered no consequences. So I dipped out but when I found this issue in my folder I couldn’t help but give Ms Marvel a look and see how things are going presently.
The issue starts with a classic set up that again feels like it would have been at home in an old Spider-Man comic. With her father in the hospital barely clinging to life Kamala is forced to don the mask and abandon her hospital watch when Mr Hyde suddenly attacks. It’s the great problem of being a superhero, having the sacrifice your normal life for the sake of the greater good. Kamala’s battle with Hyde is pretty good as she is physically outmatched and Hyde proves to be both cunning and absolutely ruthless in his tactics. Additionally the story is apparently digging deep into Spider–Man lore again as Kamala finds herself surprisingly empowered by and compromised by her new alien, nanotech costume. So yeah, cue the symbiote saga. Is there gonna be a Ms Venom fr Kamal? Taking inspiration from Spider-Man is one thing but I’m fearing this is heading for a complete rehash.
On the plus side there are some nice bits with Dr Strange trying to determine how the disease effecting Kamala’sdad is tied to his latent inhuman genes and also somehow metaphysically tied to his feelings for his family, That part seems unnecessarily esoteric and seems a little odd to me when Inhumans are the result if genetic manipulation and not the product of mysticism.
It was also a nice touch to see Kamala’s brother stepping up and being the man of the family, likely considering the possible loss of his father. It was a moment that was clearly uncomfortable for him but he does it because it needs to be done. We even get the development of further subplots between him and Bruno, Kamala’s best friend and long time unrequited love. So there are many elements set up for future issues of Ms Marvel to come and if handled well could lead to excellent stories.
ART
One of the biggest issues of this comic for me is the art. Now in general there is nothing wrong with it. Jung is competent as a story teller and I have no issues following the flow of his pages. He does not really stand out in any way however, well except for two. One this he does that I like is he draws Ms Marvel using her powers in ways that are atypical of what I’ve previously seen. Its not all just giant fist on skinny elongated arms and he seems to be thinking very Mr Fantastic when he draws her. The down side is she looks really, really ugly in a lot of these shots. I know this is due to cultural aesthetic that I want to see a pleasing female but its also true that the star of a superhero comic is depected in a more idealized fashion. It adds to there appeal. These characters as Stan Lee rightly supposed are better than us, both inside and out. It also appears that he is struggling to make the new costume work with all of the extreme body morphing in this issue.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This comic borrows heavily from from older comics which both works for and against it but there are some good character moments with art that strikes me as merely ok.
SCORE: 2.5 out of 5
Writer:Â Saladin Ahmed
Art:Â Minkyu Jung
Inker:Â Jaun Vlasco
Colors:Â Ian Herring
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