Another comic I happened upon by chance, in this case online, and in my Goodreads recommendations, which I usually wipe clean and ignore.
It's been a long while since I read and enjoyed a 'Ms. Marvel' comic, and with 'Ms. Marvel: Stretched Thin' - an original standalone title not necessarily part of the Marvel comics canon - I'm glad to find that I can still enjoy them. The revolutionary and continuously popular-in-mainstream Muslim-American superhero and star, Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel - oh how I've missed her!'Ms. Marvel: Stretched Thin' is in a line similar to DC Ink and DC's other graphic novels for younger readers, introducing them to young, modernised versions of famous superheroes. 'Stretched Thin' is like Marvel's answer to that.
As the title suggests, it is about how teenaged Kamala Khan is being pulled in different directions constantly. School, family and babysitting responsibilities, and fanfic writing, pile on top of her secret superhero training and duties, and she is heavily pressured and overburdened. She barely sleeps. Stress is causing her to be an out-of-shape mess - literally and figuratively.
Fanfic writing and website moderating are becoming her comfort zone, where she is completely in control.
Kamala is only a teenager. Poor girl. Why put so much pressure on kids? It is far from healthy.
But at least she has her friends, Nakia and Bruno, who know about her secret identity and who support her wholeheartedly. They are both achingly cute in 'Stretched Thin'! They will teach Kamala that no one in her position should act alone. They will help her, because they want to, and they love her. Unconditional love, and no-strings-attached kindness, especially for an overexerted and overtaxed girl - what a great message to see in something with a female protagonist!
It is unrealistic, unhealthy and even traumatic that females should be expected to be perfect (reminder: no such thing exists) all the time, in order to please other people; people who are supposed to care about her, because she is who she is and she is awesome as she is (wow, try saying that ten times fast). Girls - half the human race - have been forced to carry this people-pleasing-and-personality-suppressing burden since the dawn of "civilisation" - of the patriarchy - began. Stop it already!
Kamala also has Doreen Green, aka Squirrel Girl, and Miles Morales, aka Spider-Man, as her superhero friends and fellow Avenger junior trainees, under the mentorship of Tony Stark.
I am a bit annoyed that Kamala's parents are not allowed to know about her being Ms. Marvel. This is now canon in Marvel's main comic line, due to a last-minute amnesia ex machina. I hate it. It's an insultingly cheap copout, and utterly destroys the parents' development in understanding and accepting their brilliant, growing daughter and the world-saving good she does for others. All of that is gone now, along with any new and interesting developments and stories that could have come from a young superhero who is happy not to have to hide anything from her family anymore.
This is the ultimate reason why I decided to quit reading the original 'Ms. Marvel' run.
The secret identity lying and hiding from loved ones is a trite and frustrating superhero trope that is literally nearly a hundred years old, and it is really unnecessary overall. Why can't Kamala's parents know that she's a superhero? We've seen before that they will eventually come around to it and love her no matter what (there was literally no reason in-universe for the amnesia plot device to happen), and it will certainly save a lot of heartache, stress and drama! And the sake of family drama and sticking to the status quo - no change! no to anything different in comics! - is the only reason that the parents' amnesia exists. Let them stay stereotypically strict, angry, nagging, unempathetic and unsympathetic parents - but most prominently the mother - who don't know or understand their daughter, forever! That's always great to see over and over and over and over and over and over and over again!
Another negative in regards to this comic: even with all the rushing and stress she is going through, how can Kamala be so inattentive as to not know that the robot that infiltrated and attacked Avengers Tower is the same as the "action figure" that comes in the post for her? It becomes inseparable from her baby nephew Malik, whom she babysits a lot. The toy and the robot look exactly the same! How does she never notice!?
I'm also a mite confused about the timescale of 'Stretched Thin'. It is mentioned that it has been only a few months since the Terrigen Mist happened - since Kamala became Ms. Marvel - or at least, it's been less than a year. Yet back then her older brother Aamir and his wife Tyesha weren't married, and young toddler Malik wasn't even conceived. I guess I should ignore plot holes concerning time and when events happened in long-running comics, in Marvel and DC. Or does this not matter in standalone books like 'Stretched Thin', which as far as I know is not canon to the main storylines? Aargh!
But 'Ms. Marvel: Stretched Thin' remains a fun, colourful kids' comic containing wonderful morals and themes. Recommended for Kamala fans.
Final Score: 3.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment