Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal (Ms. Marvel Graphic Novels) Paperback – October 14, 2014

After a Spiderman and X-Men filled youth, I largely stopped reading comic books. What little comic book reading I’ve done since then has been mostly The Walking Dead with a few other Image Comics thrown in. So Ms. Marvel is my first foray back to Marvel (the real stuff, not that talkie stuff the kids are into these days). I will be back.You see, Ms. Marvel is really, really damn good. Ms. Marvel returns to ground well trod by comics: the immigrant experience (Superman); gangly, gawky teenage years (Spiderman); and being the Other (X-Men). But it remains fertile ground when done well, and Ms. Marvel is exceedingly well done. Not in the big ways of great action set pieces or an epic storyline, because at the very least we haven’t had time to get there, but in the little ways. All of them, from Ms. Marvel trying to control her new powers to simple moments between a frustrated, loving father and a teenage girl outgrowing the nest.The teen girl is Kamala: a young, Pakistani-American girl. A more devout female friend (Nakia) and brother, a more Americanized male friend (Bruno) (and love interest?), a “mean girl” (Zoe), long suffering and hardworking immigrant parents round out the main cast for now. The rebellion comes early when Kamala sneaks out to go to a high school party where she has her first sip of booze. It ends like it ended for most of us, with an encounter with a terrigen bomb that activates her Inhuman genes. (You might not understand any of that any more than I did; it’s ok, you don’t really need to because the comic doesn’t much concern itself with the source.) The result is Kamala gaining powers; that is, the power to manipulate her body—both to do stuff like create giant fists and to make herself gigantically huge or ridiculously tiny—and a healing factor.Like I said, the story doesn’t start with a bang, but the volume sets up a Big Bad, someone named the Inventor with suitably villainous inventions. But Kamala starts by pulling girls out of the lake and foiling convenience store robberies. Which is good, because we get treated to wonderful scenes of Kamala trying to control her powers and repurposing a burkini as a superhero costume. And of course all that little stuff, including not just the two-way tension between being a superhero and being a normal teen, but the three-way tension among a stricter faith, mainstream American consumerism, and immigrants striving for the American Dream.

On the front cover of this edition of Ms. Marvel, a review quote says 'this may be the most important comic of 2014'. While I definitely liked this story, I think this has to be an exagerration.The strong points of this comic have already been covered by others. Marvel's revamp of Ms. marvel into a Muslim teenager from New Jersey comes with some good artwork, humor, and a character who does a good job of showing the clash between trying to fit in at home and with modern culture. All of these certainly make the story enjoyable. But I have read plenty of the other massively critically acclaimed comics of the past, like Gotham Central, Swamp Thing, and Sandman, and this does not measure up because of two flaws.Flaw one: the dialogue. Most of the teen characters in this story talk in a very valley-girlish way. If you play a drinking game where drink every time someone says 'for real' or 'totally', you will pass out. Look, I only stopped being a teenager recently, and this is not how we speak.Flaw two: the home life. Now, don't get me wrong, Kamala's struggle with her parents is one of the books strong points. But this book doesn't deliver on the consequences of Kamala's super-heroing. Her parents say that she is grounded, but she is still shown staying out all the time training and saving the world. It just makes the family life ring false to me.All in all, this is a decent start, but it is getting more praise simply for adding diversity than for the actual writing.

I've sporadically read comics all my life. I've always been a superhero fan however, mostly playing with the action figures and watching the cartoons as a kid and watching the movies and TV shows as I got older. The stories I have read are mostly event series and standalone such as DC's three Crisis events, Watchmen and Marvel's Age of Ultron, but I've also been trying to keep up with the New 52 Batman stories. This is my first foray into individual Marvel series, and my first ever Ms. Marvel (or Captain Marvel) series.I wasn't sure what to expect going into this comic. I bought it based mostly on reviews and the desire for something different. I'm not a woman, I'm not a Muslim, I'm not a Pakistani-American, and I'm not a teenager anymore. Nevertheless, there is something about Kamala Khan that is incredibly relatable. While the story of trying to figure out your newly gained/discovered powers and balancing the rest of your life with all that is an age old story, it doesn't really feel like we've been there and done that with this. I think that mostly due to G. Willow Wilson's writing and the art from Adrian Alphona and Ian Herring.As with most things Marvel, it manages a great balance between serious and funny while still managing to tell an engaging story. I've already ordered Volumes 2 and 3, and I have preordered Volume 4. Ms. Marvel is a great read, and while it may differ from many other superhero stories, I recommend it for any fans of the genre that like a good story and a unique character.