Written by: G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, Jacob Wyatt
Release Date: No Normal: October 20, 2014. Generation Why: April 7, 2015.
Pages: No Normal: 120. Generation Why: 136.
Series: Ms. Marvel (Marvel NOW!), #1, #2
No Normal: GoodReads Generation Why: GoodReads
Welcome to Sorcery in the Bookshelves first mini review! It basically means we’re not going to go crazy in depth with the review because we’re gonna be talking about a novella, or in this case, trade comics.
Comics are a brand new thing for me. I’ve wanted to get into them for quite a while, but I fell into the pit most people do, where do I start???? So you just…don’t start. Then you run away whenever someone mentions Civil War and spoilers from the comics. Well, luckily for you, and me, Marvel has recently launched their new Marvel Now! series, it means a lot of the old comic numbers are restarting and it’s a perfect time to start. Also I’ll tell you the same thing that I was told. Find a superhero you like, go find number 1 (Or the first trade which binds up five comics) and just start. Then have fun keeping up because Marvel releases more comics than you’ll ever know.
This is what I did with the new Ms. Marvel. Carol Danvers was originally Ms. Marvel but she’s recently taken on the mantel of Captain Marvel, leaving her role of Ms. Marvel behind. Now enters Kamala Khan. Kamala is wonderful PoC main character, she’s actually Muslim American, living in Jersey City. Something the comic handles wonderfully because it’s no different than the fact she has black hair, which is to say, something just part of Kamala’s identity, and left at that. But on top everything else she’s a teenager. She writes fanfiction about the Avengers, she hangs out with friends at the local stores, she’s just trying to figure out who she is.
Well super powers always complicate things, don’t they? Kamala wasn’t one of those born with super powers she gains them one night in a green mist.
The first two trades follow her fight against an evil calling himself “The Inventor” within these eleven comics bound up as five comics each, the story is given a nice full arc, and even a nice closing. Even though really, it only feels like the start. I really liked the pacing of the plotline, though I did find it very different for someone who reads novels instead of comics. There isn’t downtime, the downtime is between stories, there is just one action scene to the next. It’s a different pacing to get used to, but this is a different medium, there isn’t the time that there is in novels, and the story is written as such.
Overall I know that Kamala’s journey is one that I’m going to keep up with, the third trade is already out (I’m just waiting for my library, or finding an actual comic book store) and the fourth trade will be out later this fall. If you’re looking for a place to start your Marvel decent Ms. Marvel is a great place to start. You don’t need a lot of background knowledge to be able to jump in, and Kamala is just a wonderful character to fall in love with.
