The new comic book Ms. Marvel #1 was released on Wednesday starred a 16-year-old Pakistani-American named Kamala Khan from Jersey City.
According to Marvel Comics, Khan will take “the Marvel Universe by storm” and Marvel advises readers to “prepare for an epic tale that will be remembered by generations to come.”
Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso said by email, “Kamala Khan is part of a long tradition that hearkens back to Peter Parker: A teenager struggling to find their own path who is suddenly granted great power, and learns the responsibility that comes with it,” reports the New York Daily News.
The addition of Khan into the Marvel arena is both an act to bring diversity to the Caucasian-dominant field and a way to breakdown generalizations of Muslims by showing a human perspective, writes NY Daily News.
Comic book message boards show either diversity support of the character or opposition about the religion factor.
Khan is in a group of new female characters like Black Widow, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel and Elektra, not to mention last year’s release of an all-female X-Men.
The writer G. Willow Wilson and the editor Sana Amanat are of the Islamic faith.
DC Comics released a Muslim Green Lantern Simon Baz from Michigan last year.
image: Wikimedia Commons
