Ms. Marvel #4 (Marvel)

writer: G. Willow Wilson
artist: Adrian Alphona

via The Daily Crate

This is the big turning point issue.  Technically, it could easily have served as the first issue of the series, and a lot of other creators might have done exactly that.

By the way, G. Willow Wilson is not a lot of other creators.

Funny thing is, her Ms. Marvel in this issue looks a lot like Mark Millar's Kick-Ass (thanks to Adrian Alphona's art looking a little like John Romita Jr.'s in some respects), just an ordinary girl (our girl Kamala Khan) trying to be a superhero without any of the usual finesse.  Yes, this is an origin story.  Superheroes in origin stories don't usually have a lot of finesse (just look at multiple versions of Batman's).  But this is the start of a series, and that's not typical for an origin story at the start of a series.  So, Kick-Ass, or Brian Michael Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man.  Stories that don't jump right into typical superhero material.

The thing is, last issue Ms. Marvel was shot.  So this issue she's got to figure out if that, y'know, fatal.  It isn't, just so you know, or this new series will have had some strange stories in the last two issues I've read.  The twist is that these powers Kamala is still trying to figure out have a lot to do with altering her body.  To this point she's been in superhero form in basically a different body.  The typical, blonde white girl body of Ms. Marvel.  This is the issue where that changes.  She changes back to Kamala, and learns that the bullet wound doesn't travel with her.  

So the panels above are a little of what follows.  This is also the issue where Kamala's good friend Bruno finds out her little secret.  When the cops show up at the crime scene (Bruno's brother has attempted to fake a robbery of the Circle Q where Bruno works and this was the result, Kamala being shot), and Ms. Marvel has once again become Kamala (to her benefit!), she and Bruno scramble to provide a cover for her.  It's not impressive, and not convincing when Kamala tries explaining that she is Ms. Marvel.  She doesn't look like her, right?

Another understated moment in the series.  The whole point so far has been that Kamala is definitely not the Ms. Marvel you know.  The draw was always the Muslim Ms. Marvel.  Except Wilson hasn't just written the Muslim Ms. Marvel.  To even conceive of the Muslim Ms. Marvel was always going to be risky.  Perhaps it helps that she lives in a fictional Jersey City.

So I love this series more and more.  This issue, this strange new Ms. Marvel begins to embrace herself, her own image, as a superhero.  Her unique costume begins to take shape.  If you're going for the hat trick of superheroes (bucking stereotypes, being a woman, and wearing a costume that doesn't exploit a woman's body) then you've finally arrived at the moment you've been waiting for.  (It goes without saying, but Alphona probably doesn't even know what "brokeback" is.)

It's a goofy series.  It's lighthearted.  But as with the best of Wilson, it's a constant revelation, and its appeal only grows.  I don't know how long it's going to last.  I don't know if this Ms. Marvel ultimately has a chance at being embraced by the larger Marvel landscape.  Outside of her own comic, she would probably be just another bumbling teenage hero.  (The whole Avengers Arena thing is the proof in the pudding about how far that goes.)  That's too bad.  But then again, she could also be like a new Spider-Man.  If she proved popular enough, that would not be too big of a stretch.  Who knows?