Ms. Marvel #11 (Marvel)

writer: G. Willow Wilson

artist: Adrian Alphona

This is the conclusion of the Inventor arc.  Our villain gets to shout, "I am not a bird!" on the first page, and by the last page we see what he really looks like.  And he is in fact, not a bird.  So, truth in advertising.

It's a little disappointing insofar as the disenchanted youths who willingly played into the Inventor's hands previously are now just as willing to play along with Ms. Marvel.  This is kind of the opposite of the intended message, I suspect.

The other point the issue makes involves Kamala Khan's emerging need to protect her secret identity, what she calls "my new normal" and "a parallel life."

A certain amount of that may also be G. Willow Wilson speaking directly through Kamala.  With the massive success of Ms. Marvel, Wilson is having her first real moment of comic book popularity, which goes with expanded demand, which means she's also writing X-Men these days, which is quite a vote of confidence.

Ms. Marvel #10 (Marvel)

via Marvel

writer: G. Willow Wilson

artist: Adrian Alphona

Yay me!  I've been enjoying a series that's being recognized as one of the year's best!

Kamala Khan has been trying to get to the bottom of the threat the Inventor (who, remember, is basically a giant chicken person) has been posing basically the entire series.  This issue she comes...closer.

The kids her curious archnemesis has been kidnapping turn out to have willingly played along.  They think the world has basically pegged them correctly as a worthless generation.  But don't take it from me, here's the Inventor himself spelling it all out:

"The young are seen as a political burden, a public nuisance.  They are not considered worth educating or protecting.  They are called parasites, leeches, brats, spawn -- If you used these words to describe any other minority but children, it would quite understandably be considered hate speech.  We are simply taking this loathing to its logical conclusion."

The appeal of Wilson's approach is that it's been incredibly varied.  She's freely mixed in thoughts like that with typical teenage foibles and plenty of playfulness.  All that's in the issue, too.  

It's rightly being considered one of the most fresh takes on superheroes in years.

Ms. Marvel #9 (Marvel)

writer: G. Willow Wilson
artist: Adrian Alphona

via comiXology

Kamala Khan learns all about her Inhuman origins, meets more Inhumans than just the giant-dog-with-a-tuning-fork-on-its-head Lockjaw, and tells them, Thanks but no thanks I'll defeat my supervillain on my own.

And then hears her mother say this:

"We came here so our children would be safe -- safe from the chaos and corruption and bombings back home.  Only after we arrived did we discover school shootings, date rape drugs and gangs.  And now giant robots!"

Apart from giant robots, that's a pretty accurate assessment, I think, from G. Willow Wilson concerning what immigrants experience coming to America these days, and that's one of the signal insights from Ms. Marvel that has brought it so much deserved attention.  It's not just a superhero series, or even just "that Muslim series," but an integration of a lot of elements, and it's interesting watching as they all play out.

Also, lots of Star Wars references this issue.  That's good, too!

And a twist ending.  Twist endings are good, right?  Kamala learns a vital piece of the puzzle she's been missing about the Inventor saga that will surely make things very interesting next issue, and perhaps even shed additional light on the whole series.

This series remains infinitely intriguing.

Ms. Marvel #8 (Marvel)

writer: G. Willow Wilson
artist: Adrian Alphona

via Comic Vine

The first part of the "Generation Why" arc continues the Inventor arc, introduces the Inhumans dog Lockjaw as Kamala's new pet, and helps further explain what G. Willow Wilson hopes to accomplish with the series.  It also sees the return of regular artist Adrian Alphona.

The Inventor is the default villain at this point, the problem our hero is still trying to figure out.  At this point Ms. Marvel is learning everything he's been doing, starting to clean up the mess, and is working toward the inevitable final confrontation.  For this issue, it's probably the least interesting aspect.

Moving on, Lockjaw's debut puts yet another element into the ongoing narrative.  Usually a move like this is done because someone's getting anxious for people to discover the series and they've started looking for gimmicks.  In this case, it's a kind of subtle tie-in to Kamala's heroic origins (as figured out by Wolverine last issue, a by-product of the recent Inhumanity event) without advancing the series arc too quickly.  The friendly dog is a gentle reminder, is all, a placeholder.  It's also a chance for Kamala to interact with her family in matters other than faith.  That's important, too.  Every kid wants a pet.  Comics sometimes forget that.

By the time Kamala shows up for class late in the issue, she has to explain away a few things.  Her teacher tries to prove that she's a bad student, but Kamala quickly turns the tables on her with this insightful comment:

"Well...giving up on the next generation is like giving up on the future, right?  And...and sometimes the next generation has to deal with all the problems the last generation left for it to fix, and that means getting up really early in the morning --"

It amounts to a mission statement for the series.  Some of it's pretty obvious, standard talking points, but Wilson also puts Ms. Marvel's context firmly in the very argument you always see but never see played out.  Quite literally, she's going to be dealing with problems (the ongoing Inhumans saga) that her predecessors have never figured out, and forging her own future, and by extension a new generation of heroes.

These days, new characters never seem to last.  If they stick around at all, they end up in a group and therefore don't really amount to much, compared to the legacies of characters created decades ago.  The last time there was a significant expansion of the superhero landscape was in the '60s, the whole reason we still, well, marvel at the Marvel Age.  Image came close in the '90s, but it's fair to say that no character from that time has become a true icon (Spawn, Savage Dragon, and Witchblade come close, but they still have yet to prove they can exist in contexts other than how they were originally presented).

Sometimes someone comes along and makes a clear effort to do something new.  Often, that's done in relationship to some established character.  That's what Wilson has done, but she's also made an effort to distinguish her efforts.  She's trying to make the character relevant as a kid growing up, and as someone entering the greater superhero community.

So far so good.

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?