The Marvels’ Iman Vellani, who plays Kamala Khan in the MCU, is co-writing her own four-issue limited series that will officially turn Ms. Marvel into a mutant.
Revealed by Entertainment Weekly, Vellani is writing Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant, which launches in August 2023 from Marvel Comics, alongside Saber Pirzada. The artwork comes from Carlos Gomez and Adam Gorham.
“This was way scarier than joining the MCU for me,” Vellani said. “Those projects feel like they live in their own dimension, so I guess I can separate myself easier. But you can hold a comic book! I’ve never written anything before in my entire life, but I have read many comics, so I just wrote what I would want to read. I was given a very professional tool to write what is essentially my own fan fiction.”
Ms. Marvel’s Death and Resurrection, Explained
Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel was created by Sana Amanat, Stephen Wacker, G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, and Jamie McKelvie, her first appearance being a background cameo in 2013’s Captain Marvel #14. Known for being Marvel’s first Muslim protagonist, Kamala has inhuman heritage and received her polymorphic superpowers from a mutagenic vapor called Terrigen Mist.
Kamala met a sudden and controversial death in 2023’s Amazing Spider-Man #29. In the issue, Kamala (who, up until that point, only had a minor presence in the series as an Oscorp Industries intern) joins Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Norman Osborn/Gold Goblin in trying to defeat a villain named Benjamin Rabin/the Emissary. Kamala was ultimately stabbed and killed by Rabin while trying to protect Peter’s ex-girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson. Her friends and family then mourned her loss in the recently released Fallen Friend: The Death of Ms. Marvel one-shot.
Kamala Khan’s Mutant Status Doesn’t Change Her Inhuman Backstory
When news of Ms. Marvel’s death dropped in May 2023, many speculated her inevitable resurrection would involve retconning Kamala into a mutant in order to match her character’s status in the MCU (the series finale of the 2022 miniseries revealed Vellani’s character to be a mutant). Vellani clarified that, while Kamala is indeed becoming a mutant, her previous history as an Inhuman will remain intact.
“I want to make it very, very clear that we are not reconning her Inhuman origin. That’s a part of Kamala’s identity that Marvel editorial and myself would very much like to keep and protect,” Vellani says. “Our book will absolutely reflect all those core themes of identity that the Ms. Marvel comics have consistently explored — only now there’s a whole new label that Kamala has to learn to accept. It’s going to be pretty crazy.”
The new Ms. Marvel series will also give Kamala a brand-new costume, designed by Jamie McKelvie, that noticeably includes the X-Men logo on her belt.
Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #1 features cover art by Sara Pichelli and variant cover art by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau. The issue releases on August 30, 2023. The story of Ms. Marvel’s resurrection will begin in X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 #1, which releases July 26, 2023.
