SPOILERS!!!
All hell broke free on the ICC (web comics group) yesterday! It’s been some time! But WHODUNNIT? The leaked death of Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel in Amazing Spider-Man #26 led to Discourse the likes of which we hadn’t seen in a very long time.
To be honest, killing off a preferred feminine character does have the lingering scent of “fridging”, the very, quite common observe of killing off a feminine character so a male character can have some variety of emotional catharsis.
And additionally, it’s been some time Marvel killed off a personality with such fanfare – regardless of svp of Print, Sales and Marketing David Gabriel’s one time promise to kill a personality as soon as 1 / 4 to spice up gross sales. That quote got here after the Human Torch died all the manner again in 2011, garnering every kind of PR and gross sales. Since then, Johnny Storm has come again to life, and different members of the FF have been snuffed out and been resurrected many time. So many occasions that CBR has a useful article entitled Fantastic Four: The 10 Saddest Deaths, Ranked – however the piece unhelpfully doesn’t even point out the points that the unhappy deaths happened in. It’s known as analysis, folks!
It nearly goes with out saying that the phrases “comic book” and “death” are mutually unique phrases, like “Mets fan” and “happiness.” Although readers’ love of Kamala Khan is laudable, and outrage comprehensible, death merely one other Marvel advertising tactic, as outlined at Newsarama by George Marston.
There’s a easy potential reply. Marvel has a behavior of killing off characters who’re about to star in upcoming movies or in any other case taking them off the board ultimately, solely to provide them a giant, triumphant return to coincide with their new film or collection.
The pattern has reached a degree the place you may mainly nearly day out how lengthy a film will likely be launched from the time of a personality’s death – and lo and behold, The Marvels is nearly six months away with an early November launch date in North America.
Indeed, Marvel killed off Doctor Strange earlier than his film got here out, and Scarlet Witch died throughout the Hellfire Gala earlier than she acquired the starring position in Doctor Strange 2.
It was identified by many individuals that Kamala Khan had her personal well-regarded present on Disney+, and will likely be the co-star of The Marvels, a serious movement image popping out for Thanksgiving, and starring Iman Vellani, Brie Larson and Teyonah Parris as Ms Marvel, Captain Marvel and Monica Rambeau. Ms Marvel may even be seen in the poster.
Additionally, Zeb Wells, who wrote Amazing Spider-Man #26, additionally co-wrote…The Marvels, together with Nia DaCosta, Elissa Karasik and Megan McDonnell.
Kamala Khan’s co-creator G. Willow Wilson is amongst the creators on the FALLEN FRIEND: THE DEATH OF MS. MARVEL #1 one shot, as are Saladin Ahmed and Mark Waid, who additionally wrote important parts of Ms. Marvel’s comics adventures, in order that they needed to in some sense, approve of the death.
In different phrases…it’s all a bit unlikely that Kamala Khan is gone for good. In truth, it’s downright not gonna occur. That doesn’t make her death in the service of a Peter Parker storyline much less objectionable to those that have been upset, or killing a beloved character who broke every kind of limitations as a younger Muslim lady much less tasteless. But…I hope nobody is shedding an excessive amount of sleep over it when there are extra urgent troubles in the world.
As for the why and the way of her death and presumed resurrection. Well you see, in the comics, Kamala Khan was an Inhuman and acquired her powers from sniffing a Terrigen mist. But on the TV present, Kamala Khan was a mutant. As we all know, even when we’re sick of the MCU, the mutant half of it’s going to get a giant relaunch quickly sufficient, as the MCU will get the rights to the X-Men and their sprawling mythology.
The guess, as said on many web sites, is that Kamala will likely be taken to Krakoa, an island that holds a particular place in mutant hearts for its “resurrection protocols” that allowed “heroes to respawn in the middle of battle, revived long-dead X-Men, and helped restore the decimated mutant population.” Convenient!
I imply it’s all virtually spelled out: Kamala will come again in the comics as a mutant to align with the MCU model. It additionally place her properly to proceed with the basic rise of the Mutants in the MCU after her starring position in (I repeat) Marvel’s massive vacation film launch.
ALSO: You could all suppose I’m obsessive about Ike Perlmutter, however you’ll recall that his fixation on changing the Fox-owned X-Men with the Marvel-owned Inhumans spurred quite a bit of comics and TV growth again in the day. This swap for Ms. Marvel additionally has the impact of stamping out yet another little bit of Ike Mythology (though the storyline appears to have been deliberate lengthy earlier than Perlmutter’s dramatic ousting from Disney.)
While this all falls into line very properly, to be trustworthy, my largest query about this hoopla is: who leaked the death of Kamala Khan?
Marvel’s August solicitations seem to have been leaked to a comics web site earlier this week, which included a “CLASSIFIED” mini collection. The death of a serious Spider-Man character had been teased for #26 for actually MONTHS, with heavy foreshadowing that it will be Mary Jane who bit the mud, in a nod to the first nice superhero death, Gwen Stacy.
However earlier this morning, somebody on Reddit leaked it. The earliest I may discover was a submit on a Spider-man comics reddit by a traditional person who didn’t even hassle to cover their title, so I doubt this was the supply. What was notable about the leak, wherever it got here from, was the shockingly blurry photograph that revealed the death.
I’ll admit, after I first heard that the death had been leaked, I questioned if the leak had come from Marvel itself. It appeared like a fairly nice option to get some publicity and certainly, extra individuals are speaking about Ms. Marvel than had been beforehand!
My concept that it was a deliberate leak started to fade after a number of Marvel editors went on Twitter to beg folks to remain off the web in the event that they didn’t need to be spoiled. And then, deciding that each the cat and the bag it acquired out of have been truly in high quality form, Marvel leaned into it with an “official” story on EW, and a press launch about the FALLEN FRIEND one shot. Swift, efficient motion and tons of publicity. Advance copies would have gone out in per week anyway, and the story would have leaked earlier than then, or been introduced upfront, however the outcome was the similar.
I assume we’ll by no means know what actually occurred however I preserve coming again to that blurry photograph. You know, we now have actually good telephones now that take wonderful photographs. Was somebody pulling the comedian away so shortly that solely this shot with the vibe of a Bigfoot sighting was all they might get? Did the leaker submit a shit photograph to keep away from…spoiling the comedian? Or may or not it’s some variety of a false flag operation? I assume I’m overthinking it in an age of overthinking.
Two final notes on the matter: on-line discourse that centered on the tackiness of killing Kamala Khan was nostalgia for the “Axel Alonso era” that gave us “Kamala Khan, Ironheart, Miles Morales, Squirrel Girl and Moon Girl” amongst others (America Chavez). This was certainly a fertile time for brand spanking new characters who’ve made their park in popular culture: Miles Morales is the star of one of the most cherished superhero movies of all occasions and is coming again to the display in a couple of weeks. Ironheart was in Black Panther 2, Chavez was in Dr. Strange. Moon Girl has her personal TV present, as did Kamala and I feel I noticed a Squirrel Girl carton as soon as.
In the comics, it’s a unique story, although. Ms. Marvel hadn’t had her personal title for some time, and others have languished since the Teens. Why can’t Marvel promote extra comics that tie in with the MCU? That’s a fair greater thriller (although solvable) than that blurry Reddit photograph….and one I shall return to 1 of lately.
Discussion about this post