Kamala Khan
Kamala Khan is a female comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Kamala Khan
It was said that after the difficult birth of her older brother Aamir that the doctors informed her mother that they could not have any more children. This left her parents devastated but five years later Muneeba became pregnant and they decided to name their miraculous child Kamala. (Ms. Marvel v3 #5)
In kindergarten, Kamala met Nakia Bahadir, who went on to become Kamala's best friend. Like Kamala, Nakia was a practicing Muslim and the daughter of immigrants. (Ms. Marvel v3 #8)
Later, when Kamala was entering the second grade, the Khan family met one of her new classmates, Bruno Carrelli. The teacher, Ms. Bartholomew, told the Khans that Bruno's mother had recently lost custody of Bruno and his younger brother Vick. The Carrelli brothers had been sent to live with their grandparents, immigrants from Italy, and their family had been struggling to make ends meet. They had not been able to pay for Bruno's activities, and young Bruno had become something of a pariah. The Khans offered to pay the boy's fees and sent their daughter to play with him. Though reluctant at first, Kamala and Bruno soon formed a close bond over their shared background coming from immigrant families and their love for the animated TV series Tween Mutant Samurai Turtles. (Ms. Marvel v4 #10)
In addition to her friendship with Nakia and Bruno, Kamala found escape in her love of video games, social media, fan fiction, and above all, superheroes. She devotedly followed the career of Carol Danvers, the former Ms. Marvel who had recently started going by the nom de guerre Captain Marvel. (Captain Marvel v7 #17)
Ms. Marvel
Whilst angry, she walked away when the city was engulfed in a mysterious fog that was actually the Terrigen Mists dispersed around the world. Upon reaching Kamala, she began to lose consciousness and she was enveloped in a cocoon where she hallucinated that she met the Avengers. After a brief period, she emerged from her metamorphosis and appeared in the form of Carol Danvers in her former Ms. Marvel identity. (Ms. Marvel v3 #1) She attempted to make sense of her situation as she struggled to control her new abilities. During this time, she noticed a drunk Zoe and Josh wandering onto the scene with Kamala morphing again into Carol Danvers. Zoe then fell into the river and nearly drowned but Kamala saved her by forming a giant hand to fish her out of the water. She then fled from the scene where she returned home and subconsciously returned back to her normal form when her brother found her in her room. Her parents came to learn that Kamala had snuck out from the party after Bruno rang to ask about her as he was worried after she disappeared. (Ms. Marvel v3 #2) The event left her parents being very angry with her disobedience and a later incident attempting to learn to use her powers led to damage to the locker rooms at the school which saw her facing detention. In addition, Kamala was angry at Bruno for telling her parents about the party but attempted to make amends where she went to the Circle Q to apologise. However, she found an armed robber at the scene attempting to steal the money from the cash register with Bruno at the till. Initially intending to call the police, Kamala found her phone out of charge but decided to intervene using her powers. Taking on Captain Marvel's form again, she used her powers to apprehend the thief but then his gun discharged leaving Kamala with a bullet wound in her body. (Ms. Marvel v3 #3) The robber fled the scene with Bruno attempting to call an ambulance to help the wounded superhero. It was then that Kamala reverted to her normal form thus revealing her secret identity to him with the shapeshifting process healing her injury. Bruno provided her a mask when she could not shapeshift at the time the police arrived on the scene with Kamala going by the name of Ms. Marvel. She later told Bruno that she knew the robber was his brother Vic as she recognised his voice. Bruno later told Kamala that he was worried that his brother had gotten into a wrong crowd as he said he was following a mysterious crime lord called the Inventor. Kamala decided to help and Bruno supplied her the location of his brothers hideout after pulling it from his phone. As Ms. Marvel, she broke into the building only to fight numerous small robots trying to kill her which was when she was confronted by the head of the Inventors goons. (Ms. Marvel v3 #4) Despite her efforts, she was nearly overwhelmed by Doyle and his robots forcing Kamala to retreat with her having to register the fight a loss for her. (Ms. Marvel v3 #5)
However, she decided to regroup her efforts and though she was scolded for her family for being out late she decided to use her time afterwards to train as well as make a proper costume for herself. She then made her second rescue attempt where she broke into the villain hide-out again and successfully saved Vittori Carrelli. (Ms. Marvel v3 #5) In the aftermath, the Inventors bots were dispatched across New Jersey in order to find Ms. Marvel with Kamala having to deal with them whenever she encountered them on patrol. The next day, she noted a disturbance in the sewers and went to investigate as Ms. Marvel where she met a hologram of the Inventor who was revealed to had been a clone of Thomas Edison that was accidentally spliced with a cockatiel. The villain had used devices to take control of sewer alligators and wanted Ms. Marvel to fight them. His plans were interfered with by Wolverine who was investigating the disturbance in the sewers himself with Kamala being excited at her first superhero team-up. He was looking to find a kid that was a runaway where the two worked together but had to contend with the Inventors traps along with the fact that Wolverine no longer had his healing factor. (Ms. Marvel v3 #6) Together, they managed to evade the Inventors death-traps and recovered the captive teens who the villain was using as living batteries for his experiments. Wolverine came to be impressed by the new Ms. Marvel whilst she found some valuable lessons on being a superhero. (Ms. Marvel v3 #7) Medusa sent Lockjaw to aid Kamala and to keep an eye on her. Kamala quickly took a shine to Lockjaw and brought him home with her. In the meantime, she began to research Julie Harrison and discovered the last post Julie made on Facehead before she disappeared was geotagged not far from Bayonne. After finding out that Lockjaw could teleport, she got him to transport them to the location, an abandoned power plant. They fought one of the inventor's robots and opened it up to find another teenager inside of it, just like Julie. The kid fell into a coma and they took him to the hospital, unaware that the robot left a tracer on Kamala. She went to school and was in the middle of class when one of the Inventor's biggest robots came and destroyed half the school in search of Ms. Marvel. (Ms. Marvel v3 #8) Kamala could not morph into someone else and tried to hide her face as she fought the monster with the aid of Lockjaw. Kamala succumbed to her injuries because she could not heal fast enough. Medusa came and teleported Kamala and Bruno to New Attilan where Vinatos healed Kamala. Kamala was then informed of her Inhuman lineage; this came as a shock to the girl. She then decided to go against the Inventor alone, against the wishes of Medusa and Vinatos. She went with Vick and Lockjaw to the Inventor's lair, intending to rescue that the teenagers there were being forced into the machines as power sources. To her surprise, the children were there of their own free will and didn't want to be rescued. (Ms. Marvel v3 #9)
The Inventor had been preying on the teenagers' feelings of worthlessness and convinced them their only use was to use their bodies to power his machines. Soon the Inventor himself showed up and attacked the group, successfully abducting Lockjaw. Ms. Marvel convinced them that they had worth, and was able to mobilize them to join her as she took the fight to the Inventor. When they finally arrived, the Inventor informed them that he already had captured hundreds of teenagers, including Nakia Bahadir. (Ms. Marvel v3 #10) The Inventor brought out his biggest robot to defeat Ms. Marvel but she shrank and went inside of it to and took control. The Inventor used an electromagnetic pulse to weaken her elasticity and force her out. Fortunately, the newly-freed teenagers came to her aid and saved Lockjaw, but she was still out-powered. Realizing what she must do, Ms. Marvel called Bruno, He in turn called the police, who arrested the Inventor. Nakia and the other abductees were taken to the hospital, and for the first time, Kamala realized that her normal life was a thing of the past. (Ms. Marvel v3 #11)
One day at dinner, Kamala's family informed her that they were expecting guests -- some of their oldest friends in the United States, who had a son close to Kamala's age named Kamran. Though reluctant at first, Kamala quickly changed her tune when she learned she and Kamran had many common interests, not to mention how attractive he was. Kamran and Kamala went to Newark Avenue together, supervised by Aamir, where they continued to bond. This was cut short; however, when they came face to face with Kaboom, a radical Inhuman terrorist and member of an organization seeking to overthrow Queen Medusa and affirm their perceived superiority over humanity. In a heartbeat, Kamala could not help but be reminded of the Islamic extremists constantly on the news. Once again, some group felt entitled to destroy the lives of anyone who disagreed with them, and anyone the public can associate with that group suffers. Ms. Marvel sprang into action and hit Kaboom so forcefully she nearly broke the woman's neck, and the paramedics had to be contacted. Horrified, Ms. Marvel fled and returned to Aamir and Kamran as Kamala. Kamran convinced Aamir to give him a minute alone with Kamala, in which he revealed that not only did he know she was Ms. Marvel, but that he was an Inhuman as well. (Ms. Marvel v3 #13) That night, Kamala and Kamran snuck out together to admire the city. Kamran explained his powers to Kamala; he could shift between his human form and a body made of glowing blue biokinetic energy, and all of his body's natural energy could then be transferred into some other object, causing it to explode. Kamala found his abilities uncomfortably similar to Kaboom's, but she did not care. The next day, Kamran offered to drive Kamala to school, despite protests from Aamir and Bruno, the latter of whom secretly harbored feelings for Kamala. Their fears were proved to be well-founded when Kamala realized he had no intention of taking her to Coles Academic High School at all; instead, he was a member of the same organization as Kaboom and had kidnapped Kamala to New Attilan. (Ms. Marvel v3 #14) Kaboom and Kamran introduced Kamala to the leader of the organization, Lineage. Kamran mocked Kamala, telling her that she had this coming and it was her fault it had happened. Lineage offered Kamala a chance to join his coup, but she resisted and secretly contacted Bruno. While her friend came rushing to New Attilan, Kamala defeated Kaboom and called out Kamran for the manipulative bully she now knew he was. Bruno and Ms. Marvel escaped the city together, and Kamala mused about how fortunate she was to have a friend like Bruno. (Ms. Marvel v3 #15)
Avenger
Whilst at school, she received a social media message stating that an imposter dressed as Captain Marvel was involved in a crime in the city. This led to Kamala arriving at the scene as Ms. Marvel where she confronted Doctor Minerva who had captured a Terrigenesis cocoon in order to conduct genetic experiments in creating Kree super-soldiers. This led to Kamala's first team-up with Spider-Man where initially she had questions to ask him about his relationship with Carol Danvers but later focused on defeating the Kree supervillain scientist. (Amazing Spider-Man v3 #7)
One day, she responded to a monster incident where as Ms. Marvel she confronted the creature that was tearing apart the city. At the time, she was joined by another young hero who was her age with this being Nova. He was infatuated with her but she misunderstood his attempts at flirting as being rude and out of line when they had a monster to fight. She also was not impressed with the collateral property damage he caused to her neighbours but they eventually stopped the monster by shrinking it into the Microverse. Ms. Marvel then left but Nova approached her where he decided to clear the air with her by unmasking himself and revealing his name to be Sam Alexander. The exchange turned awkward as Ms. Marvel did not want to unmask and instead left the scene where she felt it was unlikely the two would meet again. (All-New, All-Different Avengers v1 #1) She later responded to an incident at the Liberty Science Center in Liberty State Park where she and Nova came to confront he Chitauri Warbringer. They were joined by other heroes including Captain America, Iron Man, the Vision, the new Thor and the young new Spider-Man. (All-New, All-Different Avengers v1 #2) Warbringer had come to Earth in sarch for pieces of an artifact that could bring about untold damage to the planet. The team of heroes that assembled defeated him at Long Island Sound with Iron Man was impressed at their actions where he invited the three young heroes to join the newest Avengers line-up with Ms. Marvel accepting the offer. (All-New, All-Different Avengers v1 #3)
Champion
She then suggested to her team mates that they form their own superhero team consisting of young heroes wanting to make a difference in the world. This led to them forming the Champions where they recruited Amadeus Cho after he became the Hulk and Viv Vision whilst inviting others to join their ranks. (Champions v2 #1)
Magnificent Ms. Marvel
One day, after Kamala and her friends had just arrived at their school, she witnessed Roxxon's Asgardian Dragon wreaking havoc in order to kill the environmentalist, Ailana Kabua. She assembled the Champions and tried to fight it, but Viv went haywire and exploded, destroying Kamala's entire school and gravely injuring some of its students, including Kamala herself, who was left in a coma. Because of this tragedy, Senator Geoffrey Patrick passed the Underage Superhuman Welfare Act, or Kamala's Law in honor of Kamala. This act outlawed any individual under the age of 21 from operating as a superhero, save for under the condition that they be monitored by an experienced adult superhero. (Outlawed v1 #1)
While things went on, Kamala's friends came to visit her in the hospital. In her coma, Kamala began dreaming about what had happened up to that point, which caused her to finally wake up. Miles was there to comfort her, but she pushed him aside, outraged that her name was being used to outlaw people like her from heroism, and intended to do things on her own. (Magnificent Ms. Marvel v1 #14)
She eventually sent a message to all young people telling them that the Champions would keep fighting wrongs and wouldn't be deterred. Kamala then held a meeting between the Champions and other young heroes in a secret location via video where the Champions berated her for speaking in their name without consulting them. She tried to explain her reasoning, but the meeting was suddenly ambushed by C.R.A.D.L.E., and Kamala witnessed in dismay as her friends tried to escape, while others were sadly apprehended, realizing that someone had sold them out. (Champions v4 #1)
New Mutant
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Kamala Khan was a young dark haired 16 year old Pakistani girl. (Ms. Marvel v3 #1) Her parents named her Kamala which meant 'Perfection' in Arabic. (Ms. Marvel v3 #5) She later decided to take the name of Ms. Marvel when she began to operate as a crime fighting hero. (Ms. Marvel v3 #4)
Kamala was said to be a responsible girl and thus it was unusual to see her getting into trouble. (Ms. Marvel v3 #3)
From a young age, she said that she played video games and roleplaying games. Among the games she played was World of Battlecraft that involved fighting boss level characters. (Ms. Marvel v3 #4)
She was known to be an avid fan of superheroes and often wrote fanfiction about them which she posted on the internet. (Ms. Marvel v3 #1)
Her parents had taught her to always think about the greater good and to defend people that could not defend themselves even if meant putting herself at risk. (Ms. Marvel v3 #4) She had said that she did not like punching animals. (Ms. Marvel v3 #6)
After saving Zoe Zimmer's life with her powers, she came to realise that she could achieve her dream of becoming a superhero. (Ms. Marvel v3 #2)
Her father was said to had brought the family to the United States and to settle in New Jersey. (Ms. Marvel v3 #2) Kamala's family were said to be overprotective of her which was why she hid her activities as a superhero from them. (Ms. Marvel v3 #7)
She used to get regular sermons from Sheikh Abdullah from her local mosque and came to believe the man hated her. Kamala was then surprised that during a meeting with him that he advised her to seek a mentor if she was helping people. He said that he had given many sermons in his life so the only thing he could tell her was to do things the right way rather than try to be strict with her. (Ms. Marvel v3 #6)
Another of her close friends was Bruno Carrelli with the two spending time together. (Ms. Marvel v3 #1) He had always protected her from bad things ever since they were kids. (Ms. Marvel v3 #4)
She was initially impressed with her classmate Zoe Zimmer and thought that she was nice. This led to her disobeying her parents and her religion in an attempt to gain acceptance by her. However, Zoe simply used that as an opportunity to mock her further which upset Kamala. (Ms. Marvel v3 #1)
Kamala was a big fan of Carol Danvers and looked up to her all her life with Khan believing that she was the bravest person who had ever lived. (Ms. Marvel v3 #7)
Powers and abilities
This meant that she was able to take the appearance of anyone with this partly dictated by her mental state. By increasing her mass, she was able to increase the force she was able to apply to superhuman levels. She could also shrink her size or even grow to incredible heights. (Ms. Marvel v3 #3) Kamala could increase the length of her legs allowing her to make great strides in a short span of time. (Ms. Marvel v3 #5) Khan was also shown to be able to take the form of inanimate objects such as a sofa but was unable to hide her heat signature. (Ms. Marvel v3 #6)
It was theorised that she accomplished these changes in shape by borrowing mass from herself at various points in her timeline. Thus, every time she grow or shrunk in size she actually traded her mass with her past and future selves. This effectively meant that her molecules travelled through time though she herself did not trade places in the timestream with herself. (Ms. Marvel v4 #35)
She was shown to possess a kind of healing factor that allowed her to recover from a bullet wound after she changed to her normal appearance. It was shown that she could not shapeshift if her body was healing her injuries. (Ms. Marvel v3 #4) It was possible to put too much strain on her powers where she could not shapeshift, heal and attack at the same time. Her powers could put a lot of strain on her body's system and she required nourishment to make up for the lost energy which sometimes left her very hungry. (Ms. Marvel v3 #5)
Kamala initially fashioned a costume from clothes from her home that included her burkini with her adding a pouch to it along with adding colours. (Ms. Marvel v3 #4) She, however, had difficulties in changing into her clothes and using her powers with them with her requesting to use Bruno Carreli's 'super-snot' treatment on them. (Ms. Marvel v3 #5) This saw her costume being treated with biokinetic polymer that was invented by Bruno Carrelli which was made for his scholarship application to Rutgers. When applied to cloth, it made an item capable of stretching to great levels. (Ms. Marvel v3 #3) It was said that the 'super-snots' capabilities were effected if it got wet. (Ms. Marvel v3 #5)
From the planet Saffa, she came to acquire an advanced nanosuit of Kree design. It was designed to bond to those with Kree blood with this including Inhumans. (Magnificent Ms. Marvel v1 #5) The Stormranger suit was capable of infusing her with power and made her immune to certain attacks. However, the artificial intelligence within the costume acted on its own directives and could trigger a separation protocol if it felt impeded by the wearer. (Magnificent Ms. Marvel v1 #10)
Notes
- Kamala Khan was created by Sana Amanat, Stephen Wacker, G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona where she made her first appearance in Captain Marvel v7 #14 (September, 2013).
- In Champions v2 #25 (2018), she took the name of Mystic Marvel whilst on Weirdworld.
- Amanat commented in an interview, "By the time this new launch comes around, it will have been almost two years since the premiere of Ms. Marvel—and boy, has Kamala Khan been through a lot since then. She's been slowly coming into her own, dealing with the challenges of navigating adulthood and being a super hero. But her training is over now and it's time for the big leagues; the question is can she handle it? ... As much as Kamala has a right to be there—it's still a bit of a culture shock. Dreaming of being an Avenger and then suddenly being one is a lot to take on for someone of her age. So, she'll be a little awestruck, a little overly ambitious."
Alternate Versions
- In Inhumans: Attilan Rising v1 (2015), an alternate version of Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel appeared in a domain called New Attilan that was set on Battleworld. This version was an adult who was a full fledged citizen of Attilan who served Queen Medusa and used her shapeshifting abilities to uncover the rebel activities of the Voice Unheard that were operating from the Quiet Room.
- In All-New Wolverine v1 #33 (2018), an alternate possible future timeline was shown which saw an adult Kamala Khan become the President of the United States of America.
- In Exiles v3 #1 (2018), an alternate reality version of Kamala Khan going by the name of Khan was shown to reside on the world designated as Earth-81111 in the Multiverse. On her world, mankind had turned on Inhumans and Mutants also targeted them in a brutal war that left the world devastated. A small conclave of Inhumans resided in New Jersey with Khan caring for them as their leader with her being an old weary adult who had not gone by the name of Ms. Marvel for a long time. Blink arrived on this world where she was caught by a group of Inhumans who took them to Khan with Clarice telling her that the Tallus had brought her there to find people to combat the threat of the Time-Eater that was consuming realities. At that moment, the Time-Eater consumed that world but the Tallus took Blink and Khan away to another reality thus saving them though Kamala was distraught at losing all her friends on her world.
- In Infinity Wars v1 #4 (2018), an alternate world was created when Gamora using the Infinity Stones used its powers to merge various individuals with one another leading to Ms. Marvel along with Kang combined into a single entity that had her own unique backstory called the Ms. Kang.
In other media
Television
- In Avengers Assemble, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel appeared in the animated television series season titled Avengers: Ultron Revolution starting in the episode "The Inhuman Condition" where she was voiced by actor Kathreen Khavari.
- In Spider-Man, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel appeared in the 2018 animated television series episode "School of Hard Knocks" where she was voiced once again by actor Kathreen Khavari.
- In Marvel Future Avengers, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel appeared in the anime series where she was voiced by actor Akari Kitō in Japanese version and actor Kathreen Khavari in the English dub.
- In Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan appeared in the setting of the live-action television series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where she was portrayed by actress Iman Vellani.
Films
- In Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel appeared in the 2018 animated film where she was voiced once again by actor Kathreen Khavari.
Video games
- In Marvel Avengers Academy, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel appeared as a playable character in the mobile video game where she was voiced by actor Priyanka Chopra.
- In Marvel: Future Fight, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel appeared as a playable character in the mobile video game.
- In Marvel: Contest of Champions, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel appeared as a playable character in the mobile video game.
- In Marvel Heroes, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel appeared as a Team-Up character in the MMORPG video game where she was voiced by actor Erica Luttrell.
- In Marvel Strike Force, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel appeared as an unlockable playable character in the mobile video game.
- In Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel appeared as a playable character in the setting of the video game where she was voiced again by actor Kathreen Khavari.
Appearances
- Captain Marvel v7: (2013)
- Ms. Marvel v3:
- Amazing Spider-Man v3:
- All-New, All-Different Avengers v1:
- Champions v2:
- Champions v3:
- Secret Warriors v2:
- Infinity Wars v1:
- Magnificent Ms. Marvel v1:
- Marvel Team-Up v4:
- X-Men v6: (2023)
External Links
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
