How a Giant Fist Changed Ms. Marvel’s Powers Forever

Welcome to the 927th installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed, a column where we examine three comic book myths, rumors and legends and confirm or debunk them. In the first legend of this installment, discover the surprising role that Adrian Alphona played in the depiction of Ms. Marvel’s superpowers.

The origins of what eventually became Kamala Khan, the superhero known as Ms. Marvel, started with conversations between Marvel editors Steve Wacker and Sana Amanat. Amanat recalled, “I was telling him some crazy anecdote about my childhood, growing up as a Muslim-American. He found it hilarious.” The two then started to develop the idea of a teenage Muslim-American girl who would become a superhero. They then enlisted the help of G. Willow Wilson, on turning the idea into a comic book character. Wilson remembered that while she was eager to be involved, “Anytime you do something like this, it is a bit of a risk. You’re trying to bring the audience on board, and they are used to seeing something else in the pages of a comic book.”

However, what’s interesting is that while the concept of Kamala Khan was arrived at early between Amanat, Wacker, and Wilson, there were still a good deal of uncertainty surrounding the character, including what she would look like, and what her powers were! In fact, even after she DEBUTED, they weren’t exactly sure what her powers were!

Kamala Khan’s strange first comic book appearances

As I noted in an old Look Back, July 2013’s Captain Marvel #14 (by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Scott Hepburn, Gerardo Sandoval, Andy Troy and VC’s Joe Caramagna) featured Captain Marvel facing off against the villainous Yon-Rogg, who plans to turn Earth into New Hala, the Kree throneworld, and he is being powered by a mysterious source. As it turns out, he is being powered by essentially a brain tumor within Carol own brain! So yes, the very thing that is threatening to destroy Earth is powered by Carol herself. Not only that, but using her powers exacerbates the tumor, and could kill her! The final battle occurs in New York City, and Carol and the other Avengers fight off Yon-Rogg’s men, while also evacuating innocent bystanders…

That young woman in the panel who is watching Captain Marvel protecting innocents is Kamala Khan…

This was before Kamala actually received an official design from Adrian Alphona, so the artists for this issue only knew that Kamala was Pakistani-American, and went with that. While she was unnamed, it definitely WAS meant to be Kamala (this isn’t a case of someone saying, “Oh, her? Yeah, that was Kamala,” like when Marvel “revealed” that Misty Knight “appeared” in an early issue of Marvel Team-Up), as Kelly Sue DeConnick later noted that the intent was to show Kamala watching Captain Marvel in action saving people before Kamala got her own powers, to really tie in why Captain Marvel was such an inspiration for her.

Okay, then Kamala made her first “real” appearance in Captain Marvel #17 (by DeConnick, Filipe Andrade and Jordie Bellaire)…

See how she was sort of like “hulking out”? That tied into the big debate the creators had on what Kamala’s powers would be.

What changed the conception of Kamala Khan’s powers?

Amanat mentioned the struggle with Kamala’s powers in an early interview, noting, “We all had some really bad ideas at first, but her being a polymorph seemed to make sense.” Wilson, in a separate interview, explained:

At the very early stages, I [said] I did not want her to have stereotypical girl powers. Nothing’s going to sparkle; she’s not going to float. I wanted her to have something kinetic and physical that would look fun on the page. There was a lot of back and forth about what her power set should be, and we settled on making her a polymorph. Polymorphs have a very interesting history in comics, though, because they’re most often bad guys. They’re painted in a negative light because their powers are considered somewhat sneaky compared to the classic power sets like being strong or flying or shooting lightning bolts. So when we decided to make her a polymorph, it was very fraught because she can use her powers to escape what she sees as the conflict in her life between her family and faith and being an American teen. She can hide [from it], and that temptation is there. She can use her powers to try and be all things to all people, which also isn’t healthy. In a way, you’re unpacking two stereotypes, one about Muslims and one about shapeshifters, which I thought meshed nicely with the storyline. But it was a big risk.

The key to it all turned out to be the brilliant artist, Adrian Alphona. First, of course, he designed Kamala and her family, giving her a specific look…

But most importantly, he depicted Kamala’s shapeshifting powers in a sort of comedic way, with her rocking a giant fist…

As Wilson later noted in a Reddit AMA, “In the Super Serious Superhero logic of the time, her ’embiggening’ was too goofy to work. So they went with a more Hulk-style polymorphism in that first appearance. Thank God Adrian was enthusiastic about making her powers delightfully weird.”

So thanks to Adrian Alphona, we got the adorable Ms. Marvel that we all know and love! Thanks, Adrian! And thanks to G. Willow Wilson and Sana Amanat for the information about Kamala’s development!

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Feel free to send suggestions for future comic legends to me at either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com.