Ms. Marvel Category A Prompt 1

A major theme in the graphic novel Ms. Marvel is navigating family relations as a teenager and a super heroine. The passage I chose to examine is toward the end of the collection when Kamala comes home late at night and makes a snack. She sits at the kitchen table and begins to reflect on her life. She thinks to herself, "As great as it is to feel powerful...I kind of want my mom," and almost as if she was summoned, her mother walks into the kitchen. She yells at Kamala, clearly upset that Kamala has been out so late and so dishonest with her parents. Her father comes into the kitchen to see what is the matter and sends her mother back to their room. He and Kamala then have a wonderful conversation where he explains that they only have rules for her and expectations of her because they want her to be safe, healthy, and successful.

I thought this was a touching and honest scene. Kamala is struggling both with her power and with fitting in. Her family, while strict, provides her with the support and love she needs to learn to cope with the changes in her life. Some of these changes are perfectly normal, like what she experiences with her friends, at the party, and the racist commentary she encounters. The other changes, like learning she is a shape shifter with self-healing powers, are not normal. This added stress would be enough to overwhelm any teenager, and Kamala is lucky to have the supportive relationship and open communication she has with her parents.

The representation of Kamala and her family as a normal family unit is also important to the central themes of immigration and racism in the text. They function well together and are represented sympathetically. Kamala struggles with her religious and cultural requirements as any teenager would. In addition to being a text that the children of immigrants or minority children can connect to, Ms. Marvel serves as an honest representation of an under-represented and often vilified group of people.