Ms. Marvel: The Teenage Elastigirl

If you are a big fan of superheroes, comic books, Spider-Man, or Elastigirl, then Ms. Marvel Vol. 1 is perfect for you. This book, written by G. Willow Wilson and illustrated by Jacob Wyatt, features a young 16-year-old Pakistani girl from New Jersey, Kamala Khan. Other work by G. Willow is the other volumes of Ms. Marvel, like Ms. Marvel Vol. 6 Civil War II. Although Wilson has worked on Marvel Comics, she has also worked with Detective Comics (better known as DC Comics) on comics like Wonder Woman Vol 1: The Just War.

Kamala, who is a big fan of the Avengers, idolizes them and one day wants to join the team, but she is a powerless young girl. But that changes quickly, as one day Kamala sneaks out of her house to attend a late night party and finds herself in trouble.  When she is walking to the party, she encounters a green gas (named the Terrigen Bomb) that makes her cough and pass out. She wakes up and is surprised to see her appearance has changed, and she resembles her idol, Captain Marvel. Then, she sees a girl has been pushed into a lake by her boyfriend and she quickly comes to the rescue, but is surprised to see her hand has grown ten times its size! She picks up the woman from the lake, and is cheered on by the crowd. 

She runs away, realizing she now has superpowers. She has gained the ability to be able to flex and stretch her limbs with ease and can enlarge her body parts and her entire body as well, acting like her body is made of clay. She also has a healing factor, where she can regenerate parts of her body at a superhuman rate, as shown in the comic when she is shot by a robber and Kamala regenerates the wound. Along with these powers, shapeshifting is one of them, and can change her appearance on command.  Her new and improved powers cause her to live life in the way of a superhero, fighting crime as her new identity as Ms. Marvel, inspired by her favorite hero, Captain Marvel.

If you aren’t satisfied with reading and want to see Ms. Marvel on your screen, there is little time to wait. Ms.Marvel is coming to Disney+ this fall, starring Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan, and yes, this is Ms. Marvel’s official introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In my honest review of this book, it is a really solid book. It’s a great character origin story that gives you all the background info on Ms. Marvel if you were interested in trying to read her comics. The pacing of the book is really great as well and the characters are solid, with characters like Kamala Khan’s friend, Bruno, being a great side character that supports and further boosts Ms. Marvel’s character development. To seal the deal, the illustrations done by Jacob Wyatt really capture the environment and scenery of the book, with the colors popping and fitting the art style and character of a teenage superhero. 

Overall, this is a great comic, perfect for reading, and I would honestly recommend this book to everyone to try out.