Superheroes in comic books usually use their time, powers and weapons righting wrongs, helping people in trouble and defeating supervillains who often want to conquer the planet.
However, that's not the case with Ms. Marvel -- whose secret identity is Kamala Khan, a Muslim-American teenager -- in the next issue of her title from Marvel Comics, when the "polymorph" who can change her shape and lengthen her arms and legs tries to encourage people in her New Jersey hometown to vote for Hillary Clinton.
According to an article written by Correspondent Taly Krupkin of the Haartz.com website, the heroine “takes a break from fighting the forces of evil and dedicates all her superpowers to bringing out the vote on Tuesday to help elect” the Democratic presidential nominee.
“Marvel Comics officially joined the United States presidential election circus on Saturday, when it revealed the next edition of … the only comic book in the U.S. with a Muslim superheroine,” Krupkin stated.
“In the election edition comic book, Ms. Marvel and a friend go from door to door ... trying to get out the vote,” the correspondent noted after describing the teenage hero's involvement in politics as a “scandal.”
“One person slams the door in their face; another says his boss won’t let him and he has to work on Election Day; and an old man with glasses and a scarf, looking a bit like Senator Bernie Sanders, says he is protesting and has not voted since 1972 and tells her he does not intend on voting because 'the candidates are all terrible,'” Krupkin indicated.
“By not voting, you’re not sending a message -- you’re just lumping yourself in with the millions of people who didn’t vote because they don’t know how or don’t care,” Khan answers the man.
“At one point, Ms. Marvel collapses because even her superpowers are unable to help her explain time after time the importance of the elections and voting to her neighbors, who don’t know who to vote for, the rules about voting and even whether they are registered to vote,” Krupkin added.
But in Marvel’s advance previews, Ms. Marvel #13 -- due out on November 30-- is an “educational PSA (Public Service Announcement) on voting rights,” the correspondent stated before noting that the issue “delves into how it’s illegal to be prevented from voting by an employer, and, most importantly, on how a protest vote (or no vote at all) is an abrogation of everything our forefathers fought for.”
“The full comic book will only come out after the election, but at the end of the story, it looks like Khan has succeeded in convincing the masses to come out and vote,” she added.
“In a scene that invokes Eugene Delacroix’s masterpiece 'Liberty Leading the People,' commemorating the July Revolution of 1830 in France,” Krupkin asserted, “the residents of New Jersey can be seen marching and carrying signs behind Khan as she waves an American flag and calls for everyone to follow her: 'To the polls.'”
In January, one of the editors and creators of the series, Sana Amanat, whose childhood experiences as a Muslim in New York after the 9/11 attacks helped shape the series, was asked on the Late Night With Seth Meyers show back in January what Ms. Marvel would say to Trump if they met:
The first thing that she would say is: “You’re doing such irreparable damage to young Americans and minorities everywhere.”
“Words and images are very powerful, and these young kids are actually having a perception of themselves that [is] not true, and that’s so dangerous.”
“Then she would probably fly off with the Avengers and save the world from actual bad guys, and prove him wrong about who Muslims really are,” she concluded.
After Khan was introduced in August of 2013, Marvel's first Pakistani hero was met with mostly positive reactions and took over the Ms. Marvel title from Carol Danvers as the lead character during February of 2014.
In addition, the first volume of the new Ms. Marvel title won the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story in 2015.
“The Ms. Marvel series was launched three years ago is very popular among both readers and critics,” she noted. “When she is not fighting the bad guys and saving the world, Khan, the daughter of Pakistani immigrants from Karachi, is a typical American teenager.”
Yes, she's a typical American teenager whose powers "just happen" to be very similar to Rita Farr or Elasti-Girl, a member of the Doom Patrol in rival DC Comics titles since that team was launched during the 1960s.
