Samira Ahmed to Be the First South Asian Woman to Write Ms. Marvel

Marvel has announced that New York Times bestselling YA author Samira Ahmed (Love, Hate, & Other Filters, Internment, Mad, Bad, & Dangerous to Know) will be writing a new Ms. Marvel miniseries comic. The series will be illustrated by Andrés Genolet (Runaways), and is set to hit shelves in September. Samira Ahmed will be the first South Asian woman to write for the critically acclaimed series. Ahmed shared the news on her social media:

So many people to thank for this amazing opportunity but have to start with the brilliant @MiniB622 @GWillowWilson @Marvel for creating Kamala Khan, the hero of my heart. And to @saladinahmed for carrying the mantle so beautifully.

— Samira Ahmed Updates (@sam_aye_ahm) June 17, 2021

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ahmed discussed the importance of Kamala Khan as a character, saying:

“For kids of color, Muslim kids, there was literally zero representation when I was growing up,” Ahmed says. “Just the fact that Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman was brunette and from someplace outside America was like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing!’ So when Sana and Willow announced Ms. Marvel, I was just so stunned. My heart soars for all the kids who will have Ms. Marvel comics as part of their childhood. For me, what’s cool about her is that she’s a girl like all the other girls. She’s balancing all this stuff: Parental expectations – which I can 100 percent relate to now even in adulthood – plus school, crushes, and then this extraordinary side job. I feel so much that that is teen life, where you’re struggling to balance all those things and find your voice and where you fit in.”

The job seems tailor-made for Ahmed, whose novels center on Muslim and South Asian teenage heroines like Kamala Khan. “She fits in so naturally with many of my characters … I always tell people that in all my fiction there’s this through-line of the ‘revolutionary girl.’ What girl is more revolutionary than Kamala Khan? She literally has a giant fist that is punching through a glass ceiling! But at the same time, as she’s doing that, she has the heart and the powers to protect people so that shards don’t cut them on the way down.”

Kamala Khan made her debut appearance in Marvel Comics in 2013, created by G. Willow Wilson, artist Adrian Alphona and editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker. Saladin Ahmed took over the character in 2019. The character will make their MCU debut in the Disney+ series, Ms. Marvel, which hits the streaming service later this year. Iman Vellani, who plays the title role, will also appear on the big screen alongside Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) in The Marvels.

Ahmed added, “We’re definitely going to have some food in there, we’re definitely gonna have some pretty striking South Asian cultural elements that people are gonna see right off the bat in the series. There are gonna be some familiar faces and fan favorites, but also some new faces.”

(via Entertainment Weekly, image: Samiraahmed.com/Marvel)

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