The Lost Well
A Marvel-ous Idea
RECEIVED Thu., April 25, 2019
Dear Editor,
I am an avid superhero and comic book fan. And the first time I saw Ms. Marvel aka Kamala Khan, I saw myself. A nerd, a hardcore superhero fan, a teenage girl, and a Muslim born and raised in America. Superheroes are written in such a way that we see ourselves in them – our struggles, our ideologies, our desire to fight for what we believe in. I do see myself in Captain America and Spider-Man, but neither of them face the same real-life struggles that I do. Captain America doesn’t have to try to balance being himself with the demands of immigrant parents, but I do. Spider-Man was never made fun of for his religion – but I was. And Kamala Khan was too.
I have never heard of a Muslim woman as the titular character of any mainstream media made in America until now, with the somewhat recent news that there are plans for a Ms. Marvel movie. And now I know that there are little girls just like me who will have what I didn’t growing up – a character just like them. Someone they can see themselves in. A hero. And when the way your religion or ethnicity is portrayed in the media is usually only as terrorists, that’s important. That means something, to me and the generation of kids who will have someone like them to look up to. They’ll have a whole blockbuster movie and say, “We’re not bad, we’re just like you. We can be superheroes too.”
I am an avid superhero and comic book fan. And the first time I saw Ms. Marvel aka Kamala Khan, I saw myself. A nerd, a hardcore superhero fan, a teenage girl, and a Muslim born and raised in America. Superheroes are written in such a way that we see ourselves in them – our struggles, our ideologies, our desire to fight for what we believe in. I do see myself in Captain America and Spider-Man, but neither of them face the same real-life struggles that I do. Captain America doesn’t have to try to balance being himself with the demands of immigrant parents, but I do. Spider-Man was never made fun of for his religion – but I was. And Kamala Khan was too.
I have never heard of a Muslim woman as the titular character of any mainstream media made in America until now, with the somewhat recent news that there are plans for a Ms. Marvel movie. And now I know that there are little girls just like me who will have what I didn’t growing up – a character just like them. Someone they can see themselves in. A hero. And when the way your religion or ethnicity is portrayed in the media is usually only as terrorists, that’s important. That means something, to me and the generation of kids who will have someone like them to look up to. They’ll have a whole blockbuster movie and say, “We’re not bad, we’re just like you. We can be superheroes too.”
Manar Soliman
