What I Bought 4/17/2015 - Part 5

It wasn’t hard to decide which single issue got its own review post. Just pick the best book of the bunch.

Ms. Marvel #14, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Takeshi Miyazawa (artist), Ian Herring (color art), Joe Caramagna (letterer) – Kamala, get away from that puddle before the you on the other side of that dimensional interface gives away your secret identity!

Kamala and Kamran try to have a chat about their both being Terrigen-reactive after her fight with Kaboom, but her brother arrives to break up that unsupervised time. Cripes, it’s like The Quiet Man in here. “The proprieties will be observed at all times.” So Kamran comes to visit her that night and whisks her off to look at the city from on top of a water tower. Kamala is crushing hard on the boy and stays out far too late, leaving her too groggy to turn down the offer of a ride to school from Kamran in his fancy muscle car the next day, to her brother and Bruno’s concern. As it turns out, Kamran has ulterior motives, as he’s aligned with some faction that opposes Medusa I’m vaguely aware of from seeing scans of Inhuman online.

Far as I can tell, I was wrong about Kamran being telepathic. He’s got more of a Gambit thing going, and not just in the sense of using that sleazy, bad boy charm. Maybe he and Kamala really do have a lot of similar interests. He’s just very much of the Magneto school of thought, that humans are inferior and different, and not worth worrying about. Which as sales pitches go, is a lousy one to use on a girl deeply attached to her regular human family and friends. At least he was honest when he told her he’s not that nice.

One thing I’m curious to learn among all this discussion of Kamala’s future love life is her actual feelings. She’s mentioned her parents would never accept her dating Bruno, and Aamir told him much the same in this issue. And Bruno remarks that she always joked she’d eventually meet a handsome doctor from Karachi someday. It’s unclear, though, whether these statements reflect her actual desires and goals, or the limits she thinks are placed on her by her parents. Does she want or need to marry a fellow Pakistani Muslim, or is that she what she feels she has to do? Is Bruno a non-starter because she doesn’t see it as viable (and that could be for reasons having nothing to do with religion or ethnicity), or because of her parents? We don’t know yet, and it’s something I’m curious to find out. Kamala’s been testing her limits during this series, sneaking out, fighting crime, defying authority figures, be it Queen Medusa, teachers, or her parents. That’s been largely out of necessity. Kamala had powers, learned of a problem, and felt she had to do something. She enjoys crime-fighting, but it’s a responsibility she takes seriously. Now she’s starting to test those boundaries in ways that are more about what she wants to do, so it’ll be interesting to see how far that goes.

The last panel of Kamala and Kamran’s rooftop getaway, as they’re fleeing the night watchman or whatever, the way the beam of the flashlight is portrayed, it looks like lasers or tracers zipping by the two of them as they run. It adds to the romantic aspect of it that Kamala’s so swept up in. Two brash teenage lovers, on the run from the authorities, oh the melodrama. And it mirrors how the trip started a few pages earlier, with Kamran pulling Kamala away by one arm, while she has a look on her face that says she’s completely charmed. That was some good work on the part of Miyazawa and Herring there. Also, Aamir continuing to practice for his interview while Kamala and Bruno talk was kind of funny, just for the gestures and poses he’s making.