ISSUE 56
THE DROUTH
However, whilst Kamala decides not to eat the bacon, she does not give in to her desire to assimilate. When she goes to the party, she is ridiculed and told she ‘smells like curry’ (Wilson, 2013, #1) by her preppy classmate, the popular Zoe. Here, Kamala receives racially-charged hatred for her identity as a Muslim, AmericanPakistani teenage girl. Although critics and even the creative team emphasise that Khan is just like ‘teens everywhere’ (Hennon, 2013, para. 6), the problems she faces are undeniably linked to the ‘intersections between racial, gendered and religious oppression’ (Kent, 2015, p.525), which allows Khan to lay waste to the ‘Arab = Muslim’ (and vice-versa) part of Dar’s equation. Khan and her family are portrayed as an authentic Pakistani-American family. In contrast to the huge blunder DC Comics made when the language of Pakistan was referred to as ‘Pakistanian’ in Superman/Wonder Woman Annual #2 (Tomassi & Champange, 2015), the speech of the characters is peppered with the actual national language of Pakistan, Urdu. When Muneeba Khan, Kamala’s mother, is reminiscing about her son Aamir in his youth, she recalls when he used to get ‘khana’(Wilson, 2016, #6) on his clothing. The substitution of the English word ‘food’ with the Urdu word ‘khana’ gives a genuine representation of the muddled speech of immigrant parents. Kamala’s parents use Urdu terms of endearment when talking to her, such as ‘jaaanu’ (dearest) and ‘beta’ (child) (Wilson, 2014, #2). The characters have a legitimacy with their speech and the Urdu is used to show the paternal and maternal affection the parents give. As they are immigrants who have had to assimilate, it shows that they are genuine with their children as they use a mix of English and Urdu. This relaxed ebb and flow of language builds an intimate image of the Khan family and shows that not all Muslims fit the stereotypical Arab Muslim trope.
AUTUMN 2016
Kamala’s Pakistani background is once again portrayed positively when considering that it has had an active part to play in her powers. Opening up #8 of the new Ms. Marvel (starting again at #1 following a successful run of nineteen issues, chronicling Kamala’s adventures), the India/ Pakistan partition is shown. We see Kamala’s Nano (her maternal grandmother) speak of a feeling that the family carries a ‘strength that is waiting to appear’(Wilson, 2016, #8). From previous Ms. Marvel issues, we know that this strength is the inhuman gene that is awakened in Kamala when the terrigen mist descended upon Jersey City back in #1(2014). Kamala’s powers come from her bloodline, a bloodline which is Pakistani and travels back across India prior to the creation of Pakistan in light of British rule vacating India. It is clear that the Pakistani part of Khan’s character is a rejection of inaccurate representations of Muslims in comics. Although Khan’s relatability has been emphasised repeatedly by both her creators and critics, she is undoubtedly a new direction for the typical mainstream American superhero. This move could be seen as catering to the Western audience but the authenticity of Khan’s Pakistani-American identity shines through. To not acknowledge Khan as a new direction would be to underestimate the depth of her character. Similarly, to not consider the Orientalist and damaging presentations of Muslims within comics that predate Kamala would be a gross misunderstanding of how she fits into the comics context. The new Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, being a positive representation of a PakistaniAmerican Muslim teenage girl, disproves the view that all comic book Muslims are Arab and that all of these Arab Muslims are terrorists, finally disproving Dar’s equation and answering his call for better representation in American comic books.
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