Kamala Khan

• 1. Introduction

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  Kamala Khan first appeared in print as a face in the background of Captain Marvel #14, published in August 2013. Writer Kelly Sue DeConnick placed her there on purpose. In that scene, Kamala watches Carol Danvers protect civilians from an enemy named Yon-Rogg. A second cameo followed in issue #17 that November. Within months, the bystander had a series of her own.

  Kamala is a Pakistani-American teenager from Jersey City, New Jersey, and she is a superheroine in Marvel Comics. She is also a character who has been argued over more than most. How does a childhood anecdote shared between two editors become a headlining hero? What does it mean to fight crime from the shadow of Manhattan? And why did Marvel's decisions about her fate draw such sharp criticism from reviewers and readers alike?

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• 2. A Childhood Anecdote

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  Marvel Comics announced in November 2013 that Kamala would take over the series Ms. Marvel the following February. G. Willow Wilson would write the book and Adrian Alphona would draw it. It was the first time a Muslim character headlined a Marvel book. Noelene Clark of the Los Angeles Times pointed out that Kamala was not the first Muslim character in comics. She named Simon Baz, Dust and M as earlier examples.

  The spark was a conversation between two Marvel editors, Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker. Amanat recalled telling Wacker "some crazy anecdote about my childhood, growing up as a Muslim American." She said he found it hilarious. The two then brought the concept to Wilson, who was eager to join. Amanat later described the goal as a "desire to explore the Muslim-American diaspora from an authentic perspective."

  Artist Jamie McKelvie drew the costume from two sources. One was his own redesign of Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel. The other was Dave Cockrum's design for the original Ms. Marvel. Amanat asked that the look reflect the Captain Marvel legacy along with Kamala's own story and background. The shalwar kameez influenced the result. The team wanted her cultural identity visible, but they chose not to give her a hijab, because most teenage Pakistani-American girls do not wear one. Amanat also wanted her to look "less like a sex siren," so the book would reach a broader female readership.

  Wilson's first ideas were different. She considered an Arab girl from Dearborn, Michigan, and she also pictured a Somali American in a comic set in Seattle. Marvel's own brief was simply a young Muslim girl who could come from anywhere and have any background. Wilson finally made Kamala a Desi girl from Jersey City, and the choice of city would matter a great deal.

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• 3. Second String City

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  Jersey City sits across the Hudson River from Manhattan, and people have called it New York City's "sixth borough." The city is central to Kamala's identity and to the narrative, precisely because most Marvel stories are set in Manhattan. Wilson put it this way: "A huge aspect of Ms. Marvel is being a 'second string hero' in the 'second string city' and having to struggle out of the pathos and emotion that can give a person."

  Kamala's household carries its own pressures. Her parents are Yusuf and Muneeba Khan, and her older brother is Aamir. Wilson is a convert to Islam, and she said the series "is not evangelism." She wanted Kamala to be someone who struggles with her faith. Kamala's brother is extremely conservative. Her mother is paranoid about her getting close to a boy. Her father wants her to focus on her studies and become a doctor.

  Amanat stressed that the book does not preach about Islam or any other faith. In her telling, it is about what happens when you struggle with the labels imposed on you, and how that shapes your sense of self. Her religion, Amanat said, is "just one aspect of the many ways she defines herself."

  Kamala's heroes come from the comics she loves. Amanat described Khan as a big comic book fan who takes the name Ms. Marvel after discovering her powers. Her idol is Carol Danvers, now known as Captain Marvel. Wilson explained the pull of that idol: "She's strong, beautiful and doesn't have any of the baggage of being Pakistani and 'different'." It is an ideal Kamala would eventually have to measure against the real woman.

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• 4. Stretch and Embiggen

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  One rare night, Kamala rebelled. Her parents had forbidden her from attending a school party, so she sneaked out. In the aftermath of Marvel's Infinity storyline, the Terrigen Mists had been released, and they activated her dormant Inhuman abilities. Amanat said in 2022 that she and Wilson had first planned to make Kamala a mutant before changing her to an Inhuman.

  Screen Rant labelled her a polymorph and compared her moves to Ant-Man and Mister Fantastic combined. Elongation is her best-known power. She can extend her limbs, torso or neck great distances. She can also shrink or grow, and when enlarged she can lift up to 75 tons. She has even made her body as thin as paper. A healing factor can close bullet wounds, but only while she is not using her polymorph abilities, and heavy healing leaves her very tired. She can also take the shape of other people and of objects, though she rarely does.

  Academic Sarah Gibbons reads those powers as a mirror of Jersey City itself. She argues that Kamala's body-morphing parallels the flexibility required of the people who live there. In her view, the unusual superpowered body sends a non-conforming message.

  From 2016 to 2019, Kathreen Khavari voiced Kamala in animated series such as Avengers Assemble, Marvel Rising and Spider-Man. Sandra Saad voiced her in the video game Marvel's Avengers (2020) and in the animated series Spidey and His Amazing Friends (2021).

  In 2019, Wilson was asked about the jump from comics to live action. She said the team had not set out to create anything with obvious film potential. She described Kamala's abilities as "very comic booky powers" and worried that bringing them to the screen might look "really creepy."

  The live-action version arrived in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2022 with a different gift. Iman Vellani plays Kamala, who creates glowing purple constructs out of hard light. Vellani has played her in the miniseries Ms. Marvel, in the attraction Avengers: Quantum Encounter, in the film The Marvels (2023) and in the animated miniseries Marvel Zombies (2025). In the Ms. Marvel finale, titled "No Normal," the story reveals that Kamala carries a genetic mutation. Vellani then confirmed she was the first mutant in the MCU. Comic writers would later carry that mutant heritage onto the page.

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• 5. Allies and Adversaries

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  Kamala's comic debut came in a story called "Garden State of Mind," published in the anthology All-New Marvel Now! Point One #1 in January 2014. Her own series followed in February 2014. Her first archenemy was the Inventor, a clone of Thomas Edison tainted with the DNA of Gregory Knox's pet cockatiel. Wilson designed him to mirror Kamala's own complexity. She called the opening arc "kooky and almost Miyazaki-esque at times," a look owed to Alphona's style, which balances drama with his "tongue in cheek sight gags."

  The X-Man Wolverine joined Kamala during that first arc. He was dealing with the loss of his healing factor, so she had to shoulder much of the responsibility. Wilson liked the role reversal, because readers would expect Wolverine to take the lead.

  At the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, writer Dan Slott announced that Kamala would join Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man #7 in October 2014. Slott called her "the closest character to classic Peter Parker." In his view, she was a teenage hero juggling her life and making mistakes while trying to do everything right.

  In May 2015, All-New All-Different Avengers FCBD, by writer Mark Waid and artists Adam Kubert and Mahmud Asrar, placed Kamala among the Avengers. She faced the billionaire Mister Gryphon. When her second volume launched, Amanat said Kamala would be "a little awestruck, a little overly ambitious," because dreaming of being an Avenger and suddenly becoming one is a lot to take on at her age.

  In March 2016, Marvel teased a rift between Kamala and Danvers as Ms. Marvel tied into the "Civil War II" storyline. Academic Sandra Eckard described how Kamala first follows her mentor, then balks at jailing people for crimes they might commit. Her friends abandon her, and Captain Marvel dismisses her. Broken, Kamala travels to Pakistan. There she meets Kareem, a family friend, and a young Pakistani hero named Red Dagger. She never learns they are the same person, and Kareem does not know her secret either. When Kareem returns in issue #23 in October 2017 as an exchange student at her high school, Ms. Marvel shares her first kiss with Red Dagger.

  In July 2016, Marvel announced the Champions, a team of teenage heroes who leave the Avengers after "Civil War II." Waid wrote the series and Humberto Ramos drew it. The team included Kamala, Miles Morales as Spider-Man, Sam Alexander as Nova, Amadeus Cho as Hulk, Viv Vision and a teenage version of Cyclops. Waid said the first three were the kids who quit the Avengers, and that recruiting them was an easy get. The following month, Kamala appeared in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #10 as a mentor to Lunella Lafayette, a fellow young Inhuman. Amanat said Kamala sees much of herself in Lunella and learns about herself by teaching her.

  In March 2017, Wilson wrote a Generations one-shot pairing Kamala with Danvers. She said it was about discovering that your idols have "feet of clay" and forgiving them as you gain an adult understanding of your own flaws.

  Ms. Marvel #31, the 50th issue of the series featuring Kamala, appeared in June 2018. Marvel brought in extra writers for it, including Wilson, Saladin Ahmed, Rainbow Rowell and Hasan Minhaj. The artists were Nico Leon, Bob Quinn, Gustavo Duarte and Elmo Bondoc. Wilson had planned her departure for over a year and was pleased to have written 60 issues. In March 2019, Ahmed and artist Minkyu Jung took over with The Magnificent Ms. Marvel.

  In the October 2020 one-shot Outlawed #1, the Champions protect a young climate activist speaking at Coles Academic High School. The Roxxon Oil Company targets the activist, and the school collapses. Kamala saves the activist but is critically injured. The government responds with the Underage Superhuman Welfare Act, which bans superhero activity for anyone under twenty-one. The act is renamed "Kamala's Law," yet her secret identity stays intact. Six months later, Kamala publicly vows to keep working alongside the Champions. The team then reveals that Roxxon is using its government contract to intern young superpowered people in brutal reeducation camps. Roxxon loses the contract, and enforcement of the law is suspended. The Magnificent Ms. Marvel ended with issue #18 in April 2021, the 75th issue of the Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel comics.

  Kamala then headlined the limited series Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit, which ran five issues from December 2021 to April 2022. Entertainment Weekly noted that its writer, Samira Ahmed, would be the first South Asian woman to write a Ms. Marvel series. In May 2022, Ahmed also wrote the digital one-shot Ms. Marvel: Bottled Up, in which Kamala confronts the destroyer Mariikh, a jinn, at the American Museum of Natural History.

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• 6. Dying Twice

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  In January 2018, Champions relaunched with a third volume, and Kamala co-led the team with Miles Morales. IGN reported that writer Jim Zub and new artist Stephen Cummings would explore what happens when Ms. Marvel takes the team global. In the first arc, the supervillain Zzzax kills Kamala and Viv Vision during a battle in Dubai. Miles undoes their deaths by accepting a bargain from the devil Mephisto, a cosmic do-over. The price is a bystander whom Miles had saved from falling rubble. In the new timeline, that person dies instead. Guilt-ridden, Miles eventually tells Kamala, breaking her heart and ending their friendship. He leaves the team in issue #4.

  The reviewer at Bam Smack Pow faulted the lack of follow-up in her solo series. A friend trading an innocent life for hers, the reviewer wrote, is trauma that really should be followed up upon. The same review praised the gut-wrenching conversation between Kamala and Miles. Vishal Gullapalli, reviewing the collected volume for AIPT, called the premise built on fridging. Two women die with little agency, and their corpses exist to create anguish for the men around them. Gullapalli added that Kamala gains agency as the story continues, stepping into the role of team leader, and that this development saves the story.

  The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 5 #7 in August 2022 introduced Kamala as a new Oscorp intern in the renewable energy division, where she runs into Peter Parker. She later became the personal assistant of Norman Osborn. The Direct counted her presence in writer Zeb Wells's story at only 14 out of 646 pages and 37 out of 3204 comic panels.

  After a leak in May 2023, Marvel confirmed that Kamala would die in The Amazing Spider-Man #26, published on the 31st of May. In the issue, she saves Mary Jane Watson from being sacrificed by a dimension-hopping villain called the Emissary. Kamala uses her shapeshifting to take on Watson's appearance. The Emissary attacks her, assuming she is Watson, which botches his ritual and kills him. Kamala cannot heal from her wounds. She reveals her identity to Peter and dies in his arms.

  Several low-resolution pages had leaked before publication, and the criticism came fast. Joe Grunenwald of The Beat and James Whitbrook of Io9 both noted that the death followed her onscreen fame. It also happened in another headliner's book, at a time when Kamala had no series. Grunenwald said it "smacks of fridging the character for the sake of making headliner Peter Parker sad." George Marston of GamesRadar+ called it an opportunistic bait-and-switch. He pointed to a Marvel trend of killing characters who are about to star in films, only to bring them back as the new project arrives. Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool noted that Wells was also one of the writers of The Marvels movie. Susana Polo of Polygon said it was cruel to play games with an audience that has so few Muslim superheroes. She added that the death was already inspiring celebratory racist reactions on social media.

  Marvel followed with the single issue Fallen Friend: The Death of Ms. Marvel, released on the 12th of July 2023. Wilson and artist Takeshi Miyazawa wrote the first chapter, about her supporting characters. Waid and Ramos handled her Champions teammates. Ahmed and artist Andrea Di Vito covered the Avengers, including Iron Man, Captain America and Spider-Man. All three chapters are structured around a reading of Al-Falaq, the 113th chapter of the Qur'an, during Kamala's funeral. An extra last page released online shows Cyclops arriving as people leave, to the fury of his former Champions teammates. "You'll understand," he tells them. "Not today. But soon."

  Reviews were mixed. Chase Magnett of ComicBook.com called it a stirring tribute. David Brooke of AIPT gave it 6 out of 10 and judged it "far too little and maybe too late." Cy Beltran of The Beat found the first two stories moving and the third out of sync. Marvel published a recap of the friendship between Cyclops and Kamala the same day. It noted that Cyclops had inherited the memories of his younger counterpart from the Champions, and it teased that this bond might be what saves her.

  In a 2024 podcast interview, Cody Ziglar, who wrote Kamala as a supporting character in Miles Morales: Spider-Man, made a claim. He said Wells had told him that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige mandated killing Kamala and resurrecting her as a mutant. A Marvel spokesperson denied Feige's involvement. The spokesperson said that making her a mutant, not killing her, was an editorial decision made long before issue #26 reached shelves.

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• 7. The Mutant Years

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  In the July 2023 one-shot X-Men Hellfire Gala 2023 #1, Kamala is resurrected on Krakoa as part of the "Fall of X" relaunch. She learns that she carries a dormant X-Gene, which makes her a mutant and Inhuman hybrid. Charles Xavier plans to have her announce her dual heritage at the Hellfire Gala, to improve relations between mutants and humans. Orchis forces attack the Gala before she can. In X-Men vol. 6 #25 in August 2023, Emma Frost erases the memories and records of Ms. Marvel's death from the public, including her family and friends. Kamala joins the X-Men, who must operate underground amid anti-mutant sentiment fostered by Orchis.

  In The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 6 #31 in August 2023, Kamala reunites with Spider-Man. Peter apologizes for the circumstances of her death and reveals his identity to her.

  Her powers took time to settle. Xavier suspected that her Inhuman abilities activating first may have suppressed her mutant ones. Unlike other mutants, Kamala could touch the Terrigen Mist without ill effects. Because she was resurrected without properly undergoing Terrigenesis, her body began to disintegrate. She underwent the process again to stabilize herself, which risked never awakening her mutation.

  Later that month, she starred in Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant, a four-issue series written by Iman Vellani and Sabir Pirzada. Carlos Gómez and Adam Gorham drew it. McKelvie updated her costume to mark her new identity, with X-Men logos replacing the lightning bolt that dates back to Carol Danvers. Polygon described the yellow and blue outfit as fitting her new X-Men-style origin. In the story, the X-Men send Kamala undercover as a student into an Orchis-sponsored summer program at Empire State University. Her ties to the X-Men are exposed, and anti-mutant backlash follows. Lia Williamson of AIPT praised Vellani's handling of the new status quo, saying her love for the character shines through.

  The four-issue Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace followed in March 2024, with Pirzada and Vellani writing and Scott Godlewski drawing. It brings Kamala back to Jersey City. In issue #4 in June 2024, a rogue Orchis scientist named Nitika Gaiha acquires the corpse of Kamala's original body and reanimates it as a zombie. Gaiha awakens that body's mutant powers, which turn out to be purple hard light constructs. Kamala stops the threat without awakening her own powers. The issue also sets up her move to New York City, since the people of Jersey City now hate her over her perceived attack on the Mosque and the attempted murder of Abdullah. Alex Schlesinger of AIPT gave the issue 9.5 out of 10. Evan Valentine of ComicBook.com gave it 4 out of 5.

  In July 2024, the ongoing series NYX launched as part of the "X-Men: From the Ashes" relaunch. Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing wrote it, with art by Francesco Mortarino. Kamala shares the book with Laura Kinney, Anole, Prodigy and Sophie Cuckoo, young mutants adapting to New York after Krakoa. In the first issue, Kamala and Sophie discover they are in the same class at Empire State University, taught by Prodigy. Kamala saves Anole from an anti-mutant hate group called the Truthseekers, whose ranks include her cousin Bilal. The villain Mojo also schemes against the mutants. The series ended with issue #10 in April 2025.

  Kamala's story continued in the Giant-Size X-Men Anniversary Event, five one-shots commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first Giant-Size X-Men issue. Kelly and Lanzing wrote them, and Adam Kubert, C.F. Villa and Francesco Manna drew them. They ran from Giant-Size X-Men #1 in May 2025 to Giant-Size X-Men #2 in August 2025. Legion pulls Kamala through time, where she meets the X-Men during moments such as "Second Genesis" and "The Dark Phoenix Saga." She also visits the Age of Apocalypse and "House of M" continuities. Giant-Size X-Men #1 ends with her finally awakening her mutant powers, and her hard light emits a golden aura. Her constructs later return to their original purple during Giant-Size Dark Phoenix Saga. She restrains Legion, an omega-level mutant, while he is possessed by the Phoenix Force. In their final confrontation, Legion discovers that Kamala carries Krakoa's DNA. That gives her the ability to turn her body into a living portal, much like Krakoa's Gateways, which allows travel through time and across dimensions. In the final issue, she reveals her mutant status to her parents.

  In November 2025, Batman/Deadpool #1, a crossover between DC Comics and Marvel, carried a back-up story by Wilson and artist Denys Cowan. It teams Kamala with Static.

  In January 2026, Kamala joined the ongoing series Inglorious X-Force as a surprise member. Tim Seeley writes it and Michael Sta. Maria draws it. Cable reforms X-Force to prevent the assassination of the first mutant president, who is revealed to be Kamala herself. He recruits her for her own protection. Cable suspects that her future assassin is hiding among the team: Archangel, Boom-Boom or Hellverine.

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• 8. Reception and Reach

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  When Marvel announced Kamala in 2013, the reaction online was widespread. Fatemeh Fakhraie, founder of the advocacy group Muslimah Media Watch, told Al Jazeera America that Kamala was "going to be a window into the American Muslim experience." Brett White of Comic Book Resources said Marvel had shown again that it wants to include groups of Americans not yet personally inspired by their heroes. Hussein Rashid, writing for CNN, noted that she is a teenager born in the United States who appears to belong to the post-9/11 generation. Muaaz Khan of The Guardian compared Kamala to Malala Yousafzai.

  Not every voice was warm. Leon Moosavi of the University of Liverpool felt her family would reinforce a stereotype of restrictive Muslim parents. He also thought her shape-shifting resembled several anti-Muslim stereotypes, especially the idea of taqiyya. Stephen Colbert, parodying right-wing commentators on The Colbert Report, joked that a Muslim cannot be a superhero because they are on the no-fly list. Conan O'Brien tweeted a joke linking Kamala's religion to polygamy and removed it after public backlash.

  Reviews of the first issue were glowing. Meagan Damore of Comic Book Resources said there was nothing not to love. Joshua Yehl of IGN called her a vibrant and troubled character you cannot help but love. George Marston of Newsarama named it one of the strongest debuts for a new character that Marvel had produced in a long time. In 2016, USA Today said Kamala had won awards, sales and hearts since breaking onto the scene. Alex Abad-Santos of Vox wrote that Wilson and Alphona avoid the "after-school special" type of story. In 2017, Katie M. Logan of Salon wrote that Kamala signals an important development in cultural representations of Muslim-Americans.

  Scholars found other layers. In the book Uncanny Bodies: Superhero Comics and Disability (2019), Scott T. Smith and José Alaniz noted that scenes of Kamala struggling with her powers have been read as allegories of assimilation. They argued that her self-acceptance also demands that the world see her unruly body as a superheroic one.

  In October 2014, Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal was the best-selling graphic novel of the month. The next month it reached No. 2 on The New York Times Best Seller list of paperback graphic books. Volume 2, Generation Why, debuted at #4 in April 2015. Volume 3, Crushed, debuted at #3 in July 2015, and Volume 5, Super Famous, debuted at #3 in July 2016. By August 2018, the series had sold half a million trade paperbacks, in addition to digital sales.

  Single issues told a quieter story. George Gustines of The New York Times reported that in February 2017 the series sold an estimated 19,870 copies, ranking 109 out of the top 300 comics. That year, Marvel senior vice president David Gabriel blamed declining sales on efforts to increase diversity and female characters, then tried to walk the statement back. Gustines wrote that the issue was more nuanced. Mel Gibson, a comics scholar at Northumbria University, said the series leapt in sales among non-traditional comic readers, such as females, Muslims and Pakistani-Americans.

  No Normal won the 2015 Hugo Award for best graphic story, and Super Famous was nominated for the same award in 2017. The series was also put forward for Eisner, Harvey, Joe Shuster, Dragon and Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics honors. It was entered for a prize at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2016. In 2019, the volume Teenage Wasteland, by Wilson and Nico Leon, appeared in the American Book Award entries.

  In January 2015, images of Kamala began appearing over anti-Islamic advertisements on San Francisco city buses. The American Freedom Defense Initiative had bought the ads, which equated Islam with Nazism. Street artists covered them with Kamala and messages such as "Calling all Bigotry Busters" and "Stamp out racism." Wilson tweeted that the graffiti was part of the back-and-forth of free speech. In her words: "Call and response. Argument, counterargument."

  At a March 2016 White House reception celebrating Women's History Month, President Barack Obama met Sana Amanat. He said that Ms. Marvel may be the creation of comic book people, but "for a lot of young boys and girls, Sana's a real superhero." That October, Autumn Whitehearst's illustration for the cover of The Village Voice paid homage to J. Howard Miller's "We Can Do It!" poster, alongside an article by Mallika Rao. In March 2018, Merriam-Webster added 850 words to its dictionary, including "embiggen." The word first appeared in The Simpsons episode "Lisa the Iconoclast" (1996) and was popularized in Ms. Marvel as Kamala's exclamation. In Jersey City, McNair Academic High School inspired Kamala's fictional school. Shreeya Shankerdas, of the Class of 2025, founded the Coles Kamala Korps, named for that fictional school.

  Other versions of Kamala have appeared in stories set in alternate worlds. An older Agent Khan appears in Inhumans: Attilan Rising by Charles Soule and John Timms, part of the 2015 "Secret Wars" storyline. A widow named Kamala Carrelli joins the Exiles in a series that ran from April 2018 to March 2019. She is from Earth-81111, where Sabretooth murdered her husband and daughter. During the 2018 "Infinity Wars" storyline, a Warp World version merges with Kang the Conqueror to become Kamala Kang.

  Another future Kamala appears in All-New Wolverine #33 in April 2018, by Tom Taylor and Ramon Rosanas. On Earth-18366, she retired as Ms. Marvel after the Doom World War and entered politics, becoming the President of the United States. Kieran Shiach of Comic Book Resources said the image presents a President who is both a woman and Muslim as a possibility within our lifetime.

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