Legends Among Us: Before Ms. Marvel Was Super
- By Mary Jane

We all know Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel's prodigee, former Avenger, and now Champion. We know her incredible shapeshifting abilities and her healing factor. We know her fans who stood in for her as she took some time away. We know she's an inhuman and great friends with Queen Medusa's dog, Lockjaw. What we don't know, is behind that mask! For starters, she isn't Carol Danvers. No, this girl is Kamala Khan and she lives her life just like us… when she isn't fighting the bad guys or meeting up with other superheros.

Kamala Khan is a Pakistani American teenager and a practicing Muslim. I am sure a lot of you have strict parents, just like hers. I would just suggest to avoid keeping a big secret like fighting crime every night from them. Whenever Kamala is in a bit of a moral or emotional pickle, she heads to her local mosque to talk to Sheikh Abdullah. He always knows just what to tell her even if it isn't what she expects. Perhaps you have someone like that to go to. While she has a lot of changes she'd like to make to her religion her faith is a great inspiration for other Islamic teenage girls.

Kamala is also a total nerd. That is something I know we can all relate to. Before she was transformed by the Terrigen Mist, she wrote fan fiction about her favorite superheros. Actually, she still does, but her stories are real now. Before, they were all coming from her head. Once, she even got about 1000 upvotes on freakingcool.com! It's no surprise, but Captain Marvel is her favorite hero. Although, she's written quite a number of Spider-man fanfics too. I wish I could read them.

Growing up, Kamala became best friends with a little Italian boy name Bruno. The pair created a bond which could last through anything, even if they pushed that at times. He enjoyed her for her, even once she got powers. He also fell in love with her long before then. Now, it's not like Kamala doesn't return these feelings, she just doesn't know how. She knows her Abu would never approve. Bruno sometimes wishes they could go back to before the powers, but he knows his life changed and developed because of them too.

So, before Ms. Marvel was super, she was just Kamala Khan, a girl like any of you. With a love for comic books, a good sense of faith, and friends she can count on. She might have powers now and an endless supply of baddies to face, but behind that mask? She's just a hidden legend among us. Still, she's certainly a girl worth tracking down to complete a sandwich delivery!



See you next time on the Daily Bugle,
Mary Jane