Ms. Marvel is no longer a blue-eyed, blonde teenage crime-fighter; she's been revamped to portray a tough, Muslim teen named Kamala Khan.
Khan is a 16-year-old high school student from Jersey City, according to the Associated Press. She's the daughter of two Pakistani immigrants who is unlike any other teen; Khan has the ability to shape shift into many different forms.
Sana Amanat, Ms. Marvel's editor, told AP the series would tackle issues every "ordinary" teen faces and Khan's "desire to explore the Muslim-American diaspora from an authentic perspective."
"I wanted Ms. Marvel to be true-to-life, something real people could relate to, particularly young women. High school was a very vivid time in my life, so I drew heavily on those experiences - impending adulthood, dealing with school, emotionally charged friendships that are such a huge part of being a teenager,"Amanat said.
"It's for all the geek girls out there, and everybody else who's ever looked at life from the fringe," she added.
Muslim characters have appeared in Marvel comics in the past, but as minor roles in a series. Khan is the first of her kind in the Marvel universe, and a big step for the American Muslim community.
Fatemeh Fakhraie, the founder of Muslimah Media Watch, a forum on Muslim women's representation in popular culture, told AP she was "encouraged" to see Khan was being portrayed as a "ordinary" teen and not a teen with "Muslim problems."
"She is going to be a window into the American Muslim experience," Fakhraie said.
Fakhraie added the Muslim superhero "normalizes this idea of the American experience as Muslim. A lot of us are bumping up against that the idea that a lot of America is white, while that isn't what America is, we're not all white and Christian." (Click here to view more photos)
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