Warning: SPOILERS for Magnificent Ms. Marvel #8
Ms. Marvel appears to be going through her own version of Spider-Man’s symbiote saga. When Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created Spider-Man, they envisioned him as an “Everyman Hero” - an everyday person who just happened to have become a superhero. When Marvel created Kamala Khan as the new Ms. Marvel in 2013, they decided to follow the same pattern.
Now, the comparisons are becoming explicit, as Kamala Khan goes through her own “Alien Costume Saga.” The arc is clearly inspired by a classic Spider-Man story, in which the wall-crawler was spirited away to a distant world, where he acquired a new costume. He wore it for months, before he ultimately discovered it was a symbiote, and it was having a pronounced affect on his mind. When Peter Parker rejected the symbiote, it found a new host, Eddie Brock, and became Venom.
Saladin Ahmed’s The Magnificent Ms. Marvel is following exactly the same pattern. The story began when Kamala Khan was transported to the distant world of Saffa, and used ancient Kree technology to drive back a monstrous Beast Legion. In order to access the tech, she had to allow herself to bond with a Kree nanosuit. When the dust settled from the war with the Beast Legion, Kamala decided to keep the nanosuit, figuring it was time for a costume change. She had the sense to show it to Tony Stark, who was impressed, and noted everything from light anti-ballistic capacity to configurable environmental protections.
Unfortunately, it’s becoming increasingly clear the Kree nanosuit is having an impact on Kamala. The core problem appears to be that it charges by absorbing biological energy from its wearer. It’s using Kamala herself as a living battery, and it’s draining her dry. Kamala is becoming increasingly tired, her grades are suffering, and she’s becoming bad-tempered and irritable due to sheer exhaustion. Worse still, there appears to be some sort of neural interface between the outfit and its wearer, and in The Magnificent Ms. Marvel #8 the costume actually took control and attempted to use Kamala’s body to kill one of her enemies. It’s worth remembering that the Kree are a warrior race with no qualms about killing, so there’s no reason they’d install ethical protocols in this suit.
It’s really not hard to see the parallels; Kamala’s story is acting as a near-perfect mirror of the “Alien Costume Saga.” What’s more, the book has even set up two resentful former friends of Kamala Khan’s, who have become the supervillains Discord and Rubicon. Either could serve as the Eddie Brock figure, picking up the alien costume when Ms. Marvel is forced to ditch it. The whole approach is a smart riff on a classic story - and it’s been done with enough style to make it feel fresh and new.
The Magnificent Ms. Marvel #8 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.
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