Blog Archives

Kamala Khan’s Rising Influence: The Ms. Marvel TV Show vs. the Comics by Dr. Margaret Robbins

7/20/2022

We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Margaret Robbins back to YA Wednesday this week! Robbins is a Humanities Educator at The Mount Vernon School. She is also a National Writing Project Fellow, avid reader and scholar of diverse comics and YA literature, and creative writer.

Margaret's reflection below is especially valuable because it weds world history, current popular television, and YA graphic novels.

Kamala Khan’s Rising Influence: The Ms. Marvel TV Show vs. the Comics by Dr. Margaret Robbins

In early June, I watched the debut Ms. Marvel TV show on Disney Plus with my five-year-old nephew, who followed it surprisingly well. He asked me questions, but he could appreciate the characters and the imagination. The subsequent episodes might be too scary and serious for him, but I’m glad he watched the first episode with me. He’s Jewish, so I want him to understand the importance of representation, along with imagination.

As some readers know, I am passionate about the new Ms. Marvel comics featuring Kamala Khan, a teenage Pakistani-American girl from Jersey City. I’ve taught them, particularly the first Ms. Marvel: No Normal volume, and I’ve also written about them in academic articles and journals. I met G. Willow Wilson at the ICFA Conference in March 2019 and heard her speak. So at first, I had conflicting feelings about the fact that the TV show is so different from the comics. However, I’ve grown to enjoy the show, even though I see it as a separate entity from the books. The pace of the television show is much faster than that of the comics, which I think makes sense for the transition to television. A couple of friends and students who have read the comics have said they liked the story, but that the pace was slow, so I imagine that one reason behind the faster pace is to have wider audience appeal.

Some incidents in the tv show happen a lot more quickly and in more depth than in the comics. For instance, in Volume 1 of Ms. Marvel No Normal, Kamala attends a cousin’s Mehndi, or engagement party. In the television series, much of one episode is devoted to her brother Amir’s wedding, whereas the comic only mentions that Amir got married. Through the episode, though, the audience is able to learn about Pakistani cultural wedding traditions, which I found interesting.
The character of Red Dagger is introduced much earlier in the series, and Kamala makes a voyage to Karachi, Pakistan, much earlier in the story. We also learn much of Kamala’s family’s history involving the partition of India and Pakistan in the late 1940s earlier and in more depth than in the comics. Overall, the television series introduces us to more action and conflict and also more of Pakistani culture sooner than the comics, which I think invites more audience engagement and also more education about Middle Eastern history and culture.
Interestingly enough, Kamala’s close friend Nakia and her mother Muneeba both have more character development in the television show, and Kamala’s male best friend Bruno has less. I’ve written about Bruno and Kamala’s relationship because it’s fascinating to me not only because of their strong bond based on mutual interests and values, but also because of their racial and cultural differences. However, I know from the audience notes featured on the back of the comics that the romantic turn of their relationship got mixed reactions from readers, so that could be part of why it has been de-emphasized up to this point. Kamala has other potential love interests on the show, but so far, her relationship with Bruno has been purely platonic, even though Bruno seems to have unreciprocated feelings for Kamala.

Overall, I’m appreciating the Ms. Marvel TV show for its action and audience appeal, even though it diverts from the comics. I hope Kamala’s friendships with both Bruno and Nakia get more developed because I think both are important. However, I do appreciate the show exploring Nakia’s leadership and activism roles in more depth and early on, as her character gets less attention in the comics. Also, I love how the opening conflict with Zoe involves a popular culture convention instead of a more conventional high school party. It shows how important CONS have become to modern day pop culture. I’m enjoying the TV show and think it’s culturally important and relevant because of the representation of a middle easter Muslim teenage girl, along with the empowered female characters.

In terms of classroom study, I think there’s potential to compare and contrast the comics and the TV show in terms of storytelling techniques and the building of conflict, characterization, and visual media. I also think learning more about the1947 partition would be relevant, especially for a world history curriculum. Studying the show from a critical media literacy perspective and examining power dynamics between the characters would also be beneficial, particularly since the comics and the television show both show scenes involving prejudice against Muslim and middle eastern people, along with the struggles Bruno faces based on social class. In both K12 and college classrooms, Kamala Khan is worth studying as a pop culture icon, as she is appearing more and more in other Marvel comics. I believe her influence will be long lasting because of her prominent role as a young middle eastern female Muslim character. As young children watch the show and engage with the comics, hopefully they will be reminded why representation matters.

Summer Resting by Dr. Gretchen Rumohr

7/13/2022

Gretchen Rumohr is Chief Curator of YA Wednesday. She serves as a professor of English and department chair at Aquinas College, where she teaches writing and language arts methods. She is also a Co-Director of the UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. She lives with her four girls and a five-pound Yorkshire Terrier in west Michigan.

Summer Resting by Dr. Gretchen Rumohr

After a few weeks of work and travel in June, after yardwork and laundry and emptying the dishwasher night and day, I am taking a week or two OFF. Off, I tell you! My girls and I are headed this very moment to Manistee, where we will enjoy lake time, campfires, and hobo pies. And then we will head to Cadillac to see brother (and fellow YA Wednesday contributor) Luke Rumohr for a few days of boating, hot tubbing, and discount store shopping. We will soak in all of the things we love about Michigan summers, staying up late and sleeping late and barbecuing things on the sunny deck. And we will rest. Do you think I have everything I need in my trunk? I sure hope I do, because I don’t have another inch to spare.

Wait! I forgot! There are just three more things I need to add…

The next week or two, I will enjoy my family, enjoy the weather, enjoy Michigan beautiful, and of course READ! This is what is on my list–and why.

I know I’m behind the times because I haven’t yet read In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner. In my defense, I let my father borrow my copy first (which he devoured immediately)--now it’s my turn! As with The Serpent King, I look forward to Zentner’s rich prose, realistic and heartbreaking storytelling, strong sense of place (especially rural place, as Chea Parton’s Literacy in Place has explored).

But yet! I am AHEAD of the times because I have my hands on Twin Cities by Jose Pimienta and it is a gorgeous book. Flipping the pages, I note realistic urban landscapes of Calexico–a border town–and a boy-girl twin dynamic as each twin decides whether to attend school in Mexico or in the U.S.--and contends with changes in their relationship as they grow.

And The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson will be my perfect beach read. After all, it takes place in the summer, celebrates friendship, and keeps us in suspense with its thrilling murder mystery. I’m ready for it!

So–what is on your “resting” reading list? Whatever is in your TBR pile, happy reading!

Advocating for Their Lifelines by Katie Sluiter

7/6/2022

We are happy to welcome Katie Sluiter (pronounced “Sly-ter”) back to YA Wednesday. Katie is a wife, a mother, a teacher, a reader, and a writer. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in English education at Western Michigan University and teaches in a Junior High School near Grand Rapids, Michigan. She has presented at both the Michigan Council of Teacher of English (MCTE) annual conference and the National Council of teachers of English (NCTE) conference and is an ALAN Workshop regular, too!

Advocating for their Lifelines by Katie Sluiter

Last month I was fortunate enough to attend and present at the 2022 Summit on the Research and Teaching of YA Literature in person! It was my third summit, but my first time in-person and it was an absolute joy to be back to being face-to-face with fellow English teachers and teacher educators as well as young adult authors.

This year’s theme was “Books, Classrooms, Communities: Young Adult Literature as a Lifeline.” My presentation, “Advocating for their Lifelines: When Students Challenge the Challenges to YA Novels like Speak” was accepted in the spring before my 8th graders started on our full class study of the novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. I told my students about the presentation and how we were going to be spending the end of the school year examining censorship and the silencing of voices.

Our first activity was looking into book banning in the United States since Anderson’s novel has been on the banned and challenged lists since its publication in 1998. I dispersed books from my own classroom library that have been on banned/challenged lists and asked students to research reasons why the texts were challenged, and in some cases banned. I then asked students to look through NCTE’s 2018 position statement, “The Students’ Right to Read.” As they began their internet dives, students quickly made the connection to what “books as lifelines” had to do with silencing voices.

During one class’s dialogue, a student asked, “If your life was a book, would it be banned? Mine would because I am Black and people want to think I don’t experience racism.” Other students brought up that there were many books by and/or about those in the LBGTQ+ community that appeared on the lists. One scholar pointed out that by continually blocking access to books “from our community, they are saying we don’t exist. They are trying to erase us.”

Student Recommended:

Asking For It by Louise O’Neill -- Two different students wrote about how this novel made them feel seen as victims of both assault and bullying.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky -- One student said he picked it up because he heard there was a movie about it. He had no idea there was sexual abuse. As a guy, he didn’t think there were books out there about his experience.

The Heartstopper series by Alice Oseman -- These books have been impossible to keep on my shelf because my LGBTQ+ students (and their allies) are absolutely hungry for this representation. Plus Netflix just released it as a live action series.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo -- “Pretty sure this book was wrote [sic] about my own life. Whew!”

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sànchez -- Again, multiple students mentioned the accuracy of how Sànchez writes about what it’s like to be a “Mexican daughter” with parental expectations that don’t necessarily match your own goals or personality.