Kamala Khan is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker, writer G. Willow Wilson, and artists Adrian Alphona and Jamie McKelvie, Kamala is Marvel's first major Muslim protagonist character and South Asian-American personality with her own comic book. In the Marvel Universe, she is a teenage Pakistani-American from Jersey City, New Jersey with body-morphing abilities who discovers that she has Inhuman genes in the aftermath of the "Inhumanity" storyline. She assumes the mantle of Ms. Marvel from her idol, Carol Danvers, after Danvers becomes Captain Marvel.
Kamala made her first appearance in a background cameo in Captain Marvel #14 (August 2013), before appearing in the anthology All-New Marvel Now! Point One #1 (January 2014). Her first of several Ms. Marvel solo series debuted in February 2014, with the character playing a prominent role in the "Inhumans vs X-Men" company crossover, and prominent supporting roles in the team-up books Champions and Secret Warriors, as well as the 2022 The Amazing Spider-Man series. In a 2023 storyline, Kamala joined the X-Men franchise when it was revealed she was an in fact an Inhuman/mutant hybrid, reflecting changes made for her live-action adaptation, and has been a prominent character in X-Men comics in their "Fall of X" and "From the Ashes" eras.
Marvel's announcement that a Muslim character would headline a comic book attracted widespread attention, with The New York Times Best Seller Ms. Marvel: No Normal winning the 2015 Hugo Award for best graphic story. The character and her solo series have received an overwhelmingly positive critical reception, with strong sales for her solo series. However, her 2019 and 2023 deaths in Champions and The Amazing Spider-Man, respectively, have been criticized as fridging.
Iman Vellani plays the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) miniseries Ms. Marvel, the attraction Avengers: Quantum Encounter (both 2022), the film The Marvels (2023), and the animated miniseries Marvel Zombies (2025); unlike in the comic books, Kamala is reimagined as a latent mutant who uses a magical bangle to create glowing constructs out of hard light. From 2016 to 2019, the character was voiced by Kathreen Khavari in animated series such as Avengers Assemble, Marvel Rising, and Spider-Man. She was voiced by Sandra Saad in the video game Marvel's Avengers (2020) and the animated series Spidey and His Amazing Friends (2021).
Overview Creative origins Marvel Comics announced in November 2013 that Kamala Khan, a teenage American Muslim from Jersey City, New Jersey, would take over the comic-book series Ms. Marvel in February 2014. The series, written by G. Willow Wilson and drawn by Adrian Alphona, marked the first time a Muslim character headlined a Marvel Comics book. Noelene Clark of the Los Angeles Times noted that Kamala is not the first Muslim character in comic books; other Muslim characters include Simon Baz, Dust and M. The character was conceived during a conversation between Marvel editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker. Amanat said, "I was telling him [Wacker] some crazy anecdote about my childhood, growing up as a Muslim American. He found it hilarious". They then told Wilson about the concept, and Wilson was eager to join it. Amanat said that the series came from a "desire to explore the Muslim-American diaspora from an authentic perspective".
Artist Jamie McKelvie based Kamala's costume on his redesign of Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel and on Dave Cockrum's design of the original Ms. Marvel. Amanat asked that the design "reflect the Captain Marvel legacy, and also her story and her background", and said that Kamala's costume was influenced by the shalwar kameez. They wanted the costume to represent her cultural identity but did not want her to wear a hijab, because most teenage Pakistani-American girls do not wear one. Amanat said that they wanted her to look "less like a sex siren" to appeal to a broader female readership.
Marvel wanted a young Muslim girl, saying that she could be from anywhere and have any background. Wilson initially considered making her an Arab girl from Dearborn, Michigan or a Somali American with the comic set in Seattle, but ultimately made Kamala a Desi girl from Jersey City. Jersey City, across the Hudson River from Manhattan, has been called New York City's "sixth borough".Holusha, John (October 11, 1998). "Commercial Property / The Jersey Riverfront; On the Hudson's West Bank, Optimistic Developers" . The New York Times The city is an important part of Kamala's identity and the narrative, since most Marvel Comics stories are set in Manhattan. Wilson said, "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".
The series explores Kamala's conflicts with supervillains and her domestic and religious duties. Wilson, a convert to Islam, said: "This is not evangelism. It was really important for me to portray Kamala as someone who is struggling with her faith ... Her brother is extremely conservative, her mom is paranoid that she's going to touch a boy and get pregnant, and her father wants her to concentrate on her studies and become a doctor". Amanat said,
Powers and abilities
Kamala develops her superpowers after Marvel's Infinity storyline, when the Terrigen Mists are released. Her dormant Inhuman abilities are activated by the mists on a rare night when she rebelliously decides to sneak out after her parents forbid her from attending a school party. Amanat said in 2022 that when she and Wilson were creating Kamala, the character was originally going to be a mutant before they changed her to an Inhuman. Screen Rant noted that Kamala is a "polymorph", with moves which "are basically Ant-Man and Mister Fantastic's combined". According to academic Sarah Gibbons, Kamala's body-morphing is paralleled by the flexibility required of the characters who live in Jersey City; her unusual, superpowered body shape conveys a non-conforming message.
Her best-known power is elongation, which allows her to extend her limbs, torso, or neck great distances. Kamala's other powers include the ability to alter her size, shrinking and enlarging herself. When she enlarges, she can lift up to 75 tons. Kamala has also used this ability to make her body as thin as paper. She has a healing factor (capable of healing bullet wounds), which works when she is not using her polymorph abilities. If Kamala extensively heals, however, she becomes very tired. She can shapeshift into other people and inanimate objects, although she rarely uses this power.
Asked about Kamala's transition from comic book to live action in 2019, Wilson said: "I think there're some characters who are very much set up for the big screen; they're very naturally sort of cinematic. But with Ms. Marvel, we really weren't interested in creating something that had very obvious film potential [...] She's got very comic booky powers. God bless them trying to bring that to live action; I don't know how that's going to work out in a way that doesn't look really creepy". Kamala's comic-book powers are reinterpreted for the live-action version of the character which debuted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in 2022. This iteration has "the ability to create and manipulate a kind of purple 'hard-light' (think Green Lantern, or Symmetra from Overwatch)". In the series finale of Ms. Marvel, "No Normal", it is revealed that Kamala Khan has a genetic mutation. Iman Vellani then confirmed that Kamala was the first mutant in the MCU.
Kamala is later revealed to have both Inhuman and mutant heritage during the X-Men Krakoan Age storyline in the comics, with Charles Xavier believing that Kamala having her Inhuman powers activating first may have suppressed her mutant powers. Xavier noted that unlike other mutants, Kamala was able to make contact with Terrigen Mist without suffering any ill effects. She will "retain her original stretchy embiggening powers that were established via her Inhuman heritage". When Kamala's body begins to disintegrate due to being resurrected without properly undergoing Terrigenesis, Kamala undergoes the process again to stabilize herself but this poses the risk of never awakening her mutation. An Orchis scientist reanimates Kamala's original body as a zombie with her mutant powers activated – these powers are revealed to be purple hard light constructs which were first seen in the MCU iteration of the character and are used in conjunction with her original body's Inhuman embiggening powers.
After being pulled into the past and helping the X-Men during their rescue mission on Krakoa, Kamala awakens her mutant powers while fighting a time-displaced Legion; her body emits a golden, diamond-patterned aura that generates firework-like sparks. In her second fight with Legion, who has been possessed by the Phoenix Force, Kamala's hard-light takes on a purple, crystal-like appearance and is shown to be strong enough to restrain Legion, an omega-level mutant. In her final confrontation with Legion, the villain discovers that Kamala possesses Krakoa's DNA in her genes, giving her the unique ability to turn her body into a living portal that acts similar to Krakoa's Gateways, which also allows time and dimensional travel.
Publication history Volume one (2013–2015) Kamala is the daughter of Yusuf and Muneeba Khan and the younger sister of Aamir Khan. She takes the name Ms. Marvel from Carol Danvers, who is now known as Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel writer Kelly Sue DeConnick said that Kamala made a brief appearance in Captain Marvel #14 (August 2013): "Kamala is in the background of a scene in Captain Marvel 14 ... She is very deliberately placed in a position where she sees Carol protecting civilians from Yon-Rogg". She has a second cameo appearance in Captain Marvel #17 (November 2013). According to co-creator G. Willow Wilson, Kamala idolizes Carol and emulates her when she acquires superhuman abilities: "Captain Marvel represents an ideal that Kamala pines for. She's strong, beautiful and doesn't have any of the baggage of being Pakistani and 'different'". "Khan is a big comic book fan and after she discovers her superhuman power – being a polymorph and able to lengthen her arms and legs and change her shape – she takes on the name of Ms. Marvel", Amanat said. Kamala initially appears in "Garden State of Mind" in the anthology All-New Marvel Now! Point One #1 (January 2014) before debuting in the solo series Ms. Marvel with the first issue released in February 2014. Kamala is one of several characters who discover that they have Inhuman heritage after the "Inhumanity" storyline, in which the Terrigen Mists are released worldwide and activate dormant Inhuman cells.
She opposes Inventor, a clone of Thomas Edison tainted with the DNA of Gregory Knox's pet cockatiel, in the series' first story arc. Wilson created the Inventor as Kamala's first archenemy to mirror her complexity. She characterized the Inventor and the overall look of the opening story arc as "kooky and almost Miyazaki-esque at times" due to the style of illustrator Adrian Alphona, which balances the drama of the threats faced by Kamala with the humor of Alphona's "tongue in cheek sight gags". During the story line, Kamala also teams up with the X-Man Wolverine against the Inventor. Because Wolverine is dealing with the loss of his healing factor during this time, Kamala is placed in the position of having to shoulder much of the responsibilities since Wilson felt this was a role reversal that would subvert reader expectations that Wolverine would take the lead in such a team-up.