Another female superhero who's gone through a radical reinvention this year was Ms Marvel. Previously the title held by cosmic hero Carol Danvers (who recently graduated to being Captain Marvel), the code name has since been passed down to teenager Kamala Khan Marvel's first major Muslim superhero, and almost certainly the first to headline her own book. Also: it's a really fun, bright, colourful and incisive book, thanks to writer G W Wilson and Runaways artist Adrian Alphona. Alphona's art is a natural fit for the story of Kamala, who discovers that she's been blessed with initially uncontrollable powers of metamorphosis. For the first few issues she grows and shrinks to unnatural sizes, her fists becoming giant to grapple burglars, and disguises herself as her hero Carol Danvers before realising that she can be just as effective a Ms Marvel on her own. The superhero secret identity thing is a smart metaphor for life as a Muslim teenager in decadent America sneaking out after hours to got to parties/fight crime and the like with Wilson's writing especially insightful and witty, and Alphona's bright art making the book stand out even more from everything else on the stands. And she teamed up with Wolverine! Whom Kamala had written fan fiction about. She's a Wolvie-Storm shipper.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
