[Comicsstudiessociety] IJOCA e-book review: Ms. Marvel's America : No Normal

[Mike Rhode]

Open world-wide.  Email me directly at mrhode at gmail.com

Mike Rhode
IJOCA editor of some sort

Ms. Marvel's America : No Normal
Edited by Jessica Baldanzi
<https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Contributors/B/Baldanzi-Jessica> & Hussein
Rashid <https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Contributors/R/Rashid-Hussein>
*Hardcover :* 9781496827029, 280 pages, 20 b&w illustrations, February 2020
*Paperback :* 9781496827012, 280 pages, 20 b&w illustrations, February 2020

https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/M/Ms.-Marvel-s-America

An in-depth exploration of the current Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan
Description

Contributions by José Alaniz, Jessica Baldanzi, Eric Berlatsky, Peter E.
Carlson, Sika A. Dagbovie-Mullins, Antero Garcia, Aaron Kashtan, Winona
Landis, A. David Lewis, Martin Lund, Shabana Mir, Kristin M. Peterson,
Nicholaus Pumphrey, Hussein Rashid, and J. Richard Stevens

Mainstream superheroes are becoming more and more diverse, with new
identities for Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man. Though the
Marvel-verse is becoming much more racially, ethnically, and gender
diverse, many of these comics remain shy about religion.

The new Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, is a notable exception, not only because
she is written and conceived by two women, Sana Amanat and G. Willow
Wilson, but also because both of these women bring their own experiences as
Muslim Americans to the character.

This distinct collection brings together scholars from a range of
disciplines including literature, cultural studies, religious studies,
pedagogy, and communications to engage with a single character, exploring
Khan’s significance for a broad readership. While acknowledged as the first
Muslim superhero to headline her own series, her character appears well
developed and multifaceted in many other ways. She is the first character
to take over an established superhero persona, Ms. Marvel, without a reboot
of the series or death of the original character. The teenager is also a
second-generation immigrant, born to parents who arrived in New Jersey from
Pakistan.

With essays from and about diverse voices on an array of topics from
fashion to immigration history to fandom, this volume includes an exclusive
interview with Ms. Marvel author and cocreator G. Willow Wilson by gender
studies scholar Shabana Mir.
Reviews

Teenaged Pakistani American Kamala Khan, a. k.a. Ms. Marvel, is
unapologetically Muslim in a low-key Jersey way. Ripe for interpreting,
she's the superhero everyone wants to think with, whether the subject is US
imperialism, Islam and gender, race and racism in America, or diversity in
comics. This interdisciplinary collection, ably edited by Jessica Baldanzi
and Hussein Rashid, is wide-ranging and very smart. I highly recommend it.
- Kecia Ali, professor of religion at Boston University and author of
Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur’an, Hadith, and
Jurisprudence
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/private/comicsstudiessociety/attachments/20200423/82cd064e/attachment.html>