Ms. Marvel Vol. 6: Civil War II (Marvel Comics)

The messages and ending of Ms. Marvel Vol. 5: Super Famous were beautiful but wow, did things ever go downhill for Kamala in Ms. Marvel Vol 6: Civil War II (part of the 2015-2017 collection). Things started out pretty good and then they just seemed to get worse and worse until the last chapter which wasn't so heartbreaking. Ms. Marvel definitely learned some lessons but things are still not quite fixed so it definitely has me wondering if things will work out. I am excited to read the next volume but let's talk about Volume 6, shall we?

There was definitely another message about friendship here. There were problems with Kamala's friendship with not only her closest friends in her everyday life but also one of her most important superhero influences, Captain Marvel. All of it is caused by a new crime fighting tool that Captain Marvel is trying out called predictive technology. There's a new Inhuman called Ulysses who can determine events that are going to take place and Captain Marvel has put together a team that will use these "predictions" to stop crime before it happens and detain the criminals until the time when they would have committed a crime has passed to ensure that they do not commit that specific crime. Of course, some people think that this is great but others don't like it and think that it's not fair to arrest someone before they even commit a crime.

A student that Ms. Marvel knows, who is also the ex-boyfriend of one of her friends, gets arrested because something that he was going to do to scare people was going to get out of control and cause a fire in the high school. The team detains him and Kamala's friends find out and are very angry, especially Bruno who knows that Ms. Marvel is really Kamala. He doesn't like what she and the team are doing. Bruno ends up going to the building where the criminals are being kept and blows up the door but ends up hurting himself as well.

Ms. Marvel ends up really mad about everything that is happening. The team is being way too serious and strict about using Ulysses' predictions and Kamala starts seeing how it isn't really fair to hold people for something that they haven't even done yet. She tries to show that this new system is flawed but it doesn't really work out as planned. She gets into a bit of trouble and calls Captain Marvel who she becomes angry with and she ends up upsetting. She also finds out that Bruno is still upset with her and doesn't want to have anything to do with her. Kamala says to herself: "We're all bound up in the people we love--the people who make us who we are. So who am I without them? Who am I now?" (end of chapter 11). She doesn't know who she is anymore without the people that she cares about. The people who helped and encouraged her. The people who always stayed by her side. The people who helped her define herself. She goes to Pakistan to visit family and try to find herself again. She ends up learning a lesson about thinking about a situation more before acting on it.

In this volume, Kamala learned how we can become torn between the different opinions that two friends might have about something. Captain Marvel thought that the prediction system that she put into place was right but Bruno, Kamala's best friend, didn't think so. As Ms. Marvel, Kamala became torn between Captain Marvel and Bruno. Did she want to listen to her great influence, the amazing superhero Captain Marvel, or did she want to listen to her best friend in the whole entire world, Bruno, an actual every day citizen in the city? Just like figuring out who to listen to, was she going to look at this situation as superhero Ms. Marvel or citizen Kamala? In the end, she learns that not only does she need to think like a superhero, but she needs to consider what the citizens think as well. She needs to consider how it might affect them before she does something. Think before you act. We can all learn from this.

Cheers,
Kaylie

Ms. Marvel Vol. 5: Super Famous (Marvel Comics)

As you might already know, I love the new Ms. Marvel comic series. I already blogged about Volumes 1-4 so go check that out if you haven't already! Kamala Khan is such an amazing character and she really shows the struggle of trying to balance normal life with superhero life like I've never seen before with any other superheroes. Ms. Marvel Vol. 5: Super Famous (part of the 2015-2017 collection) came out in July but I didn't read it until later on in the year so let's talk about it, shall we?

I didn't really know what to expect from this volume since volume 4 showed the city almost coming to an end. How would the city rebuild itself and recover from the devastation that it was left in? What would Ms. Marvel be up to now after this crazy event? Ms. Marvel is now extremely well-known in the city, to the point where she's super famous (thus the title of the volume). She is even a part of the new Avengers (of course, I don't know too much about the new Avengers since I've watched the Avengers movies but haven't read the comic books)! She is now not only struggling with juggling family, friends, school, personal life, and superhero life, but is also dealing with being famous.

Everything going on in Kamala's life starts to become overwhelming. She isn't sure how to do it all but keeps trying and ends up making mistakes because she is trying to achieve everything. She wants to be a good daughter and sister, a good friend, a good student, and a good superhero but she doesn't slow down. She doesn't take the time to focus on one thing at a time and she becomes exhausted. She tries to find solutions for multitasking, which don't end up so well in the end, and she starts missing important things in her life.

I think that this volume did an excellent job at showing us that we need to slow down in life. We are so busy trying to fit in as much as possible that in the end we either start to slip up, miss things, or end up breaking down. Living in the present moment and taking the time to focus on the things that are important to us is extremely important to our mental well-being and, by the end of this volume, I felt that that was the message that the writers were trying to get across to us. Kamala's family and friends are some of the most important things to her and she realizes in the end that she has been so busy trying to be a good superhero that she hasn't really been there for the people that she loves the most and who love her the most as well. These people bring her joy and help her in her life but she has pushed them to the side and that has taken a toll on her. After all, caring for yourself and those closest to you is just as important as caring for other people in the world. How can she possibly be a superhero for other people if she can't even be a superhero for herself and the ones that she loves the most? It reminded me a lot about what I talked about in my post about finding inner peace before outer peace.

When we see Kamala come to this realization, we also realize how important these lessons are for our own lives. We need to focus on the things that are important to us and bring us joy. They are essential to our happiness and we need happiness in our lives otherwise we would just be going through day after day without truly feeling alive. We need to learn how to balance things without letting things come in the way of each other too much and we need to stop multitasking all the time. When we learn to balance things properly, everything else in our lives can come together. For someone like me who wants to do everything that I want to do and do it all at once, it's an important lesson to remember.

Cheers,
Kaylie

Ms. Marvel Comic Series

I read the first three books of collected comics in the Ms. Marvel comic book series last year and then read the fourth more recently since it just came out in November. I wasn't sure what to expect from this series at first but I heard that it was good so I started reading the first collection of the comic books and I was hooked!

It was a bit confusing at first because I didn't know very much about Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) and therefore didn't know that she herself started off as Ms. Marvel. The Ms. Marvel in this series is a completely different person. Her name is Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American high school student in Jersey City, and she gets affected by Terrigen Mists and has a vision of several superheroes, one of which is Captain Marvel. Kamala admits to Captain Marvel that she would love to be her and then she turns into the Ms. Marvel version of Captain Marvel. She eventually is able to remain herself when using the shapeshifting powers that she has gained and she comes up with her own costume but still uses the name "Ms. Marvel."

Throughout the comic books, Kamala Khan struggles with her family life, school life, and life as a superhero. All she wants to do is help people but she is still trying to perfect her superpowers and doesn't feel that she is doing the best job at helping people.

Kamala Khan also meets other superheroes that are a part of the Marvel Universe and they help and encourage her. Starting off as a young superhero can be hard, and they seem to understand that. They see a lot of potential in Ms. Marvel and believe in her.

Cheers,

Kay