From Ms Marvel to Minnal Murali, the new South Asian superhero is breaking stereotypes

Bisha K Ali, a British-Pakistani screenwriter who also worked on Marvel’s Loki, created Kamala Khan/Ms Marvel for screen. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ali said, “I was able to share with (Marvel Studios) why I thought this show was important for me personally, as a fan, as a South Asian person, as a Pakistani woman, as a woman from a Muslim background. I explained why those things were important, but also how we could marry them in a way that’s specific and universal.”

A scene from the web-series Ms Marvel

Kamala, however, isn’t the first Muslim superhero in comics history. The first was Kismet, Man of Fate, a Golden Age superhero created by Elliot Publishing Company. Debuting in March 1944, Kismet fought on the side of the Allies and adventures involved taking on Hitler, often portrayed as a bumbling idiot. References to his cultural heritage were sparse — he was of Algerian descent, he was Muslim, and his superhero attire included a fez and Jodhpurs. Kismet was created by Omar Tahan, a pseudonym used by writer and editor Ruth Roche. Roche was of Jewish ancestry and her anti-Nazi superhero was an ostensible response to the ongoing Holocaust.

Kamala isn’t the first female Muslim superhero, either. There was Qahera, a hijabi super-heroine who combatted misogyny and Islamophobia, by Egyptian designer and illustrator Deena Mohamed. Burka Avenger, a Pakistani TV animated series, debuted in 2013, with a superhero who wore a burka to mask her identity. Marvel’s X-Men had Sooraya Qadir (Dust), born in Afghanistan, with the power to turn herself into sand.

Safiyya Hosein, a Toronto-based writer and comics scholar, says that from what she has seen from the TV series so far, Ms Marvel is being represented in a nuanced way with much spotlight given to her back story, which is something not seen in Western popular culture. Hosein, who is Indo-Trinidadian and Canadian, could identify with some of the cultural aspects, such as wearing shalwar kameezes, attending mosques, and mehendis or celebrating Eid. She says, “Ms Marvel is the most fleshed-out, three-dimensional American Muslim superhero… I do think Ms Marvel speaks at large to an immigrant experience in the West — an immigrant-Muslim one, yes, but any immigrant would be able to relate to her.”

The original Ms Marvel — Carol Danvers — got her own comic in 1977. Upholding the idea of the no-nonsense woman, the first issue has her negotiating her salary at the Daily Bugle and refusing to write articles on themes thought to be suitable for a woman’s magazine, such as diets and recipes. The character has been through different iterations since then, with Kamala being the latest.

Hosein says, “Kamala is important because she challenges Islamophobia — this isn’t always the case but that’s what Muslim superheroes are supposed to do — and provides a different narrative about Muslims than we normally see.” In the comics, like with the show, Kamala is one among diverse Muslim youth. American author G Willow Wilson, who co-created Kamala, said in an interview with NPR in 2014 that part of what they wanted to do with the series was to show “a huge diversity of belief and practice within the Muslim community, that it’s not a monolith”. Kamala is on “the relaxed end of the spectrum”, even though she doesn’t drink alcohol or date or eat BLTs. Her older brother is more involved than her with the local mosque. Her friend Nakia, of Turkish origin, chooses to wear a hijab.

Kamala has come a long way from the Kismet days or the desert trope or the use of a veil as a mask. She doesn’t drop exclamations such as Kismet’s — “By the star and crescent of Islam!” or “By the beard of the Prophet!”. Her superhero costume consists of a kurti, churidar and dupatta. It’s personalised and practical—a big jump from the risqué costume of the first Ms Marvel. Cultural details are crucial to the plot here, not unlike Marvel’s Daredevil, who is identifiably Catholic, with his faith dictating many of his choices as both lawyer and superhero. Yet Kamala’s Muslim-ness isn’t all that she is. She is a 16-year-old American superhero whose biggest problem, like every other teenager, is her parents.

However, narratives such as these are caught in a tricky position, of either glossing over cultural backgrounds or over-emphasising them. After all, do we know as much about other superheroes’ religious backgrounds? DC Comics’ Superman — seen as the epitome of the White, Christian, male superhero — actually has his roots in Judaism. Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1933, both Jewish and children of European immigrants, Superman became synonymous with America.

Rimi B Chatterjee, professor in the English department, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, says, Superman is an obvious example of how many superheroes were created by non-White or marginal-White and non-Christian creators, who drew on their heritage to create their characters and were later “whitewashed” by being co-opted into American political discourse. Jewish immigrants to America of the early 20th century were often “illegal aliens fleeing the destruction of their planet”. Many marginal Europeans found that performance, magic and circus acts were a fruitful way to travel to America (like Houdini) and superhero costumes clearly derive from the circus background of this culture. Chatterjee says, “It was only later, thanks to the predatory practices of Marvel and DC, that the creators were sidelined and their work turned into the slick corporate product it is today… The pain and struggle of marginal groups is repackaged as a consumer good… Marvel, DC and Disney seek to appropriate stories that start out diversity-friendly and are then co-opted by ‘the mainstream’ which is more a marketing device than a real sociological category.”

Superhero stories have forever had a subtext about fitting in, whether it’s in a classroom or a country. Chatterjee says, “Only Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Tony Stark (Iron Man) start out as children of privilege. All the rest tend to be misfits, marginal figures, losers or just ordinary people who suffer terrible experiences… They are more superhero role models for diverse people than they are for mainstream America. You just have to look beyond the hype.”

In India, mainstream superhero stories have rarely attempted to engage with diversity or minority communities. Artist and comics creator Lokesh Khodke says, “Hindi superhero comics, which died down in the early 2000s, did not address the question of communities, regions, gender or differently-abled bodies. They were largely nationalistic in flavour and highly masculine.” Khodke cites Fighter Toads, vigilante superheroes who lived in a gutter, loosely based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Even though the comics used the underground gutter life as a trope, their missions did not ever address the issues of how certain castes are pushed or forced into manual scavenging and do not allude to any underground resistance movement. Likewise, Nagraj, potentially the most popular superhero from India, has magical snake powers and is the son of a tribal priestess who worships the snake gods of her tribe. Khodke says, “Beyond this, it never touches upon the tribal community question on a larger social or political level in the later issues.”

Nagraj has magical snake powers

On screen, few works such as director Basil Joseph’s Malayalam superhero film Minnal Murali (2021) have been able to go beyond Hindu mythology, which remains the source material for superhero films in India. Events unfold around Christmas and the tale of St George killing the dragon recurs as a motif.

Tovino Thomas in Minnal Murali

Currently, India’s sole Muslim superhero is Musalman, created by Bengaluru-based journalist Falah Faisal. Debuting first as a comic strip on September 11, 2017, Musalman exists now as a web-comic on Bakarmax and print editions. Musalman’s costume is a “skull cape” and shorts in the colours of the Indian flag. And when he is not busy being a superhero, he is Salman, a left-arm fast bowler in the Indian cricket team. Adventures involve Salman/Musalman going house-hunting in societies which don’t allow Muslims and befriending a villain who is out to destroy Mughal heritage buildings. The latest storyline is a commentary on franchise superhero stories. In one issue, Musalman is asked to join “Revengers” but there are topics that he is not allowed to talk about. These include Uyghur Muslims, love jihad and Kashmir. When compared to Ms Marvel, Musalman is undeniably more political. Faisal says, “That’s because I’m a political person. Disney’s concerns are box-office collections, markets and profits. My concern is social change and creating a new narrative for Indian Muslims.”

Musalman, a Muslim superhero (credit: Falah Faisal)

Ms Marvel follows Disney’s strategies in recent years for inclusive storytelling and diversity, be it casting, setting, plot or addressing issues of race and identity. Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Phase 4, comprising films released from 2021 to 2023, is set to be its most inclusive yet. A female Thor, a female Loki, a bisexual Valkyrie, the Asian-led cast of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) can be seen as part of these efforts. Earlier, Black Panther (2018) showed what a technologically advanced African country might be, had the continent not been colonised and exploited.

However, there is the increasing sense that Disney’s and Marvel’s attempts at diversity and inclusivity have become cookie cutter. With productions that seem targeted at specific demographics, the Marvel film franchise is like a global buffet at an Indian wedding. Diversity and inclusion strategies have sometimes appeared as a mere brand exercise, with cast, such as Simu Liu (Shang Chi) and Anthony Mackie (Falcon) calling out Marvel on different occasions. Eternals (2021), one of Marvel’s worst-performing films, featured Pakistani-American actor Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, a genetically-engineered immortal being. In the screen version, Nanjiani’s Kingo hides his identity behind his success as a bombastic Bollywood star, which ends up being a farcical stereotype. In comparison, Kamala Khan is a more nuanced portrayal.

For others, this wholesome representation of Muslims in mainstream media doesn’t do much to undo communal hate and State-sanctioned violence against Muslims in some countries. Ms Marvel hints at these themes, like when the community mosque is repeatedly suspected of harbouring criminals by the United States Department of Damage Control. A superhero may not save the day in real life, but she shows us how to seize moments of joy — wear your best shalwar kameez, call your friends for Eid, have biryani with your family, dance your heart out at weddings, and trust that your mother knows the best tailors back home.