Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal

"I have an expansive view of what counts as literature. Ms. Marvel is a comic, released as a graphic novel . It was created by G. Willow Wilson, a convert to Islam, and Sana Amanat, who is South Asian. Together they realistically depict a modern Pakistani American family. It’s about Kamala Khan, a Pakistani Muslim American from New Jersey who has all the usual teen problems. She’s trying to fit in at high school, her family has certain expectations, she has a motley crew of friends, including one who wears hijab, and her brother is particularly religious. She’s a geek who gets superpowers overnight. Growing up, I used to dream that Batman was brown. Now we have a brown Spiderman, Miles Morales. And we have Kamala Khan. There is something powerful about not just having a brown superhero, who’s part of the Avengers and beloved by the international community, but also the fact that Kamala is a good character trying her best. She’s flawed, she’s young, but she’s sincere and she feels real. My kids see Ms. Marvel on a shelf at a store, that’s thrilling. That’s the power of storytelling and representation. There’s no such thing as the South Asian American experience. There are many South Asian communities and there are billions of South Asians. If you try to write for millions, you write for no one. Your writing won’t even please yourself. It’ll become like yogurt, yogurt that’s been left outside. No one wants curdled yogurt. What can resonate is one story. My book is my story, it’s not everyone’s story, but it has entry points. I’ll give you an example. I talk about being a fat kid. Some readers say, hey I wore husky pants too. I talk about taking English as second language. Some readers tell me what they identify with in my story, and some tell me what they found novel in my story. We find the universal in the culturally specific."