Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #2: Pakistani-American-Inhu-Mutant

Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #2 picks up with Ms. Marvel’s newest status quo as a member of the X-Men, undercover, infiltrating Orchis’s influence over a school. Keeping up with the same pace, charm, and gravitas of the first issue, this sophomore issue serves as a firm reminder that these superheroes are actually people underneath their costumes, and that taking care of one’s self may be more important than saving the world. While Orchis continues to hunt for the Ms. Marvel, the mystery behind her dreams grows larger, indicating that there may be more than meets the eye to what is actually going on.

Carlos Gomez and Adam Gorham do a fantastic job on the art here, with Gomez drawing the dream sequences and Gorham taking on the real work stuff.  Both these settings work well in contrast, showing how intense and mind boggling Kamala’s dreams are, with the real world looking more like that world outside your window that Stan Lee used to talk about. This is a nice blend of realism with the spectacular which actually ties back into one of the themes of this series. Kamala uses her real life experiences of xenophobia to help inform her decisions as a new found mutant. This combination of real world problems with the dramatized ones within the comics really lends well to the idea of having two different artists on the book. Gomez’s style in particular lends well to the personality of Kamala, highlighting the fan-girl nature that she’s well known for. This is shown in her dreams featuring amalgamations between some of her favorite superheroes, something fans know all too well. This separation from her fantasy to her real world is then put on full display, as Gorham depicts a violent protest that Kamala is swept up in. Both of these artists capture their sections perfectly, truly rounding out the emotional themes.

Building upon the art from these two amazing artists is Erick Arciniega on colors. Arciniega does an excellent job in mystifying the dream sequences, with the initial dream sequence in this issue having a mystic green aura in the background. This allows the colorful and creative costumes from Kamala’s mind to take center stage. The coloring is especially great on the final splash page, where Kamala takes a ride with the Cosmic Surfer. Arciniega takes the great pencils from Gomez, and really gives the book an old school Marvel Cosmic feel. This image alone is worth the price of admission.

Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #2 is truly healed together by a tight script from Sabrina Pirzada and Iman Vellani. There is a lot of emotion to be felt as Kamala struggles to come to terms with her own identity crisis while she tries to solve the world’s problems. This is very in keeping with her character, especially with the work done by Mark Waid Humberto Ramos on Champions. That story saw Kamala form her own superhero team that really went out to tackle the issues that the Avengers would never fight for. Much like that series, Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #2 shows a Kamala that is willing to put caution to the wind in order to fight for what she believes in. Much like the first issue tied so much into the worldbuilding from G. Willow Wilson’s initial run, this one highlights the other aspects of Kamala’s history in a very thoughtful manner.

The most poignant and memorable part about this issue has to be the slightly shoe-horned tie-in to the wedding between Emma Frost and Tony Stark. When they both show up here it is a bit of a shock, yet it does tie in very well to Kamala’s overall journey. Emma is much more of a cynical mentor, constantly telling Kamala to hide out of fear, worrying that Kamala may get killed again, but this time it would be her fault for not stopping it. This mother-like quality from Emma won’t be new for X-fans, but seeing her as a new mentor for Kamala paints a great world of possibility as to what lies in the future for these characters. Post Fall of X, it would be nice to see an Emma Frost led X-team featuring Kamala and a lot of the other younger X-Men that she has looked over.