EMBIGGENING THE BOUNDARIES

I've made no secret of the fact that I'm a big fan of G. Willow Wilson's Ms Marvel. And nor should I. It's ace. 

When the series was first announced, it sparked considerable controversy. A Pakistani-American Muslim superhero with a name previously used by a white American superhero?! IT'S THE END OF DAYS. Frankly, the comment threads about it were filled with a lot of really horrific naked racism and Islamophobia, the extent of which made me feel pretty ashamed of corners of the comics community. There was also a lot of howling about pandering to political correctness and such, because pandering to anything other than straight white guys is the work of the devil or terrorists or Obama or something.

Much of that tiresome hoo-ha has died down now, largely because people either a) are reading Ms Marvel because it's a fantastic book that transcends any gimmickry that may have been ascribed to it; b) aren't reading it and don't care either way; or c) are now channelling their duderage into a female Thor and a black Captain America. 

This episode of the Nerdist Writers' Panel, featuring an interview with Wilson, is quite something. The first audience question comes from a female Pakistani-American Muslim comic geek. At first, she’s very funny, but then she struggles to hold her composure and breaks down in tears, thanking Wilson for giving her and her friends a face and a voice in comics for the first time. As she puts it, 'We’ve always been here, we've just been invisible.'

Photo by Caroline Ballard/Columbia Radio News (from uptownradio)

It's pretty hard to listen to that when you consider the vehemence with which certain sections of fandom opposed this book. But it illustrates precisely why representation in media is important. Straight, white, male comic geeks (of which I'm one – hello!) have never had to properly confront this issue because we've always had an embarrassment of riches to choose from when it comes to relatable characters. You don’t like this straight white dude? Here, try this other straight white dude. Not that there's anything wrong with straight white dudes per se, but this archetype was not seen as a specific demographic, but the norm – a dangerously fallacious concept. 

Things do seem to be changing, particularly in terms of gender, and especially at Marvel, but there’s still more work to be done. Representation is not 1:1. You don’t have to be a white billionaire ninja bloke to identify with Batman, nor do you have to be a teenage Pakistani-American Muslim girl to dig Ms. Marvel. But especially when you’re young and getting into comics, when you’re searching for your point-of-view character, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have a broad range of candidates in which you might see elements of yourself, your background, your culture, your family life.

It’s not about pandering, it’s about being welcoming and inclusive. Like Kamala Khan herself, comics are stretchy. They are a singularly flexible medium. There’s plenty of room for everybody.