Lizzy Talbert/ the Johnsonian
Warning: Spoiler ahead
Even the greatest heroes of our generation need a little guidance.
That’s the basic concept of the Generations issues, created by multiple writers and artists to generate amazing and heartfelt stories that transcend time and space. Writers like Brian Michael Bendis, Kelly Thompson, and Nick Spencer send their creations into a mysterious world known simply as “The Vanishing Point.” Here, the characters learn valuable lessons that will shape who they are as they head into the future.
Without going into detail about ALL of the stories, the most important person to know is one of the bigger characters: Kamala Khan, who will headline her own Disney+ series coming soon.
If you haven’t heard about this character, then that’s completely fine. She is a relatively new character in Marvel Comics lore. But, that didn’t stop the 16-year-old girl from taking the Marvel Universe by storm.
Khan is just like most teenagers her age: she reads and writes fanfiction, she loves the Avengers with a burning passion, she tries to balance her homework and her classwork, and she tries to live up to her Pakistani family’s beliefs. However, that all changed once she came into contact with the extraterrestrial Terrigen Mist . The mist rewrote her DNA and made her a polymorph (much like Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four). She took on the name Ms. Marvel after Carol Danvers decided to become the next Captain Marvel in 2012.
Recently, she has been training under the tutelage of Captain Marvel, but their relationship became strained during the second superhuman Civil War between Carol and Iron Man over an inhuman with the ability to profile the future. Since then, Kamala and Carol haven’t seen eye to eye on their conflicting beliefs on how to handle protecting Kamala’s hometown of Jersey City. This rift was impactful and left Kamala questioning what kind of hero she wants to be.
Enter: Vanishing Point.
In “Generations: Ms. Marvel and Ms. Marvel” by renowned writer G. Willow Wilson (“Wonder Woman,” “A-Force”), Kamala was thrown into the past and inserted in a time when her mentor was known as ‘Ms. Marvel’ and not as the Captain portrayed by Brie Larson in her debut film. At first, the journey for the young hero was very awkward, to say the least. She had to adjust to a time where her mentor wasn’t the brave and powerful colonel in the army, but the editor in chief of ‘Woman Magazine.’
That name doesn’t have the same je ne sais quoi as the Daily Bugle does.
With the magazine going under, about to be bought out by another company, they needed something to kick their ratings into high gear (with Kamala mentioning protesting and unicorns, but we’ll get back to that later). But, like any Marvel Team-Up, there’s always a supervillain involved. In this case it’s an alien race called the Shi’ar, who are mostly seen as enemies of the X-Men. After the two Ms. Marvels team up to take her down, Kamala looks at how Carol reacts to the public. She thinks about her legacy, as the next Ms. Marvel and as a protege of Captain Marvel, and her own mission statement: to protect the public. However, their points of view have always put them against each other and caused friction. In spite of this, Kamala learns something; even though their missions may be different, they’re still fighting for their causes.
The next day, Kamala discusses her ideas with the staff of Carol’s magazine. She tells them about what she said yesterday, the joke about the unicorns and protesting, and says its part of that. People want to be equal, but also don’t want to give up being themselves in the process. Kamala tells them what she learned from Carol after the battle: “….getting your rights isn’t about becoming someone else. It’s about not having to ask permission to be who you already are.”
That’s what she learned from Carol; their missions may be different, especially in how they explore them, but they both want the same thing. They want to save the world, and they will in their own way. Kamala learned a valuable lesson in the Vanishing Point, and it will stick with her as she enters her next adventures. Keep an eye out for this one, Marvel fans! I have a feeling she’s the next big thing.
