Ms. Marvel “dies,” joins exclusive club with Mr. Spock, Sherlock, Batman, Spider-Man, etc

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Written By Chris Well

People who don’t read comics (or are dumb) are OUTRAGED that Ms. Marvel is “dying” in a comic book.

As Marvel Comics kills off another character—for now—it’s time to look at how she might be different when she comes back. (Because she’ll be back.)

UPDATE: I was right, Ms. Marvel will be back—and she will be changed in the comics to be a mutant. Oh—and now the TV series is being broadcast to an even bigger audience. More info about this stuff below…

(Updated July 2023)

This November, Ms. Marvel is going to be in the movie The Marvels. And the trailers we’ve seen so far make it look like she will be a big deal.

The Marvels is the upcoming Marvel Studios superhero movie featuring the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), Photon (Monica Rambeau), and Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan). The movie is a sequel to the 2019 movie Captain Marvel (2019), plus a follow-up to both the 2021 miniseries WandaVision (which showed Monica Rambeau get her powers) and the 2022 TV miniseries Ms. Marvel.

The movie The Marvels is scheduled to hit theaters November 10, 2023.

About the Ms. Marvel TV show

Marvel Studios’ streaming TV series Ms. Marvel adapted the comic book series to introduce Kamala Khan, a Muslim American teenager growing up in Jersey City. A gamer who is also writes fan-fiction, Kamala is a superhero megafan with an oversized imagination—particularly when it comes to Captain Marvel.

Yet Kamala feels like she doesn’t fit in at school and sometimes even at home—that is, until she gets superpowers like the heroes she’s always looked up to.

Life gets better with superpowers, right?

The TV show Ms. Marvel is available to stream on Disney+ and will also air on broadcast network ABC in August. (Details below.)

But wait—is Marvel Comics really killing off Ms. Marvel?

Also in the news is that there’s this comic book story where Marvel Comics “killed off” Ms. Marvel. And a lot of uneducated (or dumb) people are outraged. And—even worse—they’re pretending that racism or intolerance is involved.

So, since Ms. Marvel is going to be back—and soon—the purpose of this article is to explain that Ms. Marvel is actually joining a pretty elite group of amazing and famous characters who died on the page or on screen. But they got better.

That’s right, going back decades, readers or viewers saw the deaths of Sherlock Holmes, Superman, the Wolf Man, Spider-Man, Gandalf, Batman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Bucky Barnes AKA Winter Soldier, Harry Potter, Captain America, Aslan the Lion, The Flash, and even Mr. Spock. And, once the shock passed, those characters came back and are still with us—several of them in improved conditions.

As for what this means for Ms. Marvel, here is Marvel’s original announcement:

It’s an ending no fan was expecting! On sale May 31, the highly-anticipated AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #26 will see Ms. Marvel make a heroic sacrifice in the ultimate Marvel Comics manner.

As an Oscorp intern, Kamala Khan has been a pivotal supporting character in Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr.’s run of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, and it’s all been leading to this monumental moment for Kamala to save the entire Marvel Universe!

Officially revealed by Entertainment Weekly, the character’s everlasting legacy and this storyline will continue in July with a special one-shot, FALLEN FRIEND: THE DEATH OF MS. MARVEL, an essential issue crafted by an all-star lineup of talent including the return of the character’s co-creator, G. Willow Wilson; the writer of Ms. Marvel’s last solo series, Saladin Ahmed; and Mark Waid, who not only brought Ms. Marvel onto the Avengers, but also wrote her central role in the teen team book CHAMPIONS.

In the grand comics condition of other notable character deaths such as Captain America, Doctor Strange, and the original Captain Marvel, FALLEN FRIEND: THE DEATH OF MS. MARVEL will be a crucial chapter in the Marvel mythos and serve as both a farewell for Ms. Marvel and a glimpse of her death’s impact on all of Marvel’s heroes.

The heart of the Marvel Universe has stopped beating. Now join the other heroes of the Marvel Universe, the creators of Ms. Marvel, and comic fans everywhere in honoring and remembering one of Marvel’s brightest stars!

So, granted, it is possible that Marvel Comics could leave Ms. Marvel dead. They are the owners of the character. However…

A few reasons the comics version of Ms. Marvel is coming back

#1. Lots of comic book characters have “died” and then got better.

For decades, the death of a comic book character usually meant that they were going to eventually come back. At Marvel Comics, for a long time the only two characters who were never going to come back were Ben Parker (Peter Parker’s uncle, who died as part of the origin for Spider-Man) and Bucky Barnes (Captain America’s kid sidekick during World War 2). And then a few years ago, even Bucky came back from the dead. Overall, the comic book medium is loaded with characters who died in one form or another—and then came back.

#2. Marvel might be using this incident to fix something.

Long before Disney came along and bought up Marvel, the man who used to own Marvel Comics tried to sabotage the X-Men—and give an unwelcome boost to the Inhumans. You see, when Marvel suffered some financial trouble, they sold off some of the movie rights to their characters—which is why when Marvel started making their own movies, several of their characters were already tied up with other film companies.

At some point, the man then in charge of Marvel got so annoyed with Fox’s use of the X-Men that he actually made his comic book employees create stories intended to sideline the X-Men and to boost the popularity of the Inhumans. (It went very badly.)

Which is why…

#3. Ms. Marvel in the comics is an Inhuman.

So, as part of this big swirl of crap, when Ms. Marvel was created in the comics—she was only allowed to be an Inhuman. Because Marvel could still make Inhuman TV shows. (Like that one everyone hated.)

However…

#4 Ms. Marvel on TV is a mutant.

For Marvel fans, one of the big bonuses of Disney buying Marvel—and also buyng Fox—is that now all the movie rights that Fox had are back within Marvel’s reach. Which means Marvel again has access to the X-Men and all their other mutant characters. Which is why on the Ms. Marvel TV show that streamed on Disney+, she wan’t revealed to be an Inhuman—she was revealed to be a mutant!

Also likely to be part of what’s happening…

#5 Marvel Comics recently created a way for mutants to come back from the dead.

In a current epic comic book crossover thing—I haven’t been reading it, so I only know what I heard—they’ve shared some new process that can bring mutants back from the dead. So, now that the onscreen version of Ms. Marvel has been announced as a mutant—and she is going to be onscreen THIS SUMMER in the movie The Marvels—we know that the comic book version of Ms. Marvel is SO likely to be coming back as a mutant.

Did you already know that Ms. Marvel is very likely coming back?

If the trailers for The Marvels are giving us an accurate impression, Ms. Marvel is going to be important. (Seriously, she is one of the reasons I am really looking forward to that movie.)

So, while she is going through something major in the comics, it seems SO unlikely that she will be gone permanently. Besides, a comic book “death” is almost always temporary.

To reinforce the idea that it’s relatively normal for a character to come back from the dead, below are 13 pretty famous examples from literature, movies, TV, and (of course) comic books.

Famous characters that died. But got better.

  1. Sherlock Holmes—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off his detective Sherlock Holmes in the 1893 story “The Final Problem.” Holmes came back from the dead in the 1903 story “The Adventure of the Empty House.”

  2. Bucky Barnes AKA Winter Soldier—The death of Bucky and Captain America being trapped in the ice was first recorded in Avengers #4. They brought Bucky Barnes back from the dead in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

  3. Mr. Spock—The character from the 1960s TV show Star Trek died saving the U.S.S. Enterprise in the movie Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan. Came back from the dead (one movie later) in Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock.

  4. Superman—The Man of Steel was killed by Doomsday in Superman #75. Came back to life in Adventures of Superman #500.

  5. Gandalf—In J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books, Gandalf the Grey spends years travelling Middle-earth in search of information about the impending danger. Fighting a monster, Gandalf defeats it—and dies. Later, Gandalf returns to life as Gandalf the White.

  6. Captain America—The story arc “The Death of Captain America” started in Captain America (vol. 5) #25. He got better.

  7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer—At the end of season 5, Buffy died sacrificing her life to close a portal. That fall, on a completely different TV network, she came back in season 6.

  8. The Flash—In comics, there have been lots of guys who were “The Flash.” One of the most popular, Barry Allen, died saving the universe(s) in DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths comics event. A couple of decades later, Allen returned in DC Universe #0 and the Final Crisis event.

  9. Wolf Man—In the classic Universal Monsters movie The Wolf Man (1941), the title character is killed at the end. However, a few years later in the sequel Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), he wakes back up when grave robbers open his tomb under a full moon and remove the wolfsbane that he had been buried with.

  10. Spider-Man—Actually, Spider-Man has “died” like a dozen or more times. But the one I’m thinking of right now is when a few years ago he was killed by Doctor Octopus—who took over Spider-Man’s body in Amazing Spider-Man #700 and, well, became Spider-Man. And then the real Spider-Man eventually got better.

  11. Aslan the Lion—In C.S. Lewis’ children’s fantasy books The Chronicles of Narnia, the lion Aslan was killed by the bad guys. His death was intended to parallel the death of Jesus Christ—so, no surprise, Aslan returned to life in a resurrection.

  12. Batman—During the Final Crisis event, Batman was “murdered” by Darkseid with his laser-beam-eyes. Batman’s charred body was then carried by Superman. Which led to the time-travel “this-is-how-Batman-came-back” story.

  13. Harry Potter—So, with Harry Potter, it is less a “he died and got better” as much as it was a “everyone thought Harry was dead and he got better.” But he still did have a death scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and he had to choose to stay alive. So, again we have a famous literary character who has a death scene and stupid fans could have gone out with their picket signs and looked like idiots when Harry came back. Which may just as easily happen with Ms. Marvel.

UPDATE: The comic book return of Ms. Marvel

So, Ms. Marvel died (excuse me, “died”) in The Amazing Spider-Man #26. When Kamala saved Mary Jane Watson, she was wounded in the fight and died in Spider-Man’s arms.

Then Kamala was memorialized in the special comic book Fallen Friend: The Death of Ms. Marvel. In that issue, several superheroes honor her.

End of story, right? So, sad...

Oh...

Wait...

Turns out that Marvel Comics is bringing Kamala back in the X-Men special Hellfire Gala—and spotlighting her new life in the comic book mini-series Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant. The four-issue event follows Kamala’s new life as a mutant and a member of the X-Men.

So there.

From Marvel’s announcement:

Following her upcoming resurrection at the Hellfire Gala, MS. MARVEL: THE NEW MUTANT will be a new four-issue limited series that explores the Pakistani-American hero’s new role as a full-fledged X-Man! This extraordinary chapter for the character is co-written by the MCU’s own Kamala Khan, Iman Vellani, and Sabir Pirzada, writer of the recent DARK WEB: MS. MARVEL limited series and Ms. Marvel’s Disney+ series. Together, they’ll welcome readers into Kamala’s new era as she’s reborn anew as a mutant Super Hero!

“Our book will absolutely reflect all those core themes of identity that the Ms. Marvel comics have consistently explored—only now there's a whole new label that Kamala has to learn to accept. It’s going to be pretty crazy,” Vellani told Entertainment Weekly. “Hopefully, those readers who are kind of getting into the comics after the Disney+ show are going to have something fun to look forward to on shelves.”

UPDATE: The ABC network is airing the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel to get people excited about the upcoming movie

Broadcast network ABC (which is also owned by Disney) just announced that they’re going to be showing Ms. Marvel to the world in August. While Marvel TV has been on ABC before, this is the first time one of the streaming series created by the Marvel movie division has been re-broadcast like this.

Between the big-deal event in the comics and now the big-deal event on broadcast television, this clearly shows that Disney wants to help people get excited about Ms. Marvel. (And that big movie coming this November.)

ABC’s plan is to show the six episodes of Ms. Marvel on two consseucitive Saturday nights. The first three episodes will air Aug. 5, and the final three episodes on Aug. 12.

AND ALSO: Watch for The Marvels in theaters this fall

In case you missed the teaser trailer, here it is now. The movie looks like a lot of fun!

Chris Well

Chris Well been a writer pretty much his entire life. (Well, since his childhood.) Over the years, he has worked in newspapers, magazines, radio, and books. He now is the chief of the website Monster Complex, celebrating monster stories in lit and pop culture. He also writes horror comedy fiction that embraces Universal Monsters, 1960s sitcoms, 1980s action movies, and the X-Files.

https://chriswell.substack.com/
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