Out on January 8th from Marvel Comics, The Magnificent Ms. Marvel #11 tests the limits of our young hero with this crazy new foe.
The last few issues have been vicious for Kamala. With her father still under the knife, and having just kissed Bruno, fighting Supervillains is only adding to the high-stress levels. Still, our hero pushes onward to do the right thing as that’s just what heroes do.
Kamala’s newest foe, the Stormranger suit, her own Kree super suit, is now trying to kill Hyde, the villain she just subdued. The Stormranger appears almost like a dark side to Kamala, taking on her appearance with an electric blue and white aesthetic, and a face lacking in human features. This design drives home the theme that Kamala is fighting herself this arc as Stormranger may represent the hurtles that have piled up in front of her.
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When Kamala first obtained the suit, it was very quickly compared to a Symbiote for many apparent reasons. The suit seemed sentient; it consists of Kree nano-tech, letting it be on Kamala at all times and appear onto her when needed. The suit seemed to enhance Kamala’s capabilities in many ways and saved her from a few hard situations in previous issues.
Watching the suit turn on Kamala when she refuses to let it kill Hyde is an interesting direction for Saladin Ahmed to take. Some might see it being too close to the classic Symbiote arc represented in previous Spider-Man media.
That being said, the execution of this idea is still fairly well handled. The focus of this issue seems to be pushing Kamala to her limits, as has been the theme of this story arc. The Stormranger suit embodies this last struggle Kamala has in front of her to overcome and move forward.
During the fight, Kamala monologues a lot about fighting the “worst version” of ourselves and the difficulty of it. What’s interesting is given the context where Kamala has consistently spoken ill of herself for doing heroics when she feels she should be at the hospital with her mom and brother. The fact that she is literally fighting her costume, it feels like Kamala is calling Ms. Marvel the worst part of herself.
We’ve seen Kamala struggle with her dual identity before, and even give up the mask entirely. What seems different this time is she is continuing the fight anyway. Kamala might not be happy about it, but she’s choosing to push on through this despite knowing what it means to her family. She’s doing this now because there’s no one else who can.
Minkyu Jung’s style complements the Stormranger’s design well, giving it these ghastly details from it’s floaty apparition-like shape and hair to its face consisting of eyes and a mask and not much else. Pairing with Ian Herring’s coloring, accenting these vibrant blues with white hair and metallic armoring gives it a haunting appearance that feels classically “evil-alter-ego.”
This story is presented to us in a very fast-paced way. Kamala is continuously trying to get away from Stormranger to bring Hyde somewhere it can’t get to him. The pacing adds to the stress of the situation, and Kamala’s rushed thinking is well represented in VC’s Joe Caramagna’s lettering.
From start to finish, The Magnificent Ms. Marvel #11 tells a story of a hero at her limits. Kamala’s been stressed, beaten down, electrocuted nearly to death, and is still pressing on despite her circumstances and trying everything she can to make it all work out. This issue is the embodiment of these themes and shows us the very limits of what Kamala can take and an ending that will leave you in shock.
The Magnificent Ms. Marvel is growing more enjoyable as this story continues. Finding itself more and more as the issues progress, #11 seems to be the highlight of the arc so far, and there’s still more we are dying to find out.
Most importantly, will Kamala’s catch a break? Will her father survive? Will something happen between her and Bruno? We still have so many questions that have to be put off while this is all going on. What do you think the outcome of these questions is? Let us know down below!
