Ms. Marvel, and the Super-Powered Forces of Coloniality: Addressing and Analysing the Colonial Gaze and Representation of Muslim Characters in Mainstream American Comics

Abstract

Using the groundbreaking Ms. Marvel (2014-present) comic book series, a collaborative effort from G. Willow Wilson and Sana Amanat as a primary lens, this study provides a thorough examination and critique of the pervasive nature of coloniality within Marvel’s superhero comic book narratives. The study offers a systematic and in-depth reading of the comic book from a Global South perspective and through a decolonial lens. It critically evaluated the series’ narrative and representation by focusing on the protagonist, Kamala Khan. This thesis draws from Orientalism, critical whiteness studies, Islamic Liberation Theology and the exploration of the “good Muslim” (Mamdani 2002) as an archetype, to argue that Ms. Marvel is entrenched in colonial paradigms, preventing Kamala from transcending her tokenised and commodified portrayal. The study investigates how Kamala Khan’s identity is important, but ultimately her identity and her sense of justice as a South Asian Muslim woman from a minority immigrant background is constrained by the whiteness, Orientalism and Islamophobia inherent to the white genre of superhero comics. This research is interpretivist by nature and contributes to a growing body of research on Ms. Marvel in comic book studies addressing the discourse of Muslim representation within a decolonial framework. This research questions the underlying messages in Ms. Marvel and produces a contribution to comic studies that challenge the naturalised Euro-American ideals and values in comic books that often go unchallenged.