Even in Marvel Comics, New Jersey rarely gets a break. As much as New York City can overshadow its neighbors across the Hudson in real life, just imagine also factoring in dozens of superheroes who call Manhattan home: Iron Man has Stark Tower, Daredevil protects Hell’s Kitchen, and Spider-Man is the kid from Queens.
But for the last five years, Jersey City has had its own protector: Kamala Khan, otherwise known as the superhero Ms. Marvel. Kamala's like a lot of kids her age from Jersey City — she's dealing with college applications while finding time for her hobbies, like writing fanfiction about her role model, Captain Marvel. At the same time, she's also trying to make sense of her identity as the daughter of Pakistani immigrants and her Muslim upbringing.
"For a new, untested, young character who sort of grew up around these famous old characters from the Marvel Universe, somewhere right across the river that was so close, yet so far away, seemed like a really appropriate place to set her story," said comics writer G. Willow Wilson.
A New Jersey native and practicing Muslim, Wilson was tapped by Marvel editor Sana Amanat to help create the character of Kamala Khan. But while creating "Ms. Marvel" became a passion project, Wilson wasn't sure if Kamala would find an audience.
"You never know when you're writing a story what's going to strike a chord, who's going to resonate with it, where it's going to go. And so it's tempting, of course, to set your expectations low," Wilson said.
As it turned out, Kamala Khan did resonate. In the five years since she first appeared in print, Ms. Marvel has headlined several top-selling comic books and became the heart of one of Marvel's most dedicated fanbases.
"It was almost like seeing someone living your life, but, like, the superhero version of that," Kriti Chandak, 16, said.
A Jersey City native, Chandak first learned that her hometown had its own superhero when she began attending Dr. Ronald McNair Academic High School — the school that Wilson, Amanat, and their collaborators used as the basis for Kamala Khan's fictional high school. Chandak's English teacher even took her and a few other students to this year's New York City Comic Con to take part in a meetup with Wilson, Amanat, and other Ms. Marvel fans. Chandak said those specifics, like the comic using real cross-streets, connected her with the character.
"I can exactly visualize where she is, because I pass Grove Street every day to get to school, or Newport is where I lived for thirteen years of my life," said Chandak.
Komal Smruti, 30, was also at Comic Con for the Ms. Marvel celebration, wearing a hand-sewed version of Kamala's Ms. Marvel costume. Smruti used to exclusively dress up as Supergirl for comic conventions, but reading about Kamala's adventures struck a chord with her because she was raised in a strict Hindu household.
"For me, it's that I can relate to her backstory of being this teenager with parents who are like 'you can't do this, and you can't do that, and we have to be orthodox about our entire lives' and I'm like, 'nah, I'm gonna go be a superhero,'" Smruti said.
One of the biggest announcements over the weekend was that Kamala would be a lead in the upcoming video game, "Marvel's Avengers" as a member of the premier superhero team, alongside iconic heroes like the Hulk and Thor.