Warning: contains spoilers for Magnificent Ms. Marvel #17!
CRADLE’s agents are continuing to create problems for some of Marvel’s most well-known teen superheroes, tracking them down and throwing them in re-education camps. Lucky for Ms. Marvel, she’s got size on her side and a few hilarious tricks up her sleeve.
In Marvel’s Outlawed #1, readers saw the long-reaching ramifications of the disastrous fight at Coles Academic High School. The government, under the pretense of protecting young people, banned anyone under the age of 21 from being a superhero, arresting each one in turn to ship them off to re-education centers. One of the few remaining young superheroes to be tracked down is Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, who continues to hit the streets of Jersey City to fight crime and do what she believes is right.
In Magnificent Ms. Marvel #17, Kamala is on the trail of a mystery - seven missing young people in Jersey City - and hot on her trail is Dum Dum Dugan and a gaggle of CRADlE officers. While Kamala Khan may be young, she’s become quite the experienced fighter, and adept at using her shape-shifting, size-changing powers in creative ways. Even while running from the villains, Kamala “embiggens” her hand, reaching back to pluck CRADLE officers off the street and dropping them one by one on top of buildings, safe but neutralized. As she goes about harmlessly picking off her attackers, Dugan shouts in frustration, “Stop sticking my people on rooftops!”
The chase comes to a stop and a stand-off, however, between Ms. Marvel and the only remaining CRADLE officer not on a roof: Dugan himself. With an electric suit meant to help take Ms. Marvel down, the two prepare to square off mano a mano. Bigger problems interrupt their showdown, however, forcing the two to come to an uneasy truce and postponing any humiliating workarounds to violence Ms. Marvel had ready to spring on Dugan. While Ms. Marvel's response to her pursuers is a fun moment, it also shows her at her most heroic; going out of her way to ensure no harm comes to people who are wrecking the lives of her friends and allies. Outlawed has raised sensible questions about the limits that should or can be imposed on young heroes, but here Ms. Marvel instinctively offers the contrary position: she's not just someone who should be out protecting the streets, but the best person for the job.
The rooftop plop is a really effective strategy, especially for someone like Ms. Marvel who tends to care about individuals even as she's flaunting authority, and isn’t the first to jump to straight-up violent methods of removing bad guys and other problems from her path. Using her “embiggened” hand and stretched arm to just move someone out of the way is a truly interesting use of a power than in another hero’s literal and metaphorical hands may have just ended in punching. Magnificent Ms. Marvel #17 by Saladin Ahmed, Minkyu Jung, Ian Herring, and VC’s Joe Caramagna is available now.