In this picture, I drew Kamala in her Ms. Marvel outfit and she’s supposed to be a giant(embiggened) shouting ” I am Kamala Khan!”, with her hands on her hips, all tall and proud. As you can see, there are people at the bottom of her feet cheering her on. In the background, those( in brown) are supposed to be lockers, which means this takes place in a school setting.
I chose to draw this piece because I wanted to talk about her lack of confidence and desire to fit in with others. We know in the comic, Kamala wants to fit in but struggles to, due to her culture, religion, and the complete ignorance of others. She complains in the scene before sneaking off to the party about her being the one who gets signed out of health class, the one with the weird holidays, and everyone else being normal. She even complains about her not having an ordinary name. One of the most popular feelings teenagers in high school experience is feeling they need to fit in with others or they are an outcast. Kamala seems to demonstrate going through this phase because of her desperately wanting to be at parties where there are other people her age, and getting upset when her father says “no”.
Kamala Khan’s family originates from Karachi, Pakistan and in many of those countries like in Pakistan, they have certain values and customs to follow such as loyalty to the family comes first before any other social relationships, having a higher education is valued, and bringing family honor. In Ms. Marvel, you can see some of the customs being practiced such as Kamala’s father suggesting her to stay at home(of course, with her family, instead of going to the party), invite her friend Nakia over and do activities such as HW and watch movies, reminding her what a great student and hard worker her friend Bruno is, where her father grounds and tells her that from now on her life is only school and home (the words school and home are bold in the comic), and probably the best example: When her mother tells her she’s ruining the family, after Kamala is caught sneaking out. Most importantly, in her Islamic religion (and in basically any religion) going out alone with boys (as a young girl), drinking alcohol, and going to such parties is considered sinful. Another reason that is giving Kamala a hard time in society is anyone that is not familiar with the culture. Zoe is portrayed as the stereotypical white girl who keeps on commenting pretty silly things about eastern culture. For example: She refers to the hijab as a headscarf and asks Nakia if she’s being forced to wear it or else she’ll get honor killed. It’s going to be pretty hard to fit in if there are going to be people who keep commenting and treating you as if you don’t belong in this planet.
In this illustration, I purposefully drew Ms. Marvel saying “I am Kamala Khan!” in her embiggened state because to me this depicts her as confident, which is something she lacks and wished she had. I think it would make more sense if she was in her Ms. Marvel costume and as a giant because it would create a better understanding of the confidence I referring to in the drawing. At the bottom, those hands represent her schoolmates. They are shouting encouraging things at her. They see her as something big and amazing. They are looking up to her which is something she wants from them. Based on what I see in the comic, people tease her because of the fact she can’t do the things they get to do and she wishes instead of them looking down on her, they looked at her as cool. I decided to take the setting to her high school. In your high school years, those are the years where you feel peer pressure and a necessity to be like the rest. Unfortunately, you’ll experience exclusion and isolation if you aren’t like the rest. Many grow to hate themselves for not fitting in and lose confidence. Kamala definitely has no love and confidence in herself because not only does she complain about certain things but she tells Carol Danvers how she wants to be awesome and buttkicking her when she encounters the superheros, the night she discovers her powers. She wants to be her.