Ms. Marvel is a comic title published by Marvel Comics, which launched in January, 2016 and was completed in 2018. Continuing on from Ms. Marvel (2014), it shares the same creative team of writer G. Willow Wilson, with rotating art by Adrian Alphona (Runaways) and Takeshi Miyazawa.
Following the Earth's destruction and recreation, Ms. Marvel's adventures continue as a member of the Avengers and, later, the Champions. As she battles against foes ranging from former friends to living computer viruses, Kamala finds herself wondering if leading her double life is possible at all.
Ms. Marvel (2016) provides examples of:
- Affectionate Nickname: The citizens of Jersey City have begun to call Ms. Marvel "Big M", and her friend Spider-Man occasionally calls her "Marv".
- All for Nothing: One story had the Shocker decide to go to New Jersey to get away from the other superheroes and creates a strange wormhole that he claims will give him brand new powers. Not only does the wormhole do nothing but spit him right back into Brooklyn, he didn't get his powers, landed in a construction dumpster and is spotted by the Miles Morales Spider-Man doing his homework.
- Alone Among the Couples: By issue #2, Kamala learns that both her best friend and her uptight older brother have started dating people without her noticing (although Aamir objects to the term "dating")."Everybody has a girlfriend except me!"
- Alternate Universe: When Kamala and Shocker get caught up in his flawed wormhole generator, Bruno, in trying to rescue them, sees several possible versions of Kamala's future: in one, he and Kamala get married (in a traditional Pakistani ceremony, no less); in another, she and Red Dagger are seen dancing in front of the Karachi skyline; a third shows Khan of the Exiles in her post-apocalyptic world; and in a fourth she becomes President of the United States. This last one was previously used by Tom Taylor in the final issues of his run on All-New Wolverine, which showed President Kamala being irritated by Laura breaking into the White House so they could talk, instead of using her status as leader of a major nation (Madripoor) to make an appointment.
- Amphibian at Large: When Kamala learns that her friend Bruno, who's been crushing on her for as long as they've known each other, is now dating Mike Miller, she demands to know how they met. It turns out that it was in the middle of Kamala's superhero duties, where the two bonded while Ms. Marvel was battling an enormous frog.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: When they fear that the world is going to end, Bruno admits his feelings to Kamala. She admits to having feelings for him in return, but is not emotionally at a place where she is comfortable dating, and tells him not to hold out for her.
- Animesque: Takeshi Miyazawa's issues look pretty much like manga in color.
- Badass Normal: The occasional guest-star Pakistani hero Laal Khanjeer (Red Dagger) is a self-taught master of Le Parkour and knife throwing. Kamala is clearly a little impressed that someone can become a superhero just by deciding to and working at it, rather than acquiring exotic powers by chance.
- The Bus Came Back: Singularity, who went MIA since the end of A-Force, reappears in issue #34.
- Continuity Nod: In issue #34, Bruno sees various possible timelines. Two of which are President Khan from the "Old Woman Laura" story arc in All-New Wolverine and Khan from the Exiles relaunch. As well, Singularity mentions having met her in "the wars", a nod to Kamala showing up in the A-Force series during Secret Wars (2015). Unsurprisingly, Kamala doesn't remember it due to the Richards Family making sure they didn't.
- Crystal Landscape: In Issue #38, the first videogame-like area that Kamala is transported to is a pink landscape dotted with giant blue crystals.
- Cyberbullying: A sapient Internet virus targets Zoe Zimmerman, eventually outing her as a lesbian to her school.
- Everybody Knew Already: In issue #31, Kamala reveals to her friends at her sleepover that she is Ms. Marvel. Their response is that they've known for a long time, and point out that Kamala isn't that good at hiding her secret identity. They just didn't want to tell her until they thought she was ready to talk about it
- Fashion-Victim Villain: After Knox, creator of the Inventor, is released from prison, he tries to re-establish his past reign of terror by convincing people that the Inventor has returned... by walking around in a cheap cockatiel costume.
- First Kiss: Kamala has hers with fellow superhero Laal Khanjeer/Red Dagger. However, it coincides with Bruno's return from his study abroad in Wakanda, causing Kamala to freak out about the ramifications. She's still very new to the world of romance, and seeks out Sheikh Abdullah to give her guidance.
- Funny Background Event: When the fight is over after the school dance, the teenagers are back to discussing their relationships again and Zoe is dancing. In storms the police, who are completely ignored by all of them.
- Fun with Acronyms: Hope Yards Development and Relocation Association, the villain group from the first story arc. H.Y.D.R.A., in other words.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: In the first story arc, Ms. Marvel's image is used by the Hope Yards project without her permission while she's too busy getting used to her role as an Avenger to notice. Even after exposing Hope Yard's sinister agenda and putting a stop to it, she's considered a sell-out who had only opposed Hope Yards once it was revealed to be headed by an actual supervillain. This got worse during Civil War 2, though her reputation began to recover afterwards.
- Identical Grandson: Issue #36 run shows a flashback to 1257 focusing on Kamala's ancestor, Kamilah of Samarkand, who's the spitting image of her 21st Century descendant. The sequence also shows counterparts to Kamala's closest friends, such as the Italian knight Sir Brunello (identical to Bruno Carelli, down to an implied crush on Kamilah), Sir Josuah (Josh), and Lady Zoë (Zoe Zimmer); while these aren't stated to actually be their counterparts' ancestors, they look identical to them and share their personalities.
- Idiot Ball: Kamala's decision to use copies of herself to lighten her workload. Even without Bruno hammering into her what a bad idea it is, a sci-fi geek like Kamala would surely have seen this idea fall flat a hundred times on TV. Could be excused due to the lack of sleep from all her time superheroing and schoolwork and trying to help her family, which is why she wanted the clones to begin with.
- It's Not You, It's Me: Kamala's reason for turning down Bruno after his Anguished Declaration of Love. She acknowledges that she has feelings for him in return, but feels that her being a superhero is more important than her personal happiness.
- Just Friends: Zoe tells Naika that she understands if she can't return her feelings but would like if they could still be friends. Nakia agrees to that.
- Lampshade Hanging: In Issue #22, after Kamala reveals her identity to Josh/Discord, the latter comments that in hindsight a part of them had always known, since a domino mask isn't exactly heavy-duty concealment."That mask doesn't exactly cover a whole lot, you know?"
- Locked into Strangeness: The unfortunate Skunk Girl, who has been granted, basically, skunk powers by the Terrigen mists (and didn't want them at all), gets a skunk stripe as one side-effect. As Kamala notes, it's the one part of the deal which is kind of cool.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: Aamir's parents are hesitant when he announces his intention to marry Tyesha, his African-American girlfriend, as they'd prefer he marry a nice Pakistani girl. Their opinion is swayed when Tyesha demonstrates knowledge of traditional Pakistani Muslim traditions, such as the bride living with the family until the husband can afford to buy an apartment. Aamir also helps his case when he points out that they set Kamala up with a Pakistani boy in the past, and that being from the same ethnic background didn't preclude the boy in question from being a complete asshole. Tyesha's parents are also hesitant, since they're Christians (Tyesha converted in college), but they are swayed when Yusuf gives a heartfelt speech about treating Tyesha like a daughter.
- Me's a Crowd: In issue #4, Kamala finds herself overwhelmed by her responsibilities (school, superheroing, being an Avenger, her brother's wedding) so resorts to using Bruno's artificial "human" experiment for this. Doubly bad idea considering the replicas are made by copying the stuff Loki's lightning golems are made of. And revealed in issue #5 to have been a really bad idea because Kamala's skin was tainted by an experimental neurotoxin when Bruno took the sample to make the clones, who are now replicating on their own.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: Harold, a WWII veteran living in a retirement home, is about half the height of the teenaged main characters.
- Mistaken for Terrorist: When Amir gets arrested he assumes it's a case of this and gives police a piece of his mind before being told that it is not the reason, but that a new law makes them round up all people with superpowers.
- Mythology Gag: One of the potential future Kamalas that Bruno sees in Issue #33 is Khan of the Exiles.
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: In Issue #38, when various characters are transparent to game-like areas, Bruno is found after having transformed into a shaggy minotaur with hoofed legs.
- Pass the Popcorn: Loki's reaction to Bruno and Mike's attempts at a summoning is to just stand back and watch their fumbling attempts at magic. He only appears when they hit the ridiculousness level he would even pay to see, and he brought literal popcorn too.
- Post-Modern Magik: Bruno has no magical skill himself but he can sample the lightning golems Loki left for the school and combine that with Kamala's DNA to make simple-minded clones. He's also capable of using it to 3D print pretty much whatever animate thing he wants. Parodied later on when he attempts to summon Loki using Hipster iconography (glasses, franchise coffee cups) in a summoning circle.
- Reed Richards Is Useless: If there was ever a sign that the Marvel universe at large suffers from this, it's the issue where Kamala and Bruno compete in a science fair against Miles Morales. Kamala's team makes floating water, Miles' makes a generator that converts static electricity into energy, and Bruno brings a portable cold fusion generator that can fit in his pocket. Somehow none of this results in the world changing overnight and energy companies throwing enough money in Kamala, Bruno, and Miles' faces to let them retire.
- Remember the New Guy?: Naftali, who first shows up in issue 25, well into the overall comic's second run, is depicted as already being a close and long-time friend of the main characters. This is internally justified through his attending a Jewish yeshiva instead of the public school the others do, though his supposedly close friendship with Kamala, and the pep talk he gives her, come off a bit hollow as a result.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: When Kamala reveals herself to her friends, she discovers that they had already knows for a while.
- Shout-Out:
- In issue #7, Miles Morales (thanks to his Spider-Sense, of course) says "I feel a disturbance in the Force".
- In #11, Hijinx mockingly calls Becky "Judge Dredd Barbie".
- In the same issue, Becky says "A wild Ms. Marvel appears."
- As Kamala and Laal Khanjeer ride the New Jersey rails in #23, Finbar McBride from The Station Agent can be seen standing outside his depot in New Brunswick.
- In Mike's introduction, there is a girl behind her that looks like a human Fluttershy. There is also a cameo of a turtle with a helmet who resembles Tank.
- Summon Bigger Fish: You've a bunch of random Kamala clones running around? Some even giant? This calls for a clone T. rex! What could possibly go wrong?
- Trapped in TV Land: In the final issue, an interdimensional portal of some kind opens up behind the Circle Q slushy machine, sucking Kamala and her friends into a fantasy video game version of Jersey City, where they level up and unlock achievements by recalling who they are and how much they've grown.
- Truth Serums: In the 50th issue, Kamala teams up with Spider-Man when he finds a weird purple rock. When it's activated, Miles suddenly confesses his crush on her.
- Unexpectedly Real Magic: Played with and ultimately subverted: when some of Kamala's friends think that they need to summon Loki, who they refer to as "hipster Viking dude", and try a ludicrous made-up ritual using hipster iconography. Loki does eventually show up, not because the ritual worked but because he had already been keeping the school under surveillance and couldn't stand how silly it all was anymore. He even brought popcorn.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: After the Incursions, people at Kamala's school have gotten very used to Loki's lightning golems hanging around.
- Villainous Gentrification: In Issue 5, Kamala and the residents of New Jersey discover that a local avenue has been massively renovated by a new corporation. She is aghast to find her superhero image being used without permission for the company's billboards, and that her favorite Serbian-Vietnamese grocery store has been replaced by luxury condos. Investigating the operation, Kamala discovers that the rebuilding is planned for the entire city and run by Hope Yards Development and Relocation Association, aka none other than HYDRA. Their next plan? Hypnotizing all the current residents of New Jersey and making them all move out of town.
- Wham Episode: In issue 11, this is the fallout from Civil War II: Captain Marvel calls Kamala a traitor and severs all ties with her. Bruno wakes up from his coma, but is now permanently disabled. He blames Kamala for what happened and for ignoring her friends, and reveals that he plans to leave New Jersey to go attend school in Wakanda. The issue ends with Kamala trying to convince him not to go, only for Bruno to shun her and say he never wants to see her again.
