By Gary Symons
TLL Editor in Chief
It’s a case of life imitating art, imitating life, imitating art.
Or something like that.
In any case, comics fans have been thrilled to learn Canadian actor Iman Vellani, who plays the character Ms. Marvel, will also be co-writing a new comic book about Ms. Marvel.
Adding to the life imitates art theme, Ms. Marvel (aka Kamala Khan) stars an actor who was a huge comic book fan and specifically a fan of Ms. Marvel, who in turn is a character who is a huge superhero fan who later acquires superpowers of her own.
Even better for fans of the franchise, the comic that Vellani will be co-writing is one that will see Ms. Marvel rising from the dead, after having been killed saving the universe in Amazing Spider-Man #26. The new comic is rich in influences from the series on Disney+, as it will be co-written by Vellani and by Sabir Pirzada, who was a writer on the Ms. Marvel series.
Confused yet?
To go back to the beginning, Vellani really was a big comic book nerd and super fan, who ended up playing a comic book nerd turned superhero in the Ms. Marvel series, and also in the upcoming Marvel film The Marvels. Now the comic book nerd is a comic book writer.
“This was way scarier than joining the MCU for me,” Vellani said during an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “Those projects feel like they live in their own dimension, so I guess I can separate myself easier. But you can hold a comic book! I’ve never written anything before in my entire life, but I have read many comics, so I just wrote what I would want to read. I was given a very professional tool to write what is essentially my own fan fiction.”
The four-part comic series is titled Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant, and sees Khan resurrected through a new technology, which also turns her into a genetic mutant. She ends up joining the mutant superhero team The X-Men, and immediately takes part in a secret mission that kicks off her introduction to the X-Men franchise.
The first comic in the Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant series will be released on Aug. 30.
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