While the first volume of the collected editions of G. Willow Wilson’s new muslim, and very cool superhero Ms. Marvel was excellent in every way, this second collection of the comic series takes Kamala Khan’s story further with some major Marvel Universe event happening in the background and suffers for it.
Ms. Marvel was fresh breath of air, and the origin story took me back to childhood experience with superhero comics, most notably my introduction to Spider-Man. What I believe I sometimes miss from modern superhero comics is a believable insight into the characters real life, and how the superhero and weird stuff makes this life both difficult and messed up. Ms. Marvel hit it on the head from the start, and it continues quite well in this second collection. In this story Kamala even have to cope with love, and she discovers that her secret identity might not be so secret as she believes. She even gets to meet, and fight alongside her hero Captain Marvel.
Where the collection fails as a whole and coherent story is that I really don’t care for the Marvel event happening in the background. I want to follow Kamala as she deals with boys, love, family and even the Inhumans, while trying to hide from her admittedly charming family. Instead too much of the story gets eaten by an event that really don’t get any explanation. I believe that these collections should work as a single story, and I get annoyed when important stuff don’t get an explanation or the collected story don’t get a satisfying ending. Neither happens here and I felt left out. I don’t want to buy into other comics and other stories to understand what I’m reading at the moment. This is not particular to Ms. Marvel Vol. 2, but to most output from the large comics publishers, but I want to believe that Kamala Khan deserved something more, if not better.