Ms. Marvel (2014-2015) #1

Oh, glorious! Read this on the recommendation of a wonderful PBS Idea Channel episode about it. And what?! Mainstream comics corporations like Marvel and DC have actually, finally updated their superheroes?! To people that aren't ponderous caricatures of hyper-Aryan masculinity!?

Honestly, I never felt like the superhero comic genre would ever be for me: it seems so incredibly remote from anything I cared about, it still carried so many ridiculous vestiges of its 1940s origins. It was boring, and took itself incredibly seriously, and, yes, was mostly aimed at young white dudes.

But when - in the first few pages of this comic - our protagonist, the Pakistani-American Kamala, rejoices in her Avengers fanfic getting 100+ upvotes on the fanfic site, I was hooked. What?! A comic that's aware of actual geek culture (not the Comic Book Guy stereotype, which is a bit outdated and also a specific subset of geek culture anyway). A comic that was humorous and layered and featured a brown girl superhero? That featured a realistic, bumbling, complex family? That ends with her shaking a giant, enlarged fist at the villainy of the world?! CAN I LOVE THIS MORE? No, I cannot.

And I can't recommend this highly enough. Very much looking forward to the next issues.