Can we all agree that the world really sucks right now? Putin is targeting civilians in Ukraine in his horrific war. Republicans here in the US have ramped up their assault on trans and reproductive rights. Covid cases are still sprouting up everywhere even as cities, counties, and states abandon mask and vaccine requirements. Countless people are mourning loved ones lost to the virus, or dealing with long-haul ramifications of it. And despite all the mass protests over racist police shootings, police departments are just as well-funded as ever.
Even for people who are lucky enough to be safe and in good health, burnout and disillusionment are rampant. Many people are quitting jobs that might have looked okay on paper, but have turned out to be unbearably toxic. Some workers are suffering from the symptoms of PTSD without even knowing it, thinking that their daily exhaustion and dread are just laziness and entitlement, and others have learned, over the past two years, just how little their employers care about their health and well-being. Just last week there was a mass exodus in the publishing world, with as many as 1% of all editors leaving in just one day. Tellingly, most of the people who abandoned ship were women, and half of those women were women of color. The sexism, racism, and other forms of oppression that run amok in American culture have never been more blatant.
Enter Ms. Marvel, the new MCU Disney Plus series premiering on June 8, as the balm all of us in the world of fandom need right now.
Ms. Marvel: Embiggening Our Hearts Since 2014
I won’t lie: when I watched the first trailer, I teared up. Partly it was because I’ve been a Kamala fan since 2014, when the first issue of Ms. Marvel came out and I instantly fell in love with the geeky, wisecracking teenager who had the power to “embiggen” at will. Partly, though, I got weepy during the trailer because it felt so good, in a time that sometimes feels so gray, to watch an awkward fangirl shine.
When Covid took over the world in 2020 and leaving the house suddenly became a dangerous gambit, I escaped into the MCU. I watched the Infinity Saga so many times I could recite parts of it from memory. I counted down the days until the next installment of WandaVision or Loki. A few years before, I’d had big dreams for myself. I was going to be a writer! My books would be smart and good and win awards! But after years of being told that even though my work was great, there was no market for the kind of stuff I was writing, I felt adrift.
When Covid hit and I worried that I might get laid off from my job, I found it very hard to feel optimistic about my future. The world of Marvel was shinier and more inviting than the world of homeschooling, quarantine, violent anti-maskers, and the invisible deadly virus lurking outside my home. When things felt especially hard, I’d fantasize about being in a Marvel movie myself, looking beautiful on screen, not having to worry about how I’d pay my bills. Those fantasies hit harder on the days when society really felt like it was coming apart at the seams, like when grocery stores ran out of basic items like hand soap, or when I heard about coworkers being spit on and assaulted by anti-maskers.
In the trailer for Ms. Marvel, Kamala escapes into fantasy, too. It looks like the series will portray her as a Mary Sue in the original sense of the phrase: she inserts herself into fantasies about Captain Marvel, donning Carol Danvers’s costume herself and assuming her powers. Kamala’s life definitely doesn’t seem bleak like the Covid years have been, but she allows herself to wander off into a rich fantasy life, even drifting into daydream during a conference with one of her teachers. It’s a tendency that, if you’re into superheroes, you can probably relate to. Many of us have written at least a little cringy self-insert fan fiction.
What’s amazing about Kamala’s fantasies, though, is that they come true. The whole premise of Ms. Marvel is a fangirl who gets to become one of the people she fangirls over. The premise has extra emotional depth because Kamala is a Muslim Pakistani-American girl, a mix of three identities who all get told that they’re not allowed to achieve the same things as their white male counterparts. Yet she becomes a superhero!
Of course, we know that things won’t turn out perfectly for Kamala. I think what will make Ms. Marvel especially satisfying to watch, though, will be seeing her dreams come true. Because the real world has squelched a lot of dreams. How do you rev yourself up to shoot for that promotion after you realize that your entire profession sees you as disposable? How do you become a star athlete if you’ve got long Covid? How do you make time for your creative work when you keep getting told that no one’s interested in art about people like you?
Maybe seeing Kamala get what she dreams of and step into the role of a hero will remind us all that a Mary Sue isn’t just an escapist fantasy, but a strong, empowered woman. Imagining yourself in a radical new role, even if it’s just in fanfic, is a way of conjuring up new possibilities—for yourself, yes, but by extension, for the world around you. It’s a way of looking beyond the constrictions that have been placed on you, and seeing the weird and fascinating alternatives that wait there. Maybe the flip side of all the disappointment, frustration, and anger people are feeling right now is the realization that if we’re going to build a new world with new possibilities, now is the time to do it.
Whatever our fantasies consist of, what we all really want, deep down, is for our best selves to be empowered and seen. In the meantime, I can’t wait to see Kamala step into her best self, even with whatever hiccups and missteps might come, and shine as Ms. Marvel.
(image: Marvel)
