Ms. Marvel head writer hopes to see more ‘bara Hulk, choti Hulk cosplay’
polygon.comDisney Plus’Ms. Marvel series has some pretty drastic changes from the comics, but one thing that remains is that its central heroine, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), is Pakistani American and (like most Pakistani Americans) is Muslim. She attends mosque services and Eid celebrations and talks about how brown girls from Jersey City don’t ever get to be heroes.
Like many first-generation Americans, Kamala has a complicated relationship with her family’s traditions and her own burgeoning sense of self. But instead of painting her and her friends in total opposition to their heritage, the creators behind Ms. Marvel took great care in portraying the culture as a source of both celebration and conflict. One scene in the first episode really solidifies the nuanced relationship that Kamala has with her heritage.
[Ed. note: This post contains mild spoilers for the first two episodes of Ms. Marvel.]
“I remember that I wrote the first draft of the pilot in a rush of emotion over two nights,” saysMs. Marvel head writer Bisha K. Ali. “And it just came out of me in a flood. That scene is, like, verbatim the first draft of that scene, because everyone was like, Yes. [...]It turns from cute to painful very quickly.”
In the moment in question, Kamala’s parents finally agree that she can go to AvengerCon, the fan convention for all things Avengers, but only if she’s supervised by her father and if she wears the costume that her mother made for her: a Hulk cosplay made out of a salwar kameez, a type of traditional Pakistani clothing, complete with stitched-on abs and shoulder pads. And that’s not all — her father jumps in, wearing a matching Hulk cosplay with face paint.
“Big Hulk and little Hulk!” her mother enthusiastically gushes. “Bara
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