Ms Marvel, written by G. Willow Wilson and illustrated by a small, brilliant team of artists like Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa, Ian Herring and Joe Caramagna, is one of the most extraordinary mainstream comic books on the market. Kamala, the lead, is a New Jersey-based teenager from a Pakistani family who gains superpowers and does what every nerd would do; fights crime with them. While screwing up a lot. It’s an amazing, clever, kindhearted revolution of a book that’s been infinitely more successful than was anticipated and I’ve talked about it a lot elsewhere.
This panel jumped out at me when I reviewed the second collection of the series. It’s Kamala talking to Sheikh Abdullah at her local mosque. She’s expecting a massive telling off, because she’s acting out, clearly keeping secrets from her family and refusing to stop doing so. Instead, she gets this.
That level of pragmatic, invested, personalized compassion is what every religion, on it’s very best day, embodies. To see any religion portrayed with that level of sensitivity is impressive. To see Islam portrayed that way is as extraordinary as it is necessary. It’s also this week’s Sunday Moment of Zen.