During an exclusive chat with Entertainment Weekly, The Marvels star Iman Vellani discussed co-writing a new Ms. Marvel comic with Ms. Marvel TV writer Sabir Pirzada. For the new comic, Carlos Gomez and Adam Gorham will cover the art, and Sara Pichelli will provide the main covers.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Vellani first began playing Kamala in last year’s Ms. Marvel series on Disney+ and will reprise the character later this year on the big screen with the Nia DaCosta-directed movie, The Marvels.

While speaking about working on a new Ms. Marvel comic, the actor told EW, “This was way scarier than joining the MCU for me.”

Vellani continued, “Those projects feel like they live in their own dimension, so I guess I can separate myself easier. But you can hold a comic book! I’ve never written anything before in my entire life, but I have read many comics, so I just wrote what I would want to read. I was given a very professional tool to write what is essentially my own fan fiction.”

In reaction to the Ms. Marvel series finale, the new comic will be titled Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant. Similar to Vellani’s version of the character, her comic counterpart is now officially considered a mutant. The character Kamala was created a decade ago by writer G. Willow Wilson, editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker, and artists Adrian Alphona and Jamie McKelvie. Originally, the character was an Inhuman whose powers were activated after she was exposed to Terrigen Mists.

Still, Vellani stated that Kamala’s current status as a mutant won’t erase her Inhuman history but instead gives the Muslim superhero a chance to explore her identity.

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Iman Vellani Stated That the New Comic Won’t Change the Character’s Origin Story “That’s a Part of Kamala’s Identity”
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The actor noted, “I want to make it very, very clear that we are not reconning her Inhuman origin. That’s a part of Kamala’s identity that Marvel editorial and myself would very much like to keep and protect. Our book will absolutely reflect all those core themes of identity that the Ms. Marvel comics have consistently explored — only now there’s a whole new label that Kamala has to learn to accept. It’s going to be pretty crazy.”

Vellani continued, “Hopefully those readers who are kind of getting into the comics after the Disney+ show are are going to have something fun to look forward to on shelves.”

The new Ms. Marvel comic will also feature a redesign of the character’s costume in order to showcase Kamala’s new identity as a mutant and will replace the X-Men logos with Ms. Marvel’s more traditional lightning bolt. As with the character’s original costume, her new look was designed by McKelvie, who Vellani said she’s “such a big fan” of.

During the interview, Vellani’s co-writer Pirzada, praised the actor’s extensive knowledge of the comics and the creators behind them, saying, “It was actually a very humbling experience to work with Iman, because she knows her comics even better than I do, and that is saying something.”

Pirzada continued, “She was throwing out references to specific comics that came out before either of us were born. She has a very great eye for what makes for a good sequence on the page as drawn by an artist. It was very impressive to me to see her throw out all these references to different artists that she’s been following through the years.”

While talking about her ability to play around with the character’s comic book powers, Vellani said, “Oh my God, I love it. You can do anything with those stretchy powers. I like to make it a little vague enough for the artist to surprise me when I get the sketches back, and they always do. It’s honestly so liberating to be able to pitch ideas and everything gets accepted because they can just draw it. There’s no need to worry about budgets or effects.”

Vellani wrapped things up with a final declaration of excitement: “It’s so awesome to be able to contribute to the official Marvel comics canon.”