New variant covers highlight that Ms. Marvel’s new costume is destined to play a major role in the Marvel Universe. Writer Saladin Ahmed has been retelling a classic story in the pages of Magnificent Ms. Marvel, with a story clearly inspired by Spider-Man’s Symbiote Saga.
The approach made sense. Ms. Marvel was created after the pattern of Spider-Man, an “Everyman Hero” who was designed to represent readers. Ahmed followed a familiar approach, with Kamala Khan transported to an alien world, where she was granted a formidable new costume. The Kree Stormranger is nanotech, and it appears to charge by absorbing biological energy from its wearer. Worse still, it’s also military-grade, and rejects Kamala’s ideology; when an exhausted Ms. Marvel refuses to kill an enemy, it broke free from her control, manifesting a digital intelligence of its own. The broad brush-strokes are almost identical to Spider-Man’s black costume, and Stormranger feels like it’s being set up as Kamala’s own nemesis.
Magnificent Ms. Marvel is proving to be a bestseller, and Marvel has commissioned second printings of # 7, 8, and 9. In celebration of the success, they’ve commissioned artist Luciano Vecchio (Ironheart) to create new connecting variant covers that chart the Stormranger Saga. What’s more, they’ve also officially announced that “in the months ahead, this strange being will not only play a major role in Ms. Marvel’s adventures, but in the Marvel Universe as a whole.”
This is excellent news; although the story of Stormranger follows a familiar pattern, Ahmed’s writing has made it feel fresh and original. While Ms. Marvel has been a phenomenal success, so much so that Marvel Studios is soon to bring her into the MCU, she’s never felt as though any of her enemies were iconic and memorable enough; Stormranger is the first one who could serve as a potential nemesis. The interesting question would be what happens when Stormranger bonds with someone who isn’t a Kree or an Inhuman; the nanotech clearly needs a biological fuel source, so it will undoubtedly seek a new host.
Meanwhile, it’s fascinating to consider whether or not the MCU will embrace the concept of Stormranger. The sad truth is that the MCU can never tell the Symbiote Saga itself, simply because Venom’s film rights are owned by Sony and Tom Hardy’s big-screen incarnation has a totally different origin story. This may be Marvel’s way round that problem, telling a tale that strikes the same notes but with different characters.
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Source: Marvel Comics
