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A review by ayari10
Ms. Marvel, Vol. 7: Damage Per Second by G. Willow Wilson
4.0
So far my least favorite Ms. Marvel volume. It's still great and a lot of fun, but the story-line just didn't capture me all that much. I wanted a little more time with Kamala Khan dealing with everything going on in her life and I found this villain to be a tad hokey. There were some truly lovely moments and I appreciated that they tackled the issue of internet privacy, something we all need to be aware of and need to start teaching teens.
I'm going to do a small maybe spoiler-y rant. The thing that bothered me the most was issue #13, which is the first one in the volume and is clearly a throw-away issue. Ms. Marvel uncovers a gerrymandering scheme in Jersey City and rallies the people of her city to go and vote. Ms. Marvel has always seamlessly blended Kamala Khan's superhero-ing with her personal trials and tribulations. It's one of the comic's grandest strengths. This civic duty engagement issue feels more like a PSA than a continuation of Kamala's story. You know, like a "very special episode" on a TV show. I understand the importance of voting, and I think it's a necessary message for Ms. Marvel's teen readers, I just wish it wasn't so preachy, and frankly, overly optimistic. Clearly written with the 2016 election in mind (though published at the end of November that year), also dates it drastically. And the image of Ms. Marvel holding an American flag while leading people to go vote was too much. Everything about it was over-the-top. Voter suppression and civic disengagement deserve more than a "very special issue" of Ms. Marvel.
I'm going to do a small maybe spoiler-y rant. The thing that bothered me the most was issue #13, which is the first one in the volume and is clearly a throw-away issue. Ms. Marvel uncovers a gerrymandering scheme in Jersey City and rallies the people of her city to go and vote. Ms. Marvel has always seamlessly blended Kamala Khan's superhero-ing with her personal trials and tribulations. It's one of the comic's grandest strengths. This civic duty engagement issue feels more like a PSA than a continuation of Kamala's story. You know, like a "very special episode" on a TV show. I understand the importance of voting, and I think it's a necessary message for Ms. Marvel's teen readers, I just wish it wasn't so preachy, and frankly, overly optimistic. Clearly written with the 2016 election in mind (though published at the end of November that year), also dates it drastically. And the image of Ms. Marvel holding an American flag while leading people to go vote was too much. Everything about it was over-the-top. Voter suppression and civic disengagement deserve more than a "very special issue" of Ms. Marvel.