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arctimon · 3 years

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Karmi and Kamala’s Un-Khan-ny Comparison

(You would not believe how long it took for me to come up with a Khan pun.)

The current Champions run got me thinking about something involving a Khan, an internationally known company, and an act of forgiveness.

In Outlawed!, Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel) gets seriously injured on a mission to protect a teen activist from Roxxon, a shady energy company that, among other things, teamed up with Malekith in the War of the Realms storyline to massacre one of the Ten Realms in order to strip mine the entire land. Here, they attacked the school Ailana Kabua was scheduled to speak at with a giant dragon left over from the War. The Champions, who were undercover at the time, fight it, and in the hustle and bustle, Vivian overloads and levels half the block.

In the aftermath, Kamala is seriously injured and in a coma, and the government passes the Underage Superhero Welfare Act, a law that bans superheroes under 21 and discourages vigilantism. Nevertheless, this causes a problem for the Champions, and many of them get rounded up and sent to “camps” to get reeducated about being a superhero, funded by Roxxon themselves.

The first half of the run deals with Kamala and the team trying to do their jobs while still being hunted by C.R.A.D.L.E. (the police force used by the government to round them up).

The second half has them go undercover at Roxxon as the company attempts to improve their public image...

Which involves Sam and Miles trying to get in, with Kamala on the mic.

Sam (Nova) tries to get hired by Miriam, but she doesn’t take the bait. However, Sam pulls out the ultimate trump card: getting a celebrity endorsement.

She does end up going with the plan initially...

But given that this is the company that helped bring her close to death, I would understand her hesitancy toward making it through.

In the last issue (#9), she gets coerced into making a speech at a concert saying that Roxxon is hip and cool and all that jazz, but...well...

Kamala gets more badass even when she’s not in costume.

And it led me to thinking about Kamala’s Earth-14123 cousin (at least in my imagination), Karmi.

The situations are not entirely the same, but having companies use you for their own nefarious purposes to pull the wool over the general public’s eyes is something that is shared by both Kamala and Karmi. Karmi started on the side of Sycorax and then switched off after what Di Amara did to her, and Kamala was never on their side to begin with.

Also, Miriam Blakemoore (the blonde in charge of this branch of Roxxon) isn’t a clone.

...As far as we know.

It does bring up an interesting point, and it’s one that I wish the show had gone into: would Karmi have been able to forgive Sycorax for what they did? And specifically Liv Amara?

Not everyone at Sycorax is evil, just as not everyone at Roxxon is evil as well. Stuff happens, teenage superheroes go into comas, and even the likes of Dum Dum Dugan find themselves on the side of the government.

Second point: if Karmi were to find herself in Kamala’s position (partaking in vigilantism with Big Hero 6, getting injured, and having a “Karmi’s Law” named after you banning your favorite superhero team), I wonder what her actions would be like. Would she join the fight, back down, or do something in the shadows for her beloved Captain Cutie?

Does it feel like I’m rambling? It feels like I’m rambling. XD

In any case, I enjoy the parallels between Karmi and Kamala a lot. Two Pakistani-American fanfiction-writing teenage girls doing what they do best: taking names and kicking copious amounts of supervillain butt.