Warning: Spoilers for Avengers: Twilight #2!The future of Ms. Marvel looks bleaker than the controversial death she suffered through last year. Within the Marvel Universe, Ms. Marvel’s tragic death was mourned by masses of heroes, but masses of readers were mostly just angered about the decision to kill her off in the first place. Meanwhile, Ms. Marvel herself refused to mourn her own death, as she was primarily pleased with sacrificing herself to successfully save someone else.
It’s revealed in Avengers: Twilight #2 by Chip Zdarsky, Daniel Acuna, and VC’s Cory Petit that Kamala Khan’s future is a tragic one. The series focuses on a dystopian, Orwellian future that forces an elderly (but still ass-kicking) Captain America out of retirement to fix what he can. This compels him to try to get the band back together in a world where heroes are frowned upon and basically outlawed. However, when he goes to recruit Kamala Khan, she steadfastly refuses the call.
Readers learn that she has been keeping tabs on current hero stories and even subtly helping people in her own right. However, when asked to return to hero duties full-time, she’s struck with fear. Though it’s understandable, given that the issue shows she has children in the future, this kind of reaction is still a rarity for Kamala.
Ms. Marvel Lost Her Will to Be a Hero
One defining characteristic of Ms. Marvel’s character has always been that she enters every hero situation she encounters with active enthusiasm. She’s excited about being a superhero, and she’s excited to be around her fellow heroes. Even when she dies, or rather when she learns how she dies, she maintains that same excitement upon realizing the noble circumstances of her death. As an adult, though, all of that excitement is gone. It’s as if she lost all of her childlike wonder the moment she grew up.
Specifically, when this universe’s Hero Day resulted in countless casualties within the hero community, it suddenly became dangerous for anyone to be associated with a superhero, let alone to actually be a superhero. For Kamala, it’s clear that she maintains that urge to help people, but when her family is at stake, she doesn’t want to be the public figure she once was. She doesn’t want to regularly participate in the lifestyle she used to be excited about.
Ms. Marvel Not Being a Hero is the Biggest Tragedy of All
Ms. Marvel’s death seemed to affirm her urge to want to be a bigger part of the hero community, whereas H-Day did just the opposite in making her want no part of the life. H-Day shook Kamala to her core in a way her death couldn’t. The state of heroism in the future has broken her spirit, which is just a shame for anyone who knows what kind of hero she was before H-Day. That which once gave Ms. Marvel joy and purpose in the Marvel Universe now strikes dread into her heart.
