Ms. Marvel: The Evolution of a Feminist Hero

By Susan E. Kirtley

Since her first appearance as a superhero in 1977, Ms. Marvel's most frequent foe has, unfortunately, been herself. In the character's earliest years, Carol Danvers struggled with two personalities that could not coexist. Later, Sharon Ventura wrestled with choosing between two bodies, one her preferred form and one deemed acceptable by society. Then Carol Danvers returned to the title and fought with a bevy of alternative versions of herself from various dimensions before battling the Dark Avenger version of Ms. Marvel, Karla Sofen. Upon assuming the title after Danvers took on the mantle of Captain Marvel, Kamala Khan inherited this seemingly endless ordeal: clashing with alternate versions of herself, as well as the doppelg nger Stormranger, and even with her own reanimated corpse.

In every iteration, the iconic hero associated with the honorific of women's liberation continues to act as her own archnemesis, and the self remains the ultimate foe, suggesting that in every universe, women are their own worst enemy.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1978833458
• ISBN13: 9781978833456
• Release Date: August 2027
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Grade Range: Grade 11