NaNoWriMo has been eating up my time, and I’m still way behind on my word count goals. Sigh. C’est November. I’m going to make up for it with a catch-up link post.
Marvel is introducing a female Muslim superhero!
In February, as part of a continuing effort to diversify its offerings, Marvel Comics will begin a series whose lead character, Kamala Khan, is a teenage Muslim girl living in Jersey City.
No exploding planet, death of a relative or irradiated spider led to Kamala’s creation. Her genesis began more mundanely, in a conversation between Sana Amanat and Steve Wacker, two editors at Marvel. “I was telling him some crazy anecdote about my childhood, growing up as a Muslim-American,” Ms. Amanat said. “He found it hilarious.” Ms. Amanat and Mr. Wacker noted the dearth of female superhero series and, even more so, of comics with cultural specificity.
When they told G. Willow Wilson, an author, comic book writer and convert to Islam, about their idea, she was eager to come on board as the series’ writer. “Any time you do something like this, it is a bit of a risk,” Ms. Wilson said. “You’re trying to bring the audience on board and they are used to seeing something else in the pages of a comic book.”
Kamala, whose family is from Pakistan, has devotedly followed the career of the blond, blue-eyed Carol Danvers, who now goes by Captain Marvel, a name she inherited from a male hero. When Kamala discovers her powers, including the ability to change shape, she takes on the code name Ms. Marvel — what Carol called herself when she began her superhero career.
“Captain Marvel represents an ideal that Kamala pines for,” Ms. Wilson said. “She’s strong, beautiful and doesn’t have any of the baggage of being Pakistani and ‘different.’ ”
Racist fanboys are already gnashing their teeth, but who cares about them? There’s gonna be a teenage Muslim superhero!
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been on for several weeks now, and it’s just not gathering the same sort of enthusiastic fandom as The Avengers did. Gavia Baker-Whitelaw at The Daily Dot looks at what makes some fandoms more successful than others and why AoS isn’t working for some fans.
25+ Pumpkin Spice Recipes because you just can’t have too much pumpkin spice in your life.
Kat Dennings & her friend, Rodene Jones, talk about living through breast cancer on an episode of In Her World. Beware auto-play video at that link.
Amanda’s friend Caitlin’s account of the American Horror Story season 2 DVD/blu-ray release event at the haunted Linda Vista Community Hospital.
NEW HARK A VAGRANT YAAAAYYY!!!!!
Black Canary at a metal concert
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