"A shape-changing, mask-wearing, sixteen-year-old Super 'Moozlim' from Jersey City" : islamisk identitet och representation i superhjälteserien Ms. Marvel

Sammanfattning: In 2013 Marvel Comics announced their all new superhero Ms. Marvel, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl of Pakistani descent. While still not published, the story’s main character Kamala Khan was subject to an avid debate in newspapers like the Guardian, the New York Times and al-Jazeera English. Aiming to examine how Islam, Muslims and Islamic identity is represented throughout the first arc of the story, this thesis engage in a critical close reading of the superhero comic Ms. Marvel. The analytical framwork is based on earlier comics scholarship that shows how American mainstream comics has historically functioned as reproducers of contemporary identity politics. I argue that the development of Kamalas Islamic identity is deeply interwoven with her development as an American superhero. Therefore this study concludes that the superhero comic Ms. Marvel mirrors contemporary Muslim-American identity politics in a post 9/11 context, presenting a self-confident, morally righteous and fair Muslim-American superhero.