A review by panda_incognito
Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit by Samira Ahmed by Samira Ahmed, Andrés Genolet
2.0
The last few Ms. Marvel comics have all been letdowns, and I know I should give up, but I'm so attached to the characters that I still read every one. This was probably the worst so far, especially since the author coasts on readers' existing investment with the characters and doesn't use any of them to their potential.
One of the reasons why I love the Ms. Marvel comics so much is because Kamala's family and friends are all well-rounded, complex characters with their own meaningful subplots. However, in this volume, they could have been replaced with anyone else, including a talking potato. They're just there to prop up Kamala and the swiftly declining story, and there is no emotional depth. There is an opportunity for depth when Kamala has the horrifying realization that she, but the characters gloss over this and swiftly move on. The story doesn't absorb the implications of this at all.
It's also clear that the author is used to writing narration-heavy novels, not comics. She overuses the device of Kamala talking to the reader when what Kamala says is already obvious, is redundant, or could have been better conveyed through dialogue with someone else. This is especially distracting when the author packs a lot of narration and dialogue in together, because I often read narration as dialogue and then realized Kamala hadn't said that out loud.
Also. Even though I love some ideas related to the multiverse, I am tired of people using it as a sparkly band-aid because they've run out of ideas. One's hope is that introducing the multiverse will introduce a fascinating new range of characters and narrative possibilities, but I'm tired of seeing established series latch onto the multiverse to overcomplicate their world and distract readers from how few ideas they have left.
On another note, the character who kept referring to science in quasi-religious terms was just annoying. Bruno is trying to patch together an emergency technological fix for their disaster, and he's afraid that it will fail, because the consequences could be catastrophic. And this chick keeps telling him to ~believe the science!~ as if his concerns aren't completely legitimate, and as if failure and the resulting consequences aren't part of scientific experimentation. I honestly feel like this character's belief-based reassurances were just supposed to distract the reader from how implausible it was for Bruno to be able to throw together this totally unexplained technology at the last minute to save the day.
So, is this the end? Is this the last new Ms. Marvel comic I will ever read? Probably not. I'm sure I'll be back for more, because I am deeply invested in the characters and will always hope for one good new volume. However, it's probably just time to reread the whole original series from before it went downhill, and to celebrate how well the Disney Plus TV show captured the characters that I care about so much.
One of the reasons why I love the Ms. Marvel comics so much is because Kamala's family and friends are all well-rounded, complex characters with their own meaningful subplots. However, in this volume, they could have been replaced with anyone else, including a talking potato. They're just there to prop up Kamala and the swiftly declining story, and there is no emotional depth. There is an opportunity for depth when Kamala has the horrifying realization that she
Spoiler
accidentally killed a version of herself from elsewhere in the multiverseIt's also clear that the author is used to writing narration-heavy novels, not comics. She overuses the device of Kamala talking to the reader when what Kamala says is already obvious, is redundant, or could have been better conveyed through dialogue with someone else. This is especially distracting when the author packs a lot of narration and dialogue in together, because I often read narration as dialogue and then realized Kamala hadn't said that out loud.
Also. Even though I love some ideas related to the multiverse, I am tired of people using it as a sparkly band-aid because they've run out of ideas. One's hope is that introducing the multiverse will introduce a fascinating new range of characters and narrative possibilities, but I'm tired of seeing established series latch onto the multiverse to overcomplicate their world and distract readers from how few ideas they have left.
On another note, the character who kept referring to science in quasi-religious terms was just annoying. Bruno is trying to patch together an emergency technological fix for their disaster, and he's afraid that it will fail, because the consequences could be catastrophic. And this chick keeps telling him to ~believe the science!~ as if his concerns aren't completely legitimate, and as if failure and the resulting consequences aren't part of scientific experimentation. I honestly feel like this character's belief-based reassurances were just supposed to distract the reader from how implausible it was for Bruno to be able to throw together this totally unexplained technology at the last minute to save the day.
So, is this the end? Is this the last new Ms. Marvel comic I will ever read? Probably not. I'm sure I'll be back for more, because I am deeply invested in the characters and will always hope for one good new volume. However, it's probably just time to reread the whole original series from before it went downhill, and to celebrate how well the Disney Plus TV show captured the characters that I care about so much.