Femme Friday: Ms. Marvel

My boyfriend recently started a new job and I have been home recovering so I have had a lot of time to catch up on comics. In march, I discovered some new (or new to me) titles. I have been wanting to read G willow Wilson's Ms. Marvel for awhile now and since my comic shop was having a sale on first volumes I decided to pick up Ms. Marvel: No Normal. I really enjoyed reading it and being introduced to Kamala Khan. Kamala is a teenager that takes over the mantle of Ms. Marvel from Carol Danvers. I will admit that prior to this, although I knew some things about Ms. Marvel, my knowledge about the character is somewhat lacking. I enjoyed everything about this book from the art to the writing. Adrian Alphonia's art was fantastic. I am a fan of the iconic costume but it was nice to see a more realistic take on it as well. It seems like with the popularity of comics like Squirrel girl, less sexed up, "real" depictions of women are on the rise. It is possible to be the embodiment of sass in a realistic costume, after all.

G willow Wilson's writing is superb as well. It is really refreshing to see young women portrayed so realistically. One of the things I enjoyed most about reading this was that crime fighting does not come naturally to her. She had to learn to use her powers while hiding her true identity from her very concerned parents.the Overarching theme of volume one seems to be Identity. Kahn is Marvel's first Muslim character and although, it may have turned some off of the character her struggle with faith is relatable to anyone regardless of religion preference. She faces peer pressure at a party which magnifies the differences between her and the party-goers, leading her to question her faith. Ultimately she ends up saving one of her a"frenemies" from the party from drowning later on. The struggle with keeping her identity from her parents is also very real. Being a teenager is hard enough without being a superhero, you know? Her father wishes that she would focus on school, and her mother is worried that she will make the wrong choices. Again, this makes Kahn an easily relatable character.

I will definitely be picking up volume two!Are you a fan of Kamala?

Gaining some XP with Marvel. The Marvel Expierence

My 28th birthday was on Monday and in true nerdy fashion I wanted to celebrate it with some of my favorite heroes. I had wanted to check out The Marvel experience at Fair Park in Dallas, ever since I heard it was coming to Texas.  I thought that my Birthday would be a good excuse (like I *REALLY* needed one anyway) to see the interactive exhibit starring the likes of Captain America, Spider-Man, Hulk, Black Widow, Wolverine ,Thor, and a certain billionaire philanthropist. Iron fist and She-hulk also make appearances as well.

The experience begins by allowing you to make your own S.H.I.E.L.D. Identification card  S.H.I.E.L.D which stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (pretty official sounding, huh?) is lead by Nick Fury and often teams up with The Avengers to fight various villains. After you create your badge the computer will send it to the email you provided but you can also buy hard copies of it in the gift shop, I thought this was super cool and probably one of the neatest souvenirs I have ever gotten.

Isn't it awesome? I am  5'1,  so I am really short. the computer screen was actually two high up to take a picture of me. thus, my boyfriend actually had to lift me up ballerina style to take this photo. It says superhuman because Mutant was not an option. My goal is to one day become an X-Men, seriously.

Next you enter a series of domes and are briefed by several heroes. Stan Lee can even be spotted. Once inside the major doom there are lots of interactive activities, like "hulking out with hulk" and posing with your favorite superheroes on the big screen. The Hulk one was really fun because you stand in front of the interactive screen and throw punches as big green, himself. to summon your favorite heroes, you had to stand on mini platforms and make certain poses.

This was difficult because many of the poses required both hands which is difficult for me because I have to maintain balance with my walker.In truth, a lot of the interactive activities were difficult because they were designed for able bodied people in mind.  I could not enjoy the activities like climbing up a rock wall with Spider-man or the Black Widow Agility maze which I totally understand but my walker hindered things like flying with Iron Man and pretty much everything in the interactive area. this confused me because I had read that the Marvel  Experience was accessible. I did however get to do the blaster training which was so fun we did it twice,

At the end of the interactive portion you are given a shield charm fr the wristband you are given  in the beginning. from here, you enter a transport where you are attacked! I thought it was really neat to end the experience with a simulated ride,  However, it would have been super cool if we were given fake blasters in this area. It would have allowed visitors to use the "training" we received and made this part interactive,

This section conveniently lead into the gift shop which had various items featuring the superheroes from the experience but overall it was slightly disappointing for the serious marvel collector, I did however buy a hard copy of my badge, I wonder how many times I will accidentally hand that to someone instead of my ID? It was fun regardless of the setbacks I experienced but it could use improvements to accommodate everyone.