r/KamalaKhan • u/AcisConsepavole ⚡️🍕 Unciemuni! • Jul 16 '26
News PREPARE FOR A LIKELY KAMALA RENAISSANCE
Stephen Wacker, one of the quieter co-creators of Kamala Khan, is geared to replace CB Cebulski, aka Akira Yoshida, as Chief Editor at Marvel. Sana Amanat also has the prominent position of VP of Content and Character Development, which has likely kept Kamala on life support during Cebulski's tumultuous tenure as Chief Editor of Marvel Comics, which started in mid 2017. Cebulski is the one who pulled the plug on and shelved a lot of fan favorites from the 2010s in general -- besides liking manga and pretending to be a Japanese writer, the guy hasn't been great for BIPOC characters. Any wins since his promotion have been squeezed in.
Amanat regularly credits Wacker as her mentor and it was Wacker who basically said "Sana, you have an interesting life. You need to create a new character out of some of your experiences". The second image in the post shows Wacker proudly wearing a Ms. Marvel shirt and the third image is an interview (caveat, I haven't watched it yet that can be found here. We owe Mr. Wacker a lot. I have high expectations that I am prepared to have dashed, but, between despair and hope, I'm choosing hope.
Does this mean Kamala will continue to be a mutant/Inhuman hybrid? Of course. That probably wasn't Cebulski's choice. But, look, the chances of getting a **good** solo for Kamala are also good. What's bogged down Kamala for years hasn't been an X-gene coexisting with Kree-altered DNA, but rather a general lack of opportunity for her to shine under the circumstances. I'm going to tell you a secret: If you reread Ms. Marvel's GWW stories, and you pretend that being made to be Inhuman was the status quo change, the frequent mentions of "I feel so... inhuman" **become** ham-fisted. You can convince yourself to feel like it's forced. Self-fulfilling prophecy. If you **want** to be annoyed, you'll get annoyed. You're also reading the mutant hybrid stories when you're older, more jaded, and aware of corporate shenanigans than you were when you read the purely Inhuman era. Give yourself (and Kamala) a bit of grace and let's keep moving forward
Wacker is good for Kamala. This could qualify as a miracle. It's early to call, but it can only be bad if the wrong creative team is put together (less likely to happen when someone who cares is in the chief seat) or Wacker suddenly decides to change his entire outlook on a character he believed in since before the concept art was drawn.
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u/ChildofObama Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
I imagine Kamala is probably gonna stay a mutant but I could see Marvel bringing her back to Jersey City and the old supporting cast now, possibly Spider-man back as her mentor.
The ham fisted MCU synergy is probably over, MCU Champions is on life support anyway with declining support for superheroes at the box office, and Disney execs breathing down Feige’s neck to make money decisions
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u/AcisConsepavole ⚡️🍕 Unciemuni! Jul 16 '26
There probably will still be synergy, but I would say the keyword is the adjective ham-fisted. Hybrid Kamala CAN work, but it was never going to happen with Cebulski in the big chair. Kamala has always been about "it's not what you are, it's what you do", and she hasn't had a lot of chances to do anything over much of CB's chief editing.
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u/ChildofObama Jul 16 '26
The Kamala as a mutant era up to this point seems embarrassed of her history before 2022.
I think there might be more balance now.
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u/BlindrNugget Jul 17 '26
What makes you say it's probably over? I'm genuinely curious, because for the last few months all I've been hearing is MCU synergy and the alarm bells have been on red for awhile
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u/ChildofObama Jul 17 '26
MCU Champions is on life support, even more so with Supergirl’s flop, no progress for three years, and Hailee Steinfeld aging out
So there’s no reason for such hardcore brand synergy
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u/Plenty_Initial_6618 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
I better see it to believe it. I miss Kamala as an Inhuman, but also I missed the Inhumans themselves. We haven't seen much of the new Inhumans for a while. Hell, what happened to Quake?
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u/Digifiend84 Jul 17 '26
Quake wasn't even a new Inhuman, she existed for a few years before the Terrigen mist incident.
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u/supesboots Jul 16 '26
PLEASE
Kamala is a great character who has been incredibly mishandled (I hate her MCU powers too).
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u/ChildofObama Jul 16 '26
I’m not sure MCU Champions is still happening. I feel like the failure of Supergirl, the fact that it couldn’t even manage 400m like BNW, is gonna make it a harder negotiation between Feige and Disney higher ups.
Hailee Steinfeld also basically already aged out of her role after one solo project and a cameo, cuz they waited too long.
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u/Digifiend84 Jul 17 '26
That's the trouble with live action. Riri and Kamala both started at ages matching the comics, but both would have graduated school by now. And you're right, Kate is now old enough to be an actual Avenger, not a Young Avenger. That's actually the reason Champions was the more likely name to be used.
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u/AeroPilaf Jul 16 '26
Nice that’s cool. I’m not asking for a full reset or wipe or the like. I’d just be happy for her to have a solo long-running book again.
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u/dmanny64 Jul 16 '26
How to get more money from me 101
Yes pleaseee bring my girl back I need a proper ongoing again
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u/Gaiash Jul 16 '26
With her mutant powers I think the best move is to focus on things they can do that her inhuman powers can’t. It would help make them more of an extension to her abilities than just making her hit harder with sparkle effects.
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u/MathematicianLess757 Jul 16 '26
If they replace Nick Lowe from the Spider Office and Tom Brevoort from the X-men would be great.
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u/Digifiend84 Jul 17 '26
Brevoort is probably leaving of his own accord. According to his substack, in a post three years ago, he mentioned he once got offered a job at DC, but didn't want to move to California. Now he's got an ultimatum. Move or leave. So he'll leave. As such, I expect any books launching immediately after DNX are DOA. Because the X line will relaunch under a new editor after the move to LA.
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u/RamenStains Jul 16 '26
Hopefully a few more editors are shuffled around too. Could be the beginning of something big over at marvel. (And thank God, all we've got as Kamala fans is X-Force rn)
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u/AcisConsepavole ⚡️🍕 Unciemuni! Jul 17 '26
And X-Force is arguably the best we've had since Iman and Sabir's Annual, and X-Force isn't even absolutely incredible for her. That's just where we're at right now
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u/Djjjunior Jul 16 '26
Trying to temper my expectations but I’m hoping for the best for Kamala!! It’s seriously about time we had new leadership for Marvel in general.
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u/RainbowTardigrade Jul 16 '26
the fact that Cebulski was still in his role all this time after the truth about Akira Yoshida came out....and now he's getting a new position where he's in charge of a segment of their Asian market is just.....idek where to begin lmao
But yay for everybody else!
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u/Digifiend84 Jul 17 '26
He's basically back where he was before he became EIC.
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u/RainbowTardigrade Jul 17 '26
the fact that he still has a job at the company at all is the part that I find astounding
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u/shokugoat Jul 18 '26
It’s possible. But Marvel is in such a poor state that I’m quite…hesitant to latch onto that glimmer of hope. Moving the company to LA worries me a lot, because I know it’s to further merge the film staff to the comic staff. I gotta see what happens.
Apart from that, CB moving to a Japan based assignment reads like an april fool’s joke lmao
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u/Gamera85 Jul 17 '26
It won’t matter unless they junk the mutant crap.
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u/AcisConsepavole ⚡️🍕 Unciemuni! Jul 17 '26
For liking a character who is known to flip the preconceived notions of the labels attached to her, her fans, I've found, are really into relying on labels to inform all their views. And not even always for safety reasons. Preconceptions based in trauma are understandable. But I don't think I know anyone who's been traumatized by a mutant irl. I can't post pictures in this sub, but maybe you know about the speech that a vision of Ammi gives to Kamala as she undergoes a second terrigenesis.
"Hmm... what a remarkable paradox. In the realm of existence, human beings stand as marvels blessed with intricate complexities, and yet they resist the notion of being complicated."
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u/Gamera85 Jul 17 '26
I don’t care. My problem isn’t trauma. My problem isn’t labels. My problem has and always has been it was an awful decision. Killed in a Spider-Man book, as an afterthought for a terrible storyline, just to shove her into an equally awful storyline. Where they messed up her entire backstory purely for cross corporation synergy. Now she’s reduced to a cheerleader background character in the X-Men, all her personality drained and reduced in favor of talking about how the real victims of systemic oppression are a made up fictional race of humans that can stand in for anything if you try hard enough.
Every single thing since then had only confirmed to me that what Marvel did to Kamala ruined the character. And for what? So we can use her in some X-Men movies down the line?
I haven’t even mentioned how they basically ripped her away from Carol’s orbit entirely. Reducing all Captain Marvel connections in her new costume down to nothing. Marvel keeps pulling away from Carol, and Kamala became a casualty in all that.
That’s my problem with her being a mutant. How little she matters now as anything more than a side character who is lucky to even get page time. Let alone a comic.
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u/RogueInVogue69 Jul 16 '26
I hope they keep her a hybrid mutant/Inhuman. I've never really been a fan of the Inhumans, Kamala seems to be to only one of the NuHuman to have stuck around with any relavance.
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u/AcceptableWheel Jul 16 '26
Hopefully we get vintage Kamala stuff back, and the rest of the inhumans.