Other Girl Powers: Final Girls, Super Girls and Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marvel

Abstract

This chapter focuses on popular representations of the female action hero in the comic book genre, in general, and in the comic Ms. Marvel (Wilson 2014-present) specifically, to consider the ways in which Kamala Khan, the ferocious yet still undeniably feminine character, can be read as a direct descendent of Final Girls, while still forging a path specific to heroic girls in contemporary comic culture. This chapter aims to address the troubling aspects of contemporary young women’s heroism, including what happens when she is racialized. In so doing, questions of neoliberal, late-capitalist rhetoric of Girl Power and postfeminist representation of empowerment will be analyzed in relation to the Final Girl as a precursor to the Super Girl.