Ms. Marvel #13 Review and *SPOILERS* - Marvel Monday

A Little Too Late

Written By: G. Willow Wilson
Art By: Mirka Andolfo, Ian Herring
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: November 30, 2016
Publisher: Marvel

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

If you’re like me and you have several Google Alerts that let you know about current news surrounding comics, you’ve probably seen some articles about this issue around the time of the election. I avoided those articles in an attempt to keep myself safe from spoilers. All I know going into this issue is that the first issue under the Marvel NOW! imprint was incredible and I have a lot of faith in G. Willow Wilson to give us incredible stories. In addition, we are once again getting art from Mirk Andolfo who has quickly become one of my favorite artists after her work on the previous issue. Of course, Ian Herring is there as well and fans of this series as well as the Silk series know how his coloring really brings these comics to life. With a team like this, I have high expectations for this book and I can’t wait any longer. Let’s just jump into it.

We begin our issue with Kamala having returned to her home and her school. Bruno is, of course, still in Wakanda attempting to heal and we see how Kamala’s classmates have been since her departure. Kamala doesn’t have the motivation to pay attention in class but the class is interrupted when a new student named Gabriel Hillman is introduced. Gabe and Kamala know each other because their siblings are planning to be married. However, Gabe doesn’t usually go to this school but due to a redrawing of the voting districts, he has been assigned to another school. The class goes on and at night Kamala dawns her Ms. Marvel outfit and goes out to look into the situation. She makes a stop by City Hall in order to talk with the mayor in order to find out what is going on. However, during her meeting the mayor seems to dismiss her concerns but before she leaves he writes the word “Help” on a piece of paper.

Kamala decides to do more and visits Mike in order to find out what she can do. While there the two realize that a familiar face has entered the mayoral race and is most likely the reason for the gerrymandering of the districts. It is non-other than Chuck Worthy, a man working for HYDRA who was the main antagonist of the first story arc of this current volume of Ms. Marvel. Kamala begins to leave in order to fight with him but Mike stops her and tells her that there is another way to deal with the issue. Worthy’s campaign is counting on a low voter turnout. Combined with the redrawing of the districts, he should win easily. However, if most of the people that can vote do, then he won’t stand a chance. In fact, they might not even have to choose between the two biggest candidates who are unappealing to everyone. Instead, they could vote for a candidate named Stella Marchesi.

Ms. Marvel is able to form a voting committee to rally people to vote. They begin going door to door in order to encourage people to vote. However, they are initially turned away by many people. They cite different reasons. One says that he thinks all the candidates suck. Others say that they don’t have time, aren’t sure if they’re registered, are unable to leave work and a variety of other reasons. Ms. Marvel stops them all and tells them that they are able to easily find out answers to their questions on vote.usa.gov and continues to answer many of the questions that people have surrounding voting. It is a lot of information but she is able to rally people. She and her group end up coming across a rally for Chuck Worthy and Chuck is furious. He sends his men after the group and Ms. Marvel is able to quickly dispatch the HYDRA agents before leading everyone to the polls. The issue ends with Kamala, her brother’s fiancé, and Gabe all watching the results and it is revealed that a new mayor has been elected and the districts have been returned to their original state. Gabe says that he’s enjoyed his time at the school though and may choose to stay there. We get a final message stating that revolutions take time and sometime they end in disappointment but given time and effort they can work. We see Stella Marchesi taking the oath as Mayor and the issue ends.

You know those PSA you used to see on TV where they tell you not to do drugs or to help out your community. This issue is like those. It certainly is a noble cause. However, there are a full couple pages that are straight information about voting in our country that Kamala luckily knows off the top of her head. Granted, it is important that people know that information but from a storytelling perspective, it is a little odd. However, the real unfortunate thing is that due to schedule and delays this book has come out nearly an entire month after our real life election. The message about increasing voter turnout seems to be lost when nearly half the country didn’t vote in the most recent federal election. I’m not saying that this book would have necessarily changed that but the book would have felt more relevant if it had come out before the election. It was nice to see a familiar villain return to Jersey City with Chuck Worthy and of course Mirka Andolfo and Ian Herring knock it out of the park with the art in this book. Unfortunately, the issue falls a little flat. I’m looking forward to the next issue and continuing with the story we had previously.

Bits and Pieces

This issue of Ms. Marvel comes out a bit too late as it delivers a ton of information in a comic PSA about the importance of voting in our elections. Unfortunately, due to the election being over a month ago, this comic feels a bit out of place. However, a decent story and some delightful art from our creative team really pulls this comic together. Hopefully this comic will be reprinted and brought up again by Marvel when elections roll around again because it is an important message.

6.5/10