Marvel Confirms Whether MCU President Kevin Feige Really Ordered An Avenger's Death
A recent interview suggested that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was responsible for Ms. Marvel's death and rebirth in the pages of Marvel Comics, but the publisher is pushing back against the idea that he had anything to do with the changes.
Marvel fans were shaken by the decision to kill Kamala Khan in the pages of "The Amazing Spider-Man." The move was seemingly made to create synergy between the comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where the hero's origin involves her being a mutant. The comic book version of the hero, on the other hand, was believed to be an Inhuman since her debut over a decade ago until Khan's controversial death and rebirth revealed her to be a mutant/Inhuman hybrid. According to Cody Ziglar, the writer of "Miles Morales: Spider-Man" and collaborator of ASM writer Zeb Wells on "Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War First Strike," Feige made the decision to kill her.
"It was funny watching when the whole Kamala stuff was going down," Ziglar said during an appearance on the Amazing Spider-Talk podcast. "He (Wells) had told me months before the plan, which was, Feige was like, 'Hey, I don't do this very often, but, can you please do this to make things in line with Marvel because we have some stuff we want to do with Kamala,' so he (Wells) was like, 'F***, I'm the guy that drew the short straw? People are going to be very mad that I have to kill Ms. Marvel.'"
A Marvel spokesperson tells Looper that Ziglar's account is incorrect and that Feige had nothing to do with killing the character. Rather, it was a "collective editorial decision" made strictly by Marvel Comics that didn't involve the MCU boss.
How has the change impacted Ms. Marvel?
Kamala Khan's return from the dead as Marvel's newest mutant has seriously impacted the hero's place in the Marvel Universe.
The X-Men resurrected the young Ms. Marvel after discovering her X-gene and confirming her dual mutant/Inhuman heritage. However, the hero's mutant power has yet to manifest. Despite her rebirth happening nearly a year ago, she's still only using her Inhuman shapeshifting abilities. But Khan's life has gone in a new direction following the revelation. She's learned more about her mutant roots throughout multiple miniseries co-written by actor Iman Vellani (who plays the hero in the MCU), the most recent of which is "Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace" (by Vellani, Sabir Pirzada, Scott Godlewski, Erick Arciniega, and Joe Caramagna). Next up, she'll co-star in "NYX" (by Collin Kelly, Jason Lanzing, and Francesco Mortarino), part of Marvel's "From the Ashes" relaunch of its X-Men line. Ms. Marvel is set to play a key role in the series, which features her alongside other young mutants living in New York City.
Where the adventures of Ms. Marvel will take her next on the big and small screen isn't known following her most recent appearance in "The Marvels." But, given Marvel's statement about Feige's lack of involvement in her death, readers shouldn't expect Khan's live-action story to align too closely with what's happening in the comics. Ms. Marvel is a mutant in both universes now, yes, but how her different stories unfold appears to be in the hands of entirely separate editorial and creative entities.