Kittens Rant: The Problem with Kamala Khan in Avengers Game?

Welcome back all my wonderful kittens. I know I know I promised you some Sony vs Hi-Rez stuff for the next blog buuuuut we’re waiting for a little bit longer to hear from Sony (which isn’t seeming likely) so we’ll have that soon..but until then we have 2 more rants for you brought on by things that our wondrous founder Kevin saw in Facebook comments and a YouTube video. Thanks soooooo much for sending those to me Kevin *Insert Sarcasm Here* But to be honest, I do appreciate it because some of these things are things that need to be talked about and this one…well both of them honestly bring up a whole host of problems that need to be addressed and I’m gonna address them as they came to me today. So, first, we come to the issue of Kamala Khan in the Avengers game…but is it an issue or are you just making it an issue is the question here? This also leads into some of the other Legacy characters as I saw them being called in the comments.

Before we jump right into this with both feet and I climb onto my litter box to regale you with my thoughts since this does once again have to do with gaming I want to remind you that we now have a gaming channel. DraxisWeb is rebranding some things and reworking others and with all of this, we have been moving all of our gaming content to the YouTube channel you can find HERE. What we’re going to be doing is when we get to 200 subscribers we’re going to have a giveaway on our channel and I was just informed that the giveaway has been upped to a $25 digital gift card for the platform/game of your choosing (or the closest dollar amount the platform/game you want has to $25 without going over). So be sure to stop by and subscribe to the channel and keep a lookout for the post and video that will announce the giveaway.

So onto my rant. Today Kevin saw and forwarded to me an article from some comic book page on Facebook I don’t remember which one because I foolishly shut it down before getting ready to do this blog. Blame it on lack of coffee at 6am. Anyway, the page was asking how people liked the new Avengers game and more specifically what they thought of Kamala Khan in the game and her gameplay. Oh my god you can imagine the outpouring of just haters this has garnered for me to be writing this and it wasn’t really anything to do with the game itself or the gameplay but the fact that a legacy character was the main protagonist of the storyline and that it should have been called a Ms Marvel game or Champions or something and damn it stop pushing your social agenda’s on us…..yeah it devolved real fast from “well she’s not a real avenger” to “damn you Disney and your leftist SJW infringing on my love of all white classic avengers!”

It was both an infuriating and an interesting read to look at these comments…as most internet comment area’s are which is why I tend to try to stay away from them…if I didn’t you’d probably be getting a Kittens Rant blog every hour or so on some other topic where people are just making stupid foolish pricks out of themselves.

Anyway, the first few comments to go negative started out mainly from the people who don’t even pay attention to Avengers comics or just don’t pay attention to newer ones, or maybe are only fans of the movies. Their big complaint boiled down to “Why is this girl, this nobody the main protagonist? She’s not an Avenger!” Then when told she was it became an “Oh, well, All New All Different Avengers doesn’t count it didn’t last long enough” or “All-New All-Different wasn’t a real Avengers team!” You know, the typical replies of people who don’t know shit about what they’re talking about or that refuse to see anything new as good enough to bear the name. One of my favorite arguments here was that this wasn’t a real team it was just leftover characters that were thrown together by the writers…you know cause teams like the Avengers or the Justice League and the Defenders and so many other comic book teams aren’t just a bunch of writers who said: “Hey let’s throw these characters together and see what happens!”

So yeah, to this first bunch of people I just have a simple thing to say. Accept the new stuff because it is just as valid as the old or do some fuckin research before you comment on something. But yeah, some of those were interesting reads especially the discussions they devolved into about how Ms. Marvel is just a second rate Mr. Fantastic or  Plastic Man (personally I think she’s better than both with her power set but I also think she was misnamed since she does resemble Mr. Fantastic way more than Ms. Marvel…but that’s a blog Kevin already made so I won’t go into that again here lol).

Now we move onto the infuriating ones and these are probably the same people who hate the Captain Marvel movie because well Brie Larson. Yeah, I’m still not sure about that because I liked her in it and they’re just butthurt that she dared say something they don’t like boohoo. Anyway, these same types came into the conversation and started saying that Kamala sucks, Miles Morales sucks, all the champions who used to be part of the All-New All-Different Avengers just suck because all they are are SJW poor man’s versions of established characters. Even the Young Avengers were better than them because they weren’t cheap knock offs of other characters (except they are, you just like them better because they aren’t as diverse as Champions turned out to be. I guess one black guy and a gay couple is much better than most of the roster being female or a person of color in some way).

The greatest thing about this though is that a lot of these people tried to say that all of this was down to bad writing and that the writing for this game is just as horrible. I mean I know I’m not fully into the game yet as Kevin and I have only played like 3 hours of it to make videos for our YouTube but I as a writer have a pretty firm idea of where the story is already and where it is going and it’s pretty solid in its reasoning so let me break it down some and then see if we can spot where these people may be seeing this hidden agenda.

Major Avengers Fan-Girl gets invited to the opening of a new Helicarrier because of a fan-fiction she wrote about the Avengers. It’s all part of a contest where she may get to meet her favorite heroes (which before she even does win she meets them one by one except for Stark during the opening scenes as you learn the controls and the backstory.) Of course, this being based on a comic, and since it is an action game something goes sideways and blooey pandemonium. San Fran gets turned into a toxic wasteland, the Inhumans are created and a diabolic plan is hatched that seems to have killed Captain America. Now disheartened fan-girl wanting heroes to return to the world 4 years later, I believe it was, finds out about some of the things the baddies did and then goes off to find someone to help. She finds Bruce Banner in the remains of the Hellicarrier and shows him the proof she obtained and they set out to find the other avengers because, surprise, fan-girl is also one of those that were hit by the Terrigen Mist and became an Inhuman and has been hiding it. She finds out these same bad guys are doing villainous shit to the Inhumans and is trying to get the Avengers back together to do what they are known for…to be Heroes and help the Inhumans and also be Avengers and avenge their friend’s death at the traitorous hands of the head of A.I.M.

Now, this doesn’t sound too bad of a story. This would fit in well in so many novels where the young hopeful gets to become a hero and brings the old guard back together type of trope. But here’s the problem. First, she’s a girl and worse yet a fan-girl I know horrible isn’t it. Her name is Kamala Khan oh gods she sounds like she’s from the middle east (Her family is Pakistani but she is herself from New Jersey). What makes all of this even more sinister to these people is that she’s also….wait for it…MUSLIM!!!!! Yeah, I know how horrible right?

Anyway, this is the same problem a lot of legacy characters are facing. It doesn’t matter how good the story is told, it doesn’t matter how wonderful the character or how close they adhere to their namesake or stray from it as soon as the diversity is thrown in it gets called out as a liberal agenda. For shame, if people want diversity in comics just like there actually is in real life. For shame, if a character of color doesn’t have the word Black in their superhero name and in some cases for shame if a black hero that’s not Black Panther does have Black in their name if they are a new hero. There are certain people that just don’t like progress, they don’t like diversity and the thing that gets me is if they truly, truly were comic fans they would realize that comics have always pushed the mainstream when it comes to diversity or tackling problems that are from the real world. The X-Men were always a tale against racism and bigotry against those that are different. Captain America was always against fascism hell Cap is one of the original Antifa if you really think about it I mean who else would get to go out and punch Nazi’s and still be lauded for it in meme’s everywhere especially in this day and age where the US president calls neo-nazi’s and white supremacists good people. Cloak and Dagger went against Drugs, the original Runaways before there was a Runaways group was known as the Fallen Angels in a 4 issue limited series all about runaway kids. The comics industry has always tackled the problems in the world from a very liberal standpoint and it’s not going to stop and it shouldn’t. If things are wrong, the media whether it be TV, Comics or Books are the perfect places to point them out and get people thinking and if it can make the world better then I’m all for it.

So here’s my message to these people that want to complain about Kamala Khan in the new Avengers game, or the newest season of Super Girl or Brie Larson possibly being in talks to be in some Star Wars related thing, or whose pissed that the next Spider-Man game for the PS5 is most likely staring Miles Morales and not Peter Parker. My message is simple, if you have problems with these things then you aren’t a true fan of the comics. You may have read them but you have yet to learn their true message. If you can still be filled with hate just by a bit of added diversity then you are not one of Stan Lee’s True Believers but are one of those that are actually being called out in the comics. The future is coming, sometimes slower in places than others but eventually, your outdated views will be left in the dust and you’ll have two options. Get with the times or be forgotten just like your hateful views. I know where I’ll be, the question is where will you be?

If you are a true comic fan, or hell even a fan of any media, you’ll eventually learn that love conquers all, and we here at DraxisWeb Productions wouldn’t have it any other way. So, to Marvel and so many other companies out there bringing in diversity in the right ways with these legacy characters instead of just erasing what was. Bravo and keep up the good work. And to all the haters out there, well hopefully you’ll be taken out with the dirty litter because the world doesn’t need such negativity in it.

So for anyone that wants to know before we go… I love playing Kamala Khan in the game. She has a very interesting move set that’s a mixture of brawler like Hulk but also built-in long range. She swings like I’m sure Spider-Man will but probably not as far or as good once he’s in for the Playstation players. She also serves as a healer which is a nice touch in this game and I think perfect for her character. Overall, I think she’s a fun mixture of several styles, I think she is one of the better looking and animated characters in the game so far. I love her storyline, it’s something I would expect to see in any number of good sci-fi or fantasy books, movies or tv-series. I can’t wait to see how this story progresses.

Love you all,

Kitten