Like many fans, the first time Iman Vellani encountered Marvel superhero Kamala Khan was on the cover of a comic book.
With a comic book shop right across from her high school, Vellani — a self-professed Iron Man superfan — used to spend all her allowance there "just buying as many 'Invincible Iron Man' comics as I could."
"Kamala was on the cover of one of those comics [with Ironheart Riri Williams] and I just went into a rabbit hole of Ms. Marvel comics," said Vellani. "She felt so different from all the other Muslim teens I'm used to seeing in mainstream media. Her culture and religion was something that motivated her and was really used to kind of elevate her story as a whole. [But] the comics were never about being Muslim or being Pakistani … [they were about] a fanfic-writing, Avengers-obsessed nerd."
