Marvel's newest superhero will be just a little bit different from most of her predecessors. The new Ms. Marvel will be a 16-year-old named Kamala Khan, a student in Jersey City who comes from a Pakistani Muslim family. It's the first time that a Muslim character has been the star of one of Marvel's comics, and its writer, G. Willow Wilson, says that her religion will factor into the story. "Islam is both an essential part of her identity and something she struggles mightily with," Wilson says on Marvel's blog.

Wilson explains that Khan won't only be struggling with supervillains. She'll also be addressing what it's like to live as the child of immigrants in New Jersey, in addition to the standard difficulties of high school. "In a sense, she has a 'dual identity' before she even puts on a super hero costume," Wilson says. "Like a lot of children of immigrants, she feels torn between two worlds: the family she loves, but which drives her crazy, and her peers, who don't really understand what her home life is like."