Ms Marvel Vol 7: Damage Per Second by G Willow Wilson

Ms Marvel Vol 7: Damage Per Second written by G Willow Wilson is the latest collected volume of the Kamala Khan run of Ms Marvel. It follows on from Vol 6 which was (tolerably) set during the Civil War II event and which I have also reviewed. It collects issues #13–18 of the most recent numbering system run (the back of the trade says starting in 2015 but I think the issue numbering has restarted at least once since then).

Civil War II is behind her, and a brand new chapter for Kamala Khan is about to begin! But it's lonely out there for a super hero when her loved ones no longer have her back. It's time for Kamala to find out exactly who she is when she is on her own. Plus: it's election time! Kamala gets out the vote!

There are three story arcs collected in this volume. The first single-issue arc is about Ms Marvel encouraging New Jersey people to vote in the Mayoral election. I didn't mind this one, but politics centring getting people to vote is always strange from this Australian used to compulsory voting. I also put the comic down for a while after this issue and when I came back to read the rest and write this review I found it hadn't been very memorable.

The middle four-issue arc is overwhelmingly the dominant one in this collection and is the origin of the volume title. This story involves Ms Marvel gaming online in her down time and then having to deal with a computer-based villain. The story deals with the idea of there not being any privacy or secrets in the modern digital age, but there wasn't enough space to delve into this very deeply and the story is limited to issues surrounding doxing, more or less. It was interesting and memorable but I don't think it's one of my favourite Ms Marvel arcs. (I also side-eyed the computer stuff in it, but it fits in with the magic of the Marvel universe, I suppose.)

The final single-issue arc shows us Bruno's story who doesn't appear earlier in this volume after events in the previous volume. Bruno is going to school in Wakanda and we see him struggling to fit in as "the American" but also making friends and — most interestingly — dealing with his acquired disabilities. I really liked this arc and while I don't know how sustainable future Bruno stories will be if he continues being on the other side of the world from Ms Marvel, I hope we see more of him in the future.

I enjoyed this volume and I definitely recommend it to fans of Ms Marvel. I think it's probably also an OK place to pick up the story, but not the best starting point. As always I advocate starting at the start of the Kamala Khan Ms Marvel run for maximum Ms Marvel goodness.

4 / 5 stars

First published: 2017, Marvel Comics
Series: Ms Marvel vol 7, containing issues #13–18
Format read: Trade paperback
Source: Local comic book shop