Ms. Marvel Vol. 5: Super Famous (Marvel Comics)

As you might already know, I love the new Ms. Marvel comic series. I already blogged about Volumes 1-4 so go check that out if you haven't already! Kamala Khan is such an amazing character and she really shows the struggle of trying to balance normal life with superhero life like I've never seen before with any other superheroes. Ms. Marvel Vol. 5: Super Famous (part of the 2015-2017 collection) came out in July but I didn't read it until later on in the year so let's talk about it, shall we?

I didn't really know what to expect from this volume since volume 4 showed the city almost coming to an end. How would the city rebuild itself and recover from the devastation that it was left in? What would Ms. Marvel be up to now after this crazy event? Ms. Marvel is now extremely well-known in the city, to the point where she's super famous (thus the title of the volume). She is even a part of the new Avengers (of course, I don't know too much about the new Avengers since I've watched the Avengers movies but haven't read the comic books)! She is now not only struggling with juggling family, friends, school, personal life, and superhero life, but is also dealing with being famous.

Everything going on in Kamala's life starts to become overwhelming. She isn't sure how to do it all but keeps trying and ends up making mistakes because she is trying to achieve everything. She wants to be a good daughter and sister, a good friend, a good student, and a good superhero but she doesn't slow down. She doesn't take the time to focus on one thing at a time and she becomes exhausted. She tries to find solutions for multitasking, which don't end up so well in the end, and she starts missing important things in her life.

I think that this volume did an excellent job at showing us that we need to slow down in life. We are so busy trying to fit in as much as possible that in the end we either start to slip up, miss things, or end up breaking down. Living in the present moment and taking the time to focus on the things that are important to us is extremely important to our mental well-being and, by the end of this volume, I felt that that was the message that the writers were trying to get across to us. Kamala's family and friends are some of the most important things to her and she realizes in the end that she has been so busy trying to be a good superhero that she hasn't really been there for the people that she loves the most and who love her the most as well. These people bring her joy and help her in her life but she has pushed them to the side and that has taken a toll on her. After all, caring for yourself and those closest to you is just as important as caring for other people in the world. How can she possibly be a superhero for other people if she can't even be a superhero for herself and the ones that she loves the most? It reminded me a lot about what I talked about in my post about finding inner peace before outer peace.

When we see Kamala come to this realization, we also realize how important these lessons are for our own lives. We need to focus on the things that are important to us and bring us joy. They are essential to our happiness and we need happiness in our lives otherwise we would just be going through day after day without truly feeling alive. We need to learn how to balance things without letting things come in the way of each other too much and we need to stop multitasking all the time. When we learn to balance things properly, everything else in our lives can come together. For someone like me who wants to do everything that I want to do and do it all at once, it's an important lesson to remember.

Cheers,
Kaylie