Most people can’t get enough of the Marvel franchises that continuously blow their minds with creative stories, fun and interesting characters, and loads of super special effects. Recently, the comic book mecca has been making some changes to some less looked at characters.

Marvel Comics said in a press interview they are recreating Ms. Marvel, one of its superheroines, as an American teenager with a whole new background. The new girl in the universe has gotten so much attention because unlike the old Ms. Marvel, she is Muslim.

The old Ms. Marvel, who has taken on a new persona as Captain Marvel, is a blonde, American military pilot with some pretty amazing skills and powers. She can fly, shrug off bullets like they are nothing, shoot energy from her hands, and seemed very superb, but the new character, Kamala Khan, is completely different.

Khan is said to be able to grow and shrink, and possibly even shapeshift. But the major development that has heads turning is the adoption of the Muslim religion.

Khan has been reimagined as a studious, sixteen year old girl from New Jersey with hopeful ambitions for the future, yet she also struggles with her parents constantly pressuring her and their expectations for her future. Kamala Khan’s story involves her struggle to figure out who she is, while dealing with the discovery of her superpowers.

“Kamala has all of her opportunities in front her, and she is loaded with potential, but her parents’ high expectations come with tons of pressure,” Marvel said in a press release. “When Kamala suddenly gets powers that give her the opportunity to be just like her idol, Captain Marvel, it challenges the very core of her conservative values.”

Comic companies are trying to diversify their superhero ranks. There have been non-white characters, many with different religious backgrounds, and even a few Muslim heroes.

The expansion of diversity factors has been going on through the Marvel Comic company for years, and they are looking to further expand their varieties of heroes and hopefully interest more people from different cultures.

Even though the changes made to the character will hopefully be beneficial to the comic company and hopefully to the fans, there are still many skeptics.

“If you were to change her persona,  you would change the comic book universe,” senior Ryan Thrun said. “ I understand the part to diversify… but the original Marvel fans will be in an uproar.”

Though there could be backlash and complaint due to changing a character that has been around for over thirty years, hope to encourage more readers that will enjoy interacting with a new background played a large part in the decision for a new face.

A new Muslim character will hopefully encourage some Muslim fans to feel more embraced and accepted. It happens too often where an introduction to something such as this ends up being perceived as  racist, or just taken the wrong way.

The expansion of diversity with characters such as the new Ms. Marvel are made with hopes that different communities of the comic book universes accept some new changes that will hopefully gain more involvement, and to better expand different options and themes to the human eye.