We welcome Iranian American actress Kathreen Khavari on the podcast!
Continue reading “The Middle Geeks Episode 46: Kathreen Khavari on Her Career and the Iran Protests”
We discuss episodes 3-4 of the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, joined by cosplayer Isa and Maznah of Den of Geek!
Continue reading “The Middle Geeks Episode 41: ‘Ms. Marvel’ Episodes 5-6 and Season Review”
We discuss episodes 1-2 of the new MCU Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, joined by Nerdist contributor Maryam Ahmad!
Continue reading “The Middle Geeks Episode 40: ‘Ms. Marvel’ Episodes 3-4 Review”
Ms. Marvel is finally coming to the MCU! And we finally have a trailer! In it, we get to see Kamala Khan as a regular Pakistani American Muslim teen girl fantasize about Captain Marvel and the Avengers, drawing fanart, and dealing with the ins and outs of American high school as a brown girl.
Continue reading “The First ‘Ms. Marvel’ Trailer is Here”
Ms. Marvel has a new comic series out! In the five-issue Beyond the Limit, Kamala must deal with unexpected multiverse shenanigans as she visits her cousin Razia in Chicago. Writing her in this series is author Samira Ahmed, who is the first Desi Muslim to write Ms. Marvel!
Continue reading “Samira Ahmed Talks about Writing ‘Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit’”
Disney Plus offered the first glimpses of several upcoming live-action Marvel superhero series today, as part of its “Disney Plus Day” event. The new clips appear in the second half of an extended trailer which is currently viewable on the streaming service.
Continue reading “First Looks at Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, She-Hulk, and More From Disney+”
Kevin Feige, you sly dawg! Earlier today Marvel Studios dropped a very inspiring video commemorating our return to the movies. And as wonderful as it was to see footage from our favorite films within the MCU legacy, they rewarded everyone who watched it with a truckload of very cool updates about their slate coming between now and 2023. Before we break down what all of it means, watch the video first and get hyped:
Continue reading “Marvel Studios Sneakily Drops a TON of Movie Announcements”
It a Hard NOC crossover as Desi Geek Girls’ co-host (and YA author) Preeti Chhibber joins in on Hard NOC Life to talk about South Asian representation and more!
A few weeks back, we posted about Greg Pak teasing the cover of Totally Awesome Hulk #15, in which Amadeus Cho — aka The Hulk — was joined by Ms. Marvel, Shang Chi, and Silk. Never before had so many Asian American superheroes been gathered on the cover of a mainstream comic book. I recently had a chance to preview the issue — which hits stands this Wednesday, January 25 — and I was actually moved to tears at how resonant it was to see these characters embody being unapologetically Asian American.
Continue reading “Asian American Superheroes Come Alive in Totally Awesome Hulk #15″
by Phil Yu | Originally posted at Angry Asian Man
Ms. Marvel! Shang Chi! Silk! Amadeus Cho! Has there ever been such an awesome assemblage of Asian American superheroes under the banner of Marvel Comics? Possibly probably not… until now.
Writer Greg Pak recently teased the upcoming cover of Totally Awesome Hulk #15, suggesting that this is the most significant grouping of Asian American superheroes that has ever starred in a mainstream comic book.
In Totally Awesome Hulk #15, kid genius Amadeus Cho — aka The Hulk — is slowly learning how to become a team player, but has to learn fast when Ms. Marvel, Shang Chi, Silk and a host of other heroes come to town.
Continue reading “Marvel’s Most Epic Asian American Superhero Team-Up Ever”
Today is Election Day in the United States. And the choice couldn’t be clearer for the millions of voters heading out to the polls. We’re either going to wake up tomorrow playing R.E.M. or Beyoncé. Later this month, Marvel Comics will be releasing Ms. Marvel #13 in which the book’s titular hero will be urging the citizens of the Marvel Universe to similarly exercise their inalienable rights to vote.
Originally published at NBC News Asian America
In a New York Times op-ed over the weekend, Malaysian talk radio host Umapagan Ampikaipakan called into question the entire concept of an “Asian superhero.” As an Asian person who has invested quite a lot in the idea of Asian superheroes, you can imagine seeing such a piece in the paper of record left me a bit bewildered — especially because this was the year that comics featuring Asian and Asian-American heroes had finally broken through.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve contributed anything, but with the news that Iron Fist has a showrunner and also with Donald Trump wasting our time and being overtly bigoted, I thought it was an opportunity to look at the importance of introducing more POC characters in our fiction, and the importance of identity, on a wide range of levels.
by Jules
Comic books, throughout their long history, have often existed as a playground for subversive and counter-cultural concepts. Famously, “Judgement Day” — the last story published by EC Comics — featured a socially stratified world of blue and orange robots set in the far future vying for entry into the “Great Galactic Republic.” Their inspector, an astronaut from Earth, tells them that their planet isn’t ready but that one day it might be. In the last panel he’s revealed to be a black man, something scandalous enough that the Comics Code Authority demanded he be changed to white or the comic couldn’t go to print. This was 1953.
Since then comics, specifically superhero comics, have continued to make attempts to grapple with social issues.
Continue reading “All of Our Tomorrow: Ending “Racial Apologia””
About a week and a half ago, Marvel Studios (owned by Disney) and DC Entertainment (owned by Warner Brothers) got into a bit of a pissing contest. Marvel struck first by announcing Robert Downey Jr. would be bringing Iron Man to the Captain America sequel, setting up a “Civil War” story line in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and making it the highest profile superhero vs. superhero showdown of 2016 (sorry, Batman v Superman).
The next day, Warner Brothers unveiled its long-gestating slate of DC Comics-based films that was supposed to satiate fanboys’ appetites through 2020. While a lot of folks found some of the choices in Warner’s ambitious schedule confounding — including yours truly — the one area where DC had a leg up on Marvel was in the diversity of its lineup. In addition to the inclusion of solo movies for Wonder Woman (finally!) and Cyborg (huh?), you also had people of color top-lining two more films — Jason Momoa in Aquaman and Dwayne Johnson in Shazam. As groundbreaking as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, it’s also overwhelmingly white and male. At least until today.
In this episode, I introduce our new partnership with Midtown Comics and review the top 10 comic books of 2014 so far, which include Moon Knight, Ghost Rider, Cyclops, Batman Eternal, and many more. Continue reading Top 10 New Comic Books of 2014
As you know, we’re pretty big fans of Kamala Khan’s turn as Ms. Marvel around here. And last week, the original inspiration for the character — Marvel editor Sana Amanat — became the inspiration for even more people when she addressed a TEDxTeen 2014 in New York.
Continue reading “Sana Amanat’s TED Talk: Myths, Misfits, & Masks”
The 16-year-old superhero has hit #1 on the digital comics charts, proving that readers around the globe want to see comic book heroes reflect the world we live in. We begin with Kamala’s origin story, Metamorphosis, the first of five tales of her superhero beginnings.
(BTW — hard copies are dope, but digital joints are $2.99! And the artwork by Adrian Alphona and coloring by Ian Herring are top notch, and it’s nice to see Marvel has gone all out to honor writer G. Willow Wilson’s vision for the series.)
The opening scene is one that’s close to my heart. We’re at a deli in Jersey City, where Kamala and her friend, the proud, beautiful Nakia, stop by their friend Bruno’s shift to smell the forbidden BLTs just within Kamala’s reach. I remember staring at pepperoni pizzas as a kid and being jealous as hell of my pork eater friends. And, any vegetarian will tell you — often the thing that breaks ’em down is bacon.
Continue reading “Welcome to the Marvel Universe, Kamala Khan”
After months of anticipation, Ms. Marvel #1 officially hits comic book store shelves across the country today! We’ve been discussing Kamala Khan a lot here at the NOC, so it’s nice to know people can finally get their hands on the book.
We hope to bring you our own take on the first issue soon. In the meantime, we scoured the ‘net for some of the Nerdosphere’s first impressions.
Since The Nerds of Color is not the only awesome thing on the internet, here are five links you should click on.
Seems that Jenn isn’t the only person who identifies with the Yellow Ranger. Over on The Toast, cartoonist Shing Yin Khor finds inspiration from everyone’s favorite Asian American Mighty Morphin’ Power Ranger to deal with a lot of unfortunate questions and comments from a lot of unfortunate people.
“Smash the patriarchy,” indeed!
