Kamala Khan is unstoppable! The popular new Marvel heroine will be one of several heroes joining Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in the third season of Disney XD’s Avengers Assemble cartoon, titled Ultron Revolution, including her namesake Captain Marvel, Black Panther, and more.


The reason the new Ms. Marvel gets top-billing over my beloved Carol Danvers in this article is because how noteworthy it is that Marvel is wasting no time bringing the young hero, star of one of Marvel’s most successful and broadly targeted comic books, into their animated universe. Captain Marvel’s first recurring animation role was in the last Avengers cartoon in 2010, but if Kamala will be debuting alongside Carol, or perhaps shortly thereafter, clearly, Marvel is just as excited about the animation possibilities of Kamala Khan as they are of Captain Marvel.

I also think it’s worth pointing out how Ms. Marvel is joining the Avengers, and not Ultimate Spider-Man, which has focused on a team of younger heroes including Peter Parker, Miles Morales, and more. Ms. Marvel would be a perfect fit for Spidey, and yet Marvel is determined to put her with the Avengers instead. Why? Well, you could point out that Ms. Marvel has just joined the All-New, All-Different Avengers team in the comics, and Marvel is possibly just following suit. But it’s weird that she’s part of those Avengers too. The Avengers isn’t a teen team — there are plenty of those in the Marvel U. And Kamala is popular, but she’s no Captain America, Iron Man or Thor.


I think Marvel has something else in mind. I’m not one for the conspiracy theories about Marvel trying to hurt Fox by tanking the Fantastic Four and X-Men comics — it’s still ludicrous to believe big studios are affected by anything that happens in the actual comics, except as potential story material later — but it does seem like Marvel wants Kamala associated with the Avengers, or at least wants to start the association.

Could Ms. Marvel have something bigger coming down the line? I wouldn’t have thought so, but it seems weird to me for Marvel to be forcing this strange connection otherwise. Could this be a first step towards giving Ms. Marvel her own cartoon? Or maybe even the live-action TV series that Oscar-winning screenplay writer John Ridley is rumored to be working on? Hmm...

[Via Comic Book Resources]

Contact the author at rob@io9.com .