#7: Ms. Marvel
AKA: Kamala Khan
Powers: Size and shape changing
First Appearance: Captain Marvel #14, 2013
Created By: G. Willow Wilson, Sana Amanat, Stephen Wacker, Adrian Alphona, Jamie McKelvie
Portrayed By: Iman Vellani
8 votes, 196 points (Top voter: Kirin)
Kamala grew up as a normal Pakistani-American girl in Jersey City. She was a big fan of superheroes, especially Carol Danvers, and she wrote fanfiction. She was just trying to have a social life while living with overprotective parents. Then one night, things changed. Recently, Thanos had attacked Earth while many of the Avengers were dealing with a different conflict in outer space. During the battle, the Inhuman king Black Bolt detonated a Terrigen bomb in New York City, where the Inhuman city of Attalan had been residing. The bomb released a huge cloud of Terrigen Mist, which Inhumans use to undergo the transformation known as Terrigenesis which gives them their powers. It was soon revealed that any human with Inhuman ancestry could be transformed. This included Kamala, who was caught in the mist when it drifted over Jersey City while she had snuck out to go to a party. After being trapped in a cocoon, she emerged resembling her idol Carol Danvers in her old Ms. Marvel outfit. She soon learned her powers not only allowed her to change her appearance, but grow, shrink, stretch, or shift different parts of her body, sort of a combination of Mr. Fantastic and Ant-Man. The ability to change her appearance to match another's soon faded, but she used her powers to take up her hero's old identity and become the Ms. Marvel of Jersey City.
Being a superhero isn't easy, as Kamala learned while getting used to her powers and figuring out how to stop the minor bad guys who were committing crimes in her neck of the woods. She got help from her circle of friends, who all over time learned of her secret identity. She met her hero Captain Marvel and started getting involved in more significant events in her universe, including meeting the Inhuman royal family and an adventure with Wolverine. After the Secret Wars rewrote existence, she joined the Avengers, but shortly had a falling out with her idol and cofounded a team called the Champions. She has since patched things up with Carol, but stuck with her peers in the new group. Not long ago one of their missions went badly at her school, and she was injured. Her secret identity was protected, but politicians used her as a tool to pass legislation banning teenage superheroes. She regrouped with the Champions despite their new illegal status, and they exposed the bad intentions behind the law, leading to it getting rescinded.
Kamala was the protagonist of the recent Avengers video game. While that game had issues, her character was not one of them, as her story led an adventure that was pretty fun until repetitive live service stuff bogged it down. She just had her own MCU miniseries that concluded last week, with Iman Vellani playing the character. It's my pick for the best Disney+ Marvel show yet, and Vellani is a big part of that, creating a very genuine and likable personality for a character that really deserves it. This version of the character has light-based powers that allow her to create solid objects while retaining the ability to stretch and grow her limbs. Spoilers for the finale ahead. Kamala in the comics was used by Marvel to help sell the idea of Inhumans as a source of new characters. The whole thing was never as successful as they probably wanted, and I don't think the word "Inhuman" was even said in the show. However, the end of the series does use the word "mutation" to describe how Kamala is different from her family. A pretty funny reversal that I'm curious to see how it turns out. G. Willow Wilson's Ms. Marvel series is one of my favorites of the last decade, and as I think the newest character on this list, she is deserving of the high ranking.