- I've heard Kamala Khan, the new Ms. Marvel,
described as a comic book nerd
living inside a comic book.
Not only is she a huge fan
of super hero exploits and adventures,
but she's also incredibly knowledgeable about them.
And this offers her a kind of advantage
when she herself is thrown into the world
of capes and tights.
She knows all about the heroes,
but they don't really know her.
(upbeat rock music)
Welcome to Comic Misconceptions.
I'm Scott, and first and foremost,
I'd like to thank James on Twitter
who went out of his way to ask G. Willow Wilson
exactly how to pronounce Kamala's name.
This is how I thought it was,
I just wasn't 100% sure, so thanks for that.
And now we can continue, confidently knowing
that I am not mispronouncing things, huzzah!
Also, spoilers for Ms. Marvel comics.
I love Ms. Marvel, I really do.
In my humble opinion, Kamala is one of Marvel's
most accessible and engaging characters.
She's quirky, and funny, and smart,
and a million other things,
but I think the characteristic that makes her
so relatable is the fact that she, like us,
is a comic book fan.
Well, specifically she's a fan of the superheroes
who exist in her real world,
which just so happen to be the same heroes
that exist in the form of comics in our actual world,
unless you believe that comic book characters
do really exist, but that is an entirely different topic
for another time.
Foreshadowing.
The point is that she is just as much a fan as The Avengers
as you or me.
Heck, she probably likes them way more.
Kamala writes fan fiction about The Avengers
and the X-Men, idolizes Carol Danvers
as her own personal hero,
admins on two superhero fan sites,
and she even out nerded Coulson,
yes, Phil Coulson, who spent his whole life
studying heroes and villains
to know their strengths, weaknesses, powers,
weapons, histories, and more,
and Kamala corrected him when he mistook
Plantman's animator gun for the veggie ray,
which I mean, obviously it's the animator.
The veggie ray has a longer barrel.
Come on, Coulson, what are you doing?
But you understand what I mean.
She's a fan of superheroes
in a world full of superheroes.
They are her version of movie stars.
And coincidentally, there's an interesting relationship
that happens between celebrities and their fans
called parasocial relationships.
Parasocial relationships are a kind of relationship
that forms between you and someone
you don't actually know,
an actor, a musician, a host of a fairly popular
YouTube show, close enough,
by consuming media from or about that person.
It's a one sided relationship
where you know a ton about someone,
but they don't know you,
at least not in the way that you know them.
In reality, though, you don't actually know them,
you just feel like you do.
And there's a pretty simple reason for this.
Think about how often you see your favorite celebrity
on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube,
or any other places you follow them.
Historically speaking, if you saw a person
as often as you see them,
it's because you actually did know them.
Although parasocial relationships have existed
long before Twitter, platforms like it have helped
these relationships transform and become more interactive
and more personal.
Modern culture has made sharing private moments
of our every day lives the norm through social media.
Doing so can cultivate and even strengthen
parasocial relationships because you feel
as though you're participating
in shared personal experiences.
You feel a sense of closeness, certainty,
and intuition the same way you would
with someone you have a traditional friendship with.
In fact, parasocial relationships have many similarities
with traditional relationships.
They're voluntary, for one.
Plus they illicit similar feelings in viewers
like affection, gratitude, loyalty, and more.
But because these types of relationships
are one sided, and the viewer doesn't actually
know the celebrity, sometimes they might
subconsciously project certain attributes
onto the celebrity to fit their own wants and needs.
They might create a false mental image
of what that celebrity is like
that could be far removed from how they actually are.
And through that mental image,
the viewer may develop their own identity about themselves.
I think the most obvious example of this
in Kamala's case is her relationship with Carol Danvers,
A.K.A. Captain Marvel, A.K.A. the original Ms. Marvel.
Clearly Kamala has found a sense of identity with Carol.
I think that idea is most apparent when it comes to Kamala
taking up the name Ms. Marvel as her own.
But when she first gets her powers,
Kamala actually becomes Carol Danvers.
She has this mental image of Carol as quote,
"Beautiful, and awesome, and butt kicking,
"and less complicated."
When Kamala first gains her powers
and shape shifts into Carol,
the experience turns out to be
a little bit different than how she imagined it would be.
Being Captain Marvel wasn't liberating,
it was exhausting.
When Kamala finally met Captain Marvel,
she naturally freaked out at first,
but during their adventure Kamala was able to see
Carol in a new light.
No longer was she learning about her heroes
secondhand through forums, and blog posts,
and news articles, and the like,
Kamala was able to get a first hand experience
of the real Captain Marvel.
And when it was all over,
Kamala remarks that Carol was 100% different
than what she expected.
When we talk about it like this,
it almost seems like we're setting ourselves up
for disappointment if we ever did
get to truly know our favorite celebrities.
There's gotta be an upside, right?
Some advantage parasocial relationships
have to traditional relationships.
Well, generally speaking, parasocial relationships
are high reward and low risk.
You get the benefits of a real relationship,
support, encouragement, companionship,
without the risk of rejection.
They can also be a relief from strained
real life relationships, and act as a buffer
against a loss of self-esteem.
So, it's no wonder why Kamala gives into these types
of relationships with her favorite heroes.
We see how her relationship with her family
is a bit strained.
She's constantly arguing with her parents
who largely see her as a disobedient child.
Her mother thinks Kamala is throwing her life away
and ruining the family.
And when she and her father have a nice
genuine moment together,
he, in her mind, ruins it by punishing her.
Heck, even her crush turned out to be an evil henchman.
Parasocial relationships with superheroes
are Kamala's way of finding support,
understanding, and motivation in her every day life
from an expanded social circle of people
who won't reject her or find her and her desires
to be unworthy.
It's like when you have a bad day,
so you come home and put on your
favorite movie or TV show.
You feel as through you're in the presence of friends.
And it can be comforting,
which actually brings me to another interesting
point about parasocial relationships.
They don't have to be between you and a real person.
These relationships are very commonly formed
between us and fictional characters.
You might get glimpses into the private lives
of celebrities through either what they put out
voluntarily through social media,
or whatever the paparazzi happen to capture,
but with a fictional character in a book,
or a movie, or a comic, you know everything.
We see every detail of Kamala's personal life.
We can read her thoughts to know exactly
what she's feeling at every instant.
We've seen her private interactions
with her family and friends.
We're with her during the happy moments
when everything's going great,
and the terrible moments when the world
seems to be falling apart,
both metaphorically and literally.
Heck, Kamala herself has even shown that she
has had parasocial relationships
with fictional characters as well
when she remarks that she's never thought about
being in love with somebody who wasn't made of pixels,
most likely referring to a character in
World of Battlecraft, the video game she frequently plays.
And if the letters pages in the back of Ms. Marvel
prove anything it's that people are developing
their own relationships with Kamala.
People from all over writing in about how they feel
a kinship with her, or how she's stolen their hearts,
or how they know her struggles.
But no matter how much readers like you or me
feel like we know Kamala, she can't possibly know us
because she's not real.
It's another parasocial relationship.
Meta.
But there is one other aspect of parasocial relationships
that I wanna touch on.
As author Jennifer Barnes asks in her Ted Talk
on the subject, quote,
"Given that we're throwing so much emotion
"into make believe people, who are these people?
"Who does media represent?
"And if our popular media is disproportionately white
"and disproportionately male,
"and if it concentrates on some groups
"and excludes others,
"what is that doing to our perceived social circle?"
End quote.
I think Kamala is helping in this area as well
by being a woman of color who is headlining
her own title.
Ms. Marvel editor Sana Amanat said that Kamala Khan
came together in response to that global subconscious desire
for representation, adding, quote,
"We all wanna be heroes, don't we?
"And wouldn't it be amazing if heroes looked just like us?"
What do you guys think?
Does Ms. Marvel do a good job at showcasing
the ups and downs of parasocial relationships?
Can Kamala help redefine our perceived social circles?
And is there a comic book character you feel close to?
Let me know all of your thoughts in the comments below.
And if you want to know who actually owns
the name rights to Captain Marvel,
check out a video we made awhile ago
about the fascinating legal issues surrounding the name.
And if this is your first time hanging out with us here
at NerdSync, consider subscribing to our channel.
We make new videos every week that ask questions,
and make learning a little bit more accessible
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so you don't miss out on anything.
Once again, I'm Scott.
You can find me on Twitter and Instagram.
And I will see you guys on Friday
for another video.
See ya.