This is Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross.

The Marvel Universe's first Muslim superhero to have her own comic book and TV series

was brought to the screen by our guest, Bishikai Ali.

The mini-series, Ms. Marvel, stars Imhan Vellani as the teenage Kamala Khan who discovers she has superpowers.

It concluded less Wednesday on Disney Plus, but all the episodes are streaming.

Bishikai Ali spoke with Fresh Air producer Sam Brigger, who will tell you more.

Kamala Khan is a teenage girl living in Jersey City, juggling the sometimes conflicting demands of

high school, social life, and her family. Her Pakistani-born parents, especially her mom,

Maniba, are worried that she's growing up too quickly. Kamala is an artist, a daydreamer,

and a fan of superheroes. She's especially enamored of Captain Marvel. She even goes to a convention

dressed as Captain Marvel, where she discovers she herself has superpowers. How she gets those

superpowers is too much to explain here, but they are part of her family history, a history

fractured by the traumatic creation of Pakistan during partition in 1947.

Bishikai Ali is the head writer of Ms. Marvel. She's from England, but her parents like Kamala

Khan's came from Pakistan. Before Ms. Marvel, she wrote for another Marvel show, Loki,

as well as for Mindy Kailings TV mini-series, which was a reboot of Four Weddings in a funeral,

and the Netflix show Sex Education. Ali's also worked as a stand-up comedian and often co-hosted

the comedic podcast, The Guilty Fanmanist. Let's start with a clip from Ms. Marvel's first episode.

Here Kamala is talking with her friend Bruno, played by Matt Lins. Her parents don't want her to

go to a venture con, the convention I mentioned above. She's not doing well in school, and she's feeling

pretty down. You know there was a girl in our neighborhood who just said, she wanted to go backpack

around Europe, and you would literally think she'd join a death cult in her way. All the aunties just

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