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Hours later, Marvel formally acknowledged the explicit details, revealing that Kamala’s death will be addressed in a follow-up one-shot issue called Fallen Friend: The Death of Ms. Marvel—of course, via a “controlled” press reveal at Entertainment Weekly.
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On the one hand, a casual approach to the inevitability of major plot leaks is almost refreshing. On the other, as previously mentioned, a leak of this magnitude and potential for controversy, this far ahead of publication—and seemingly from just a copy in someone’s hands, rather than a controlled media exclusive or from the issue being shipped to retailers—is arguably more shocking than the “shock” of the death itself. Even if internally Marvel are likely still trying to figure out how this leak occurred, treating it from a public-presenting standpoint, especially in the wake of a significantly aggrieved response to the news (“Amazing Spider-Man” and “Ms. Marvel” have been trending off-and-on on Twitter for much of the day), as a casual “see for yourself or don’t” just feels weird.
All that said, there’s obviously a lot of context missing from the circumstances surrounding this moment in Amazing Spider-Man’s current story. We don’t know how and why Kamala perishes, and we don’t know the impact, but we can make a pretty educated guess, how and when she’ll return. In a world where Mutants have cheated death—and where on screens big and small Kamala is no longer an Inhuman as she is in the comics, but a Mutant with similar but still very different powers—there’s a distinct possibility that not only will Krakoa provide the path to Kamala’s return, but, perhaps even more controversially provide a path to re-aligning the comics character with her adaptation. On that front at least, it’s worth noting that so far in the comics Krakoan resurrection has simply not worked like that, whether it’s used on Mutants or otherwise (at most it has enhanced a Mutant’s already established abilities, not radically overhauled them, but! A conversation and controversy for another time).
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The point is, we currently don’t know anything about the particular direction of this plot point beyond Kamala’s seeming death. We’ll have to wait and see, as we likely won’t get the full story on May 31 either—but either way, Marvel is about to truly test if any publicity really is good publicity.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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