Dark Web: Ms. Marvel #1 Review

Written by: Sabir Pirzada
Art by: Francesco Mortarino
Colors by: Dono Sánchez-Almara
Letters by: VC’s Ariana Maher
Cover art by: Marco Checchetto, Matthew Wilson
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: December 21, 2022

Dark Web: Ms. Marvel #1 shifts attention away from the main Dark Web event to find out how Kamala Khana, aka Ms. Marvel, is holding up with the pressures of being a Muslim at Christmastime, dating, and wrangling a nifty internship at Oscorp. It’s all well and good until the toilets come to life and try to eat her.

Is It Good?

Dark Web: Ms. Marvel #1 is, in a word, awful. There’s no way to soften the edges or sugarcoat it. This comic, for what it’s meant to be, stinks.

“Whoa, there, Mr. Negative Reviewer Guy! What’s the problem?” I’ll tell you what’s the problem, my very fine reader.

This is a Dark Crisis tie-in comic. It says so right up there in the title. Translation: this comic is meant to show you the dire crisis of Chasm and Goblin Queen’s attack on NYC from Ms. Marvel’s point of view. Right? Got it? This is supposed to be a Dark Crisis comic from Ms. Marvel’s perspective.

That’s not what’s in the comic. Instead, we get…

Insight into the struggles of putting Christmas lights on Kamala’s mosque at Christmastime. Who knew finding a ladder would be such a big deal?
The intricacies of a Muslim girl getting asked out on a date by a Hindu boy. The seed is planted for Kamala to come to terms with her internalized bigotry.
The revelation that Kamala Khan obtained a highly-coveted internship at Oscorp while never expressing any previous interest in the sciences and admitting she doesn’t know if she has any interest in the sciences going forward. This is not how internships work.
A lecture about the recyclability, or lack thereof, of plastics
The revelation that Kamala Khan wears her Ms. Marvel costume all the time, with parts of it visible at work and in public when socializing
And that Oscorp brings on interns who do express an interest in science but lack the visual acuity or self-awareness to see that Kamala Khan, who was standing two feet away from them, is suddenly replaced with Ms. Marvel, and that somehow they think Kamala Khan and Ms. Marvel are two different people. Besides the toilet fighting, Ms. Marvel’s interaction with Chasm and the main plot of Dark Web comprises only three pages.
Intermixed with the first and last pages, a cyborg-pigeon-man (I’m not kidding) skulks from the shadows with evil intent. The cyborg-pigeon-man does not interact with Ms. Marvel at all. He’s just there… squawking.

When all of this nonsense is going on, the attack on NYC commences, and assorted lab items (yes, including toilets) come to life, spouting snarky comments and trying to eat everyone. Eventually, Ms. Marvel shrinks, grows, punches, and kicks her way through the monsters until she runs into Chasm, who pushes her through a portal to trap her in Limbo.

In other words, the only event in this comic that ties Ms. Marvel to the Dark Web plot is her disappearance through a portal, which is the same scene already played out in Dark Web #1. Meaning, this comic contributed absolutely nothing to the Dark Web event.

Well, the art’s decent enough. That’s something, at least. Kudos to Mortarino and Sánchez-Almara for putting a solid coat of paint on an otherwise pointless issue.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Final Thoughts:

Dark Web: Ms. Marvel #1 is a lot of pointless fluff and nonsense that contributes absolutely nothing to the Dark Web event. The issue is primarily random, slice-of-life events that don’t grow Kamala Khan’s character or elevate Ms. Marvel as a hero. The one scene that ties this comic to the plot of Dark Web was already shown in Dark Web #1, so this book is a waste of time and money.