Ms. Marvel: Who Goes There

Ms. Marvel has gone missing. And in her place, her friends have decided to take up her position as New Jersey’s finest crime stopper.

But in part two of the “Teenage Wasteland” arc, an old enemy makes their return with a few unexpected tricks set for Kamala Khan’s buddies. It all takes place on January 10 in writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Nico Leon’s MS. MARVEL #26!

One question, though: who might this mysterious big bad be?

From the moment Kamala stepped through the transformative Terrigen Mist, nefarious nincompoops started showing up to cast their villainy about town in her beloved Jersey City. Ms. Marvel’s seen everything from a Canadian Ninja Syndicate to internet fanfic trolls—and once she even fought alligators. But who might show up in issue #26?

We took a look at the rogues’ gallery of MS. MARVEL villains to get a hint at who the culprit could be.

Lockdown
Rebecca St. Jude started her career as a Carol Cadet, but the power of apprehending criminals quickly went to her head. Having gotten a taste for tasering and detaining people indefinitely, Lockdown came up against Kamala before getting arrested by the Jersey City Police Department for impersonating a law enforcement officer.

She’s got the pedigree, but does the giant robot gecko on the cover of issue #26 seem like her way of doing things? Maybe? But also maybe not.

Discord
Josh Richardson (A.K.A. the guy Rebecca St. Jude tasered) got a taste for evil and ended up joining forces with Lockdown and Chuck Worthy. Taking on the code name Discord, Josh acted as the enforcer for Worthy’s K.I.N.D. initiative, rounding up Inhumans in a detention center without cause.

Smashing up Jersey City with a giant lizard-bot doesn’t seem like something Discord would do, but his boss, the pro-gentrification Chuck Worthy, might be a little more into the idea…

Doctor Faustus
A frequent collaborator of Worthy’s, Doctor Faustus masterminded the Hope Yards Development and Relocation Association, which turned out to be a secret Hydra cell. Faustus also once used a special drink concoction to inoculate the local populace with mind-controlling nanomachines…so he knows how to effectively craft crime on a major scale.

Might Doctor Faustus turn his dastardly minded methods to a massive city-destroying machine chameleon? He seems to use subtler tricks than that, but we wouldn’t rule it out.

Hijinx
Hijinx, the leader of the Canadian Ninja Syndicate (a group Kamala scuffled with on the road to Civil War II), once planned to drive a tank through Jersey City—sort of like a lizard robot. Though, most recently, Hijinx and the Syndicate actually teamed up with Ms. Marvel to fight Lockdown. Though have they done a heel turn when Kamala least expects it? Maybe!

Kamran
Kamala’s crush-turned-nemesis seized Ms. Marvel and took her to Lineage—the leader of a radical Inhuman terrorist organization—who tried to recruit the hero in his dark campaign. She refused (obviously!) and later escaped. Then Kamran appeared again to kidnap Kamala’s brother Aamir! Even though the villain hasn’t appeared since that abduction, his under-the-radar approach might make him the perfect man for this latest assault.

Though if Kamran doesn’t seem quite convincing, consider…

The Inventor
Kamala’s first villain was a half-cockatiel, half-Thomas Edison clone created by a scientist named Knox. The bird-faced replicate, who took on the codeman “The Inventor,” immediately started experimenting as evil bioengineers; The Inventor and Knox forced young people to serve as living batteries.

Though The Inventor supposedly perished in battle against Ms. Marvel, that biomechanical lizard looks a lot like something he might put together. And remember those alligators we mentioned earlier? Those were bioengineered alligators, sent by none other than the Inventor!

Maybe he’s got a thing for taking down cities with artificial scaly beasts.

Find out the true identity of the big bad in MS. MARVEL #26, by writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Nico Leon, on January 10!