Jersey City teenager Nakia Bahadir attends high school with her closest friend Kamala Khan, but when Kamala leads a double life as her alter-ego Ms. Marvel, Nakia remains unaware of her BFF’s heroic activities.
From Kiki to Nakia
A child of immigrants, Turkish-American resident of Jersey City, Nakia Bahadir, AKA Nakia Bayraktar, grows up with her best friend Kamala Khan, AKA Ms. Marvel, and at some point, receives the American nickname, Kiki. However, now at Coles Academic High School with Kamala, she prefers her given name. One day while at a bodega, school bully Zoe Zimmer invites her and Kamala to a party. She refuses on the account that there might be alcohol. Zoe calls her Kiki repeatedly despite Nakia’s repeated corrections, and complimented her on her headscarf. Zoe then expressed concern about it, asking if anyone pressured her to wear it. Nakia brings up how her dad wants her to take it off, thinking it's a phase. She leaves and Kamala comments on how nice Zoe is, but Nakia knows the truth and notes how Zoe’s only nice to be mean. She makes fun of Kamala’s obsession with heroes but clearly still looks out for her friend.
Social Activist
Nakia becomes a well-spoken activist who cares about her neighborhood and will do what she can to protect it. She has no fear when it comes to speaking her mind to the local news and is a direct communicator. She also bravely takes up Ms. Marvel’s mantle with a handful of friends when the titular hero goes missing in action, donning a costume and fighting like a hero herself.
Vile Villains
The Inventor—a clone hybrid of the famed inventor Thomas Edison whose DNA was contaminated by that of the pet cockatiel of his creator, enigmatic scientist Knox—kidnaps a bunch of children and teenagers including Nakia. Nakia escapes thanks to the combined efforts of her allies Ms. Marvel and Kareem, AKA Red Dagger.
Friends from School
One of Nakia’s best friends is Kamala Khan, AKA Ms. Marvel. They meet in kindergarten and bond over their unique names, and grow up together. As practicing Muslims, they attend the same mosque. When the Terrigen Mist befalls Earth and affects Kamala, bringing out her dormant Inhuman genes and endowing her with polymorph powers—which she uses to become the heroic Avenger Ms. Marvel—Nakia remains in the dark. At first, Nakia sees Ms. Marvel as a problem for their neighborhood, since her image was plastered across Jersey in a gentrification campaign carried out by Chuck Worthy.
Nakia eventually comes around and even takes up the mantle of Ms. Marvel when the hero goes missing alongside her friends, including former bully and fellow teenager Zoe Zimmer and Red Dagger.
A History of Helping Out
When a new downtown revitalization project called Hope Yards threatened to raise rents and force out local residents, Nakia leads a protest against the housing development. Talking with the local news, she states she was there for one reason only, that if Ms. Marvel is trying to profit off the destruction of the city, then she needed to go.
Taken by the Inventor to a power plant, Nakia and a dozen other teens were plugged into a modified power grid as part of a plan to reduce both the global carbon footprint and overpopulation. With the help of the volunteers, Lockjaw and Bruno Carrelli—the latter of whom summoned the local police—Ms. Marvel rescued Nakia and destroyed the Inventor’s gigantic final robot, which fell through a collapsing floor with the Inventor atop it, apparently killing him. Nakia and the others were freed and attended to at a hospital.
Things grew increasingly tense with Nakia and Kamala since the latter led a double life and Nakia didn’t understand why since she still didn’t know about her double life as a hero. The two friends eventually cleared the air right before the universe ended.
When Nakia’s friend Zoe uncovered a plot by the once-thought-dead inventor, known as the Inventor, she went missing. Since Ms. Marvel disappeared, Nakia joined a crew of Ms. Marvel stand-ins to find Zoe, and Red Dagger eventually joined them. Once they did, the Inventor had another creature attack them, securing his escape. Red Dagger wasn’t used to dealing with monsters and asked the team if they could all on someone more experienced. Nakia revealed she had picked up a locator that Ms. Marvel dropped the last time she saw her, and when they hit it, none other than Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel, answered the call. As she helped the team of Ms. Marvel stand-ins fight off the Inventor’s bionic creatures, Red Dagger led the team until the real Ms. Marvel showed up to save the day. After the battle was won, Nakia told Ms. Marvel that Jersey City wasn’t the same without her.
