With the announcement of Phase 4 coming to a close and the upcoming plans of Phase 5 and Phase 6, it is time to review Ms. Marvel. The latest in the MCU Disney+ shows continues to showcase smaller characters that will not be as immediately recognizable to the majority of Marvel Cinematic Universe viewers. This is the first Disney+ show that is not headlined by either a returning character or like Moon Knight, an A-list actor like Oscar Issac, this show is all about the introduction of Ms. Marvel.
Ms. Marvel follows the story of Kamala Khan, who like most of us is an awkward teenager trying to navigate the awkward waters of high school while also being a complete nerd for superheroes, especially Captain Marvel. While going through the normal teenager coming of age stuff, she also has to deal with the responsibility of having superpowers from a supernatural source.
This being the debut of Iman Vellani (Kamala Khan) is the first thing that really makes this show stand out from the rest of the Disney+ slate. I am so excited to see how she grows in the role but she is already in such a strong place with the character. Her interactions with her family just come across very authentic to how many teenagers deal with their family. One example that comes to mind is when Kamala and her friend Bruno want to go to AvengerCon in the first episode and her family not understanding what it is, then wanting to go with them immediately making it uncool and ruining it for her. Vellani comes across as confident in this origin story brings back memories to Tom Holland’s standalone debut as Spider-Man in Homecoming. She seems like such a natural fit into the overall MCU and I can’t wait for her portray of the character to interact with the whole MCU when she comes back with The Marvels (the follow up to Captain Marvel 2)
As I touched on a little bit above, this show really nails the coming of age/high school story and what really helps with that is how the showrunner Bisha K. Ali handles Kamala’s parents, especially the mother. Instead of falling in the traps of the super strict parent, portraying her as this force the teenager has to go up against, Ali uses a more complex, changing dynamic to subvert the expectations. There are bread crumbs that are sprinkled throughout the first five episodes before the dynamic completely flips to her mother being in favor of her saving their neighborhood and being proud of her. This change is maybe a little quick but because of how it is plotted throughout the episodes, it feels well deserved.
While Ms. Marvel is maybe a smaller character in the grand scheme of the MCU right now, it had very high expectations because it comes with the “first Muslim superhero” tag, but I think it really lives up to those expectations. Now obviously take my opinion about this with a grain of salt (me being a white guy) but I was really impressed with how authentic the Marvel’s portrayal of the Muslim community here is. A unfortunately true example of this that comes up a couple of times is when the DODC (Department of Damage Control) raid their local mosque, the show treats the mosque as a important location to the story and this shows a stark change in the usually negative portrayal that Muslims have in Hollywood. Another important aspect to this is the understanding of the history of India as a country and how it plays into this community as a whole, and on a smaller scale into Kamala Khan’s family history.
While Ali does a great job with the family dynamic, with other highlights including Kamala’s brother, Kamala’s friends Bruno and Nakia, everything outside of the family dynamic really lags behind in quality. With all the positive representation and changes in Ms. Marvel, it really is a bummer to see the show get bogged down into what drags a lot of the Marvel Disney+ shows: terrible antagonists. They uses the Clandestine (Djinn) as the explanation for the slight change in how Kamala developed her powers, but they really are extremely one dimensional and unfortunately a non factor. The latter half of the show really loses steam because it focuses on this conflict.
The first two episodes were some of the best that the MCU has to offer on Disney+. While it is done throughout the whole show, the visual storytelling in the first half of the show is on another level and just really well done. The rest of the season really fails to live up to those expectations that those first two episodes really set up, falling into similar traps that most of these MCU shows have fallen into with underdeveloped antagonists and rushing through the conflict. The second half of the show feels really under baked.
That all being said, what this show does for representation for the Muslim community, just like the conservations around race in America in Falcon and the Winter Soldier is so important and adds a well roundness to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I think this sets up the groundwork really well for Iman Vellani to be a breakout star for the next upcoming Phases of the MCU in the same vein that Tom Holland was with Spider-Man. While this series was not perfect like a lot of the MCU is, it has me excited to see more of this character and how she continues to grow which is all we can really ask for.