Ms. Marvel has arrived on Disney+ and, like her comic book counterpart, is set to shake things up. Introduced in 2014, Kamala Khan is a Pakistani-American teenager living in Jersey who is a major fan of superheroes and particularly Captain Marvel. One eventful night, she unlocks superpowers of her own and decides to take on the mantle of a superhero named Ms. Marvel.
Created when Marvel Comics was pushing the Inhumans very hard as a replacement for X-Men, as Disney and Marvel Studios did not have the film rights to the X-Men and wanted Inhumans to be their super-powered replacement, Ms. Marvel became an immediate sensation upon her comic book debut. While the Inhuman push was eventually abandoned and much of the big changes to the Marvel Comics lore was dropped, Ms. Marvel was the one popular character from the initiative to break out with audiences.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
It seemed like she was primed to join the ever-growing Marvel Cinematic Universe despite being both a new character that has not been around a full decade but was created six years into the creation of the MCU. Audiences and fans were clamoring for her and on June 8, 2022, the first episode of Ms. Marvel dropped on Disney+. The series is set to run six episodes and will conclude on July 13, 2022. The series received positive reviews and the character is already set to appear in The Marvel’s next summer.
While the MCU still remains as popular as ever, some of the more recent releases like Eternals, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Moon Knight left some audiences cold. While the franchise is not slowing down, the sheer amount of stories in the shared universe could be overwhelming. Luckily, Ms. Marvel has come along as a summer treat and one that feels like a breath of fresh air for the overarching franchise, one that hints at an exciting future.
Ms. Marvel: The First Traditional Superhero Origin in Six Years
Marvel Studios
Everyone knows the beats of a superhero origin story. In Act 1, an ordinary person unlocks their powers, tries to find out how to use their powers in Act 2, then must face off against a villain in Act 3. While laid out in Superman: The Movie, it was the release of 2002’s Spider-Man that set the template for films to follow in movies like Batman Begins, Fantastic Four, and most recently the underrated Shazam! It became so well known it was spoofed in 2008’s Superhero Movie and paid homage in 2010’s Kick-Ass. Even the MCU’s first film, Iron Man, very successfully followed this structure.
Yet in recent years, the MCU has tried to move away from this origin story format, with the last traditional one being 2016’s Doctor Strange. Both Spider-Man: Homecoming and Black Panther are follow-up films to Captain America: Civil War where the heroes are already operating and origins happened prior, while Captain Marvel and Moon Knight opt for a nonlinear approach to the origin story with the characters unlocking parts of their mystery. Both Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals start with the characters already powered up, their story told in flashbacks or to an audience surrogate.
Ms. Marvel is the first time the MCU has gone back to a traditional superhero origin format, and it is a much-needed breath of fresh air. In many ways, episode two of Ms. Marvel feels like the true start of a new chapter in the MCU, mirroring Tony Stark’s attempt to create his suit in Iron Man. Ms. Marvel is growing as a hero, and audiences get to see the trials and tribulations that come with discovering new powers.
Ms. Marvel is the Teenage Superhero the MCU Has Been Missing
Ms. Marvel is in many ways Marvel Comics and Marvel Studio’s 21st-century answer to Peter Parker, as both are teenage superheroes from working-class backgrounds who must balance both being a superhero with the day-to-day struggles of being a teenager. One of the big pitches for the MCU Spider-Man films is that it would bring the character back to high school, after Sam Raimi’s trilogy only had him in it at the beginning, while The Amazing Spider-Man jettisoned high school after the first movie by having him graduate at the beginning of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. While all three MCU Spider-Man films have Peter Parker as a high school student, that focus is only apparent in Spider-Man: Homecoming, as Spider-Man: Far From Home goes on a summer vacation adventure while Spider-Man: No Way Home starts out with the difficulties of high school but make way for a bigger story.
Ms. Marvel is effectively the MCU really committing to the character’s struggles as a high school student, the series using its television format to its advantage in order to dig into that aspect of the character. Ms. Marvel so far has not featured the massive global stakes of other MCU series; it is keeping things grounded, featuring staples of high school storytelling like learning to drive, sneaking out behind the parents’ backs, and high school crushes, and the series is committing to that being as interesting as the superheroics of the character.
It is telling a coming-of-age storyline while also offering very specific cultural details that make the series unique but also universal. Ms. Marvel’s premiere viewership may have been the lowest for an MCU series, but the fact that it did see a massive Gen Z audience spike and a diverse audience means that the series is attempting to court new fans into the MCU, ones that will help carry the franchise forward.
Changing The Powers Works For The Adaptation
Marvel StudiosDisney
One of the most controversial decisions leading up to the release of Ms. Marvel was the decision to change the character’s powers. In the comics, she is a polymorph, able to increase or decrease her body mass which leads to her catchphrase “embiggen!” She acquires her abilities following the events of the comic Infinity, which saw the Inhuman king Black Bolt detonate a Terrigen bomb over the planet, which activated the Inhuman gene in individuals all over the world, Kamala being one of them.
However, the MCU version of the series gains her abilities from bangles that are family heirlooms and give her the ability to create ‘hard light,’ which she can shape into her classic comic book overgrown fist. Part of the change was owed to the fact that the Inhumans in the MCU place are dodgy, as it is unclear if their failed ABC series is canon or not. Yet also because there has not been an Infinity-style event in the MCU, so the creators had to make her introduction to the MCU fit with the established canon like all the other heroes.
Similar to how people were angry at the idea of giving Peter Parker organic web-shooters in the first Spider-Man film, the change to Kamala’s powers had its detractors who said it was a major part of her character. While the ability to physically change her form was an early aspect of the character’s development, the MCU’s change not only helps tie the character into the more cosmic side of the MCU like her hero Captain Marvel but also serves a different thematic purpose.
The abilities now are explicitly tied to her Pakistani Muslim culture, meaning for her to understand her abilities she will have to uncover aspects of her family’s heritage, even ones some seem to want to forget. This changes the powers coming from genetic heritage to cultural heritage, and one that thematically ties her powers with her character arc: if she wants to better understand her powers she will need to understand where she comes from and, importantly, who she is.
Ms. Marvel Represents an Exciting Future For the MCU
Disney Platform Distribution
Marvel Studios already has big plans for Ms. Marvel in the MCU. Ms. Marvel is already set to appear in The Marvels where she will meet her hero Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) and also join forces with Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris). The character of Ms. Marvel has already become so enduring that audiences will likely want her to meet other Avengers like Thor, Ant-Man, and the new Sam Wilson Captain America. This could also lead to her becoming the face of a team of young heroes, like the Young Avengers, which the MCU appears to be laying the groundwork for.
The series also looks to be expanding the MCU lore in interesting ways. The series established her bangles are not giving her powers but taping into something inside her, possibly setting up her Inhuman backstory from the comics and bringing the characters into the MCU proper after the poorly reviewed Inhumans TV show and a variant version of Black Bolt showing up in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The bangles themselves could be either the MCU Quantum Bands which would tie her to the comic book character Quasar and possibly the Quantum Realm in the Ant-Man film series. They could also be the Nega Bands, which in the comics were worn by the original Captain Marvel, Marv-Vell.
The series also breaks new ground stylistically on what an MCU property can look like. A common criticism of the MCU is that Marvel Studios imposes a particular house style where all the projects look the same. The studio has attempted to shake those criticisms with Chloé Zhao’s work on Eternals and Sam Raimi on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but Ms. Marvel is the MCU series that truly shows the world through the main character’s eyes, with text messages being created in the set dressing. Ms. Marvel draws inspiration from both Scott Pilgrim vs the World and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and shows that the MCU may not just be going in a cosmic direction, but also a more comic direction.
