Episodes: 6
Run time: 50 – 52 minutes
Cast: Iman Vellani (Kamala Khan), Matt Lintz (Bruno Carrelli), Yasmeen Fletcher (Nakia Bahadir), Zenobia Shroff (Muneeba Khan), Mohan Kapur (Yusuf Khan), Saagar Shaikh (Aamir Khan), and Rish Shah (Kamran).
Rating: 3.8/5
This review covers the first two episodes of Ms Marvel.
Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) feels just like what every Marvel fan secret (or not so secretly) aspires to be — her room is full of memorabilia, she attends conventions (and gets scolded for it), and even cosplays as her favourite superhero. In fact, if the show were just about Kamala Khan, it’d still be an interesting look at how much the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has become a part of our everyday culture. But this being an MCU show, it’s more than that. It’s about the latest entry into the MCU — Ms Marvel, a superheroine who has the power to create hard light constructs and wield cosmic energies, thanks to a magic bangle.
The 6-episode series centres around the eponymous character, who is a 16-year-old Marvel fangirl. But as with all teenagers, Kamala Khan faces growing pains like her parents, crushes and her faith. Being a Muslim Pakistani-American, Kamala feels that the brown girl is never going to save the world. All that changes when she finds a magical bangle that imparts super powers to her — allowing her to become Ms Marvel.
A big part of the series revolves around Kamala Khan’s South Asian heritage and Muslim background. While most children can empathise with overprotective parents, it’s the way that Kamala’s parents go about it that make it feel more Asian in nature. There’s even a sequence where Kamala goes to the mosque for religious studies, and as (almost) all teenagers are wont to do, she’s talking during the lesson — and gets chided. While I’m not South Asian, nor am I Muslim, I have friends who are — and I have to say that it certainly feels authentic, given what I’ve experienced. And that’s where the series shines.
It manages to take a culture that’s not often depicted in Hollywood (we already have Shang-Chi in the MCU, so East Asian culture is mostly covered) and put it on screen in a genuine and respectful way, providing the foundation that is Kamala Khan’s character. Like most MCU shows, the main character has a background that we can empathise with and understand, thus helping us to relate to her journey as she becomes Ms Marvel.
But she’s not just the sum of her ethnicities. Kamala Khan is also a Marvel fan, and her love for the Avengers (in-universe, that is) is equal to the most hardcore fans in our world. In fact, there’s even an Avengers Con in the show, which shows that the fandom is just as strong in the MCU as it is out of it. By marrying all these aspects of her personality, the show creates a character that seems as real as any fan, but with super powers.
The show also makes heavy use of animation — tying it in with Kamala’s characterisation and love of her fandom. It’s bold and fresh visual style that doesn’t feel out of place in the MCU, but gives Ms Marvel its own distinctive look. Given the number of MCU shows out there, it’s important that Ms Marvel is able to stand out and be remembered, which is what this animation stye helps to do.
Ms Marvel’s powers are a little ill-defined though — but that’s because her powers differ from the Ms Marvel in the comics. The comic version has Ms Marvel being able to stretch and contort her body as if it were rubber, and she most often uses it to turn her hands into gigantic rubber fists to deck villains with. This version has Ms Marvel creating limbs and appendages made out of sparkly hard light, as well as other structures to save people with. It’s almost as if she wielded a power ring attuned to the emotional spectrum (her emotions affect the reliability of her powers).
Since the cast is mostly South Asian, there is a token Caucasian — Bruno Carrelli (Matt Lintz), who is Kamala’s best friend. It’s a cute nod to the usual trope of token Asian characters, and while he is a fairly important part of the series, there’s no mistaking that he is there to add colour (of a different type) to the cast.
Ms Marvel is a series that shows us what would happen if a Marvel fan got powers. In a way, there’s an element of wish fulfillment that’s also bolstered by the fact that Kamala’s characterisation is something that many of us can relate to. While the protagonist’s powers are oddly similar to some others (and could do with some more explanation), it is fun to see a new superheroine revel in her powers on screen. Here’s to hoping that Ms Marvel gets to hang out with the other young heroes of the MCU, like America Chavez from Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man!
Read also
- [Television] Iman Vellani, who plays Ms Marvel, mistook the casting call for a scam at first
- [Movie Review] If you’re not content with ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’, then you’ve completely lost the point of the film
- [Movie Review] Finally, Hollywood gets Asian Representation Right with Shang-Chi
This is an original article on marcusgohmarcusgoh.com.
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I’m an independent scriptwriter who’s written for popular shows like Lion Mums, Crimewatch, Police & Thief, and Incredible Tales. I’m also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. You can find me on social media as Optimarcus and on my site.
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