THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED SERIES. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The best thing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that fans can look up to any hero of the ongoing and expanding franchise. Since there is a crowd that loves Captain Marvel, it’s neat to see how heroes like her can inspire others to make a difference. This statement is crystal clear in the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel.
PLOT
The series pilot ‘Generation Why’ follows Pakistani teenager Kamala Khan who identifies as a huge fan of the Avengers, particularly Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). With her best friend Bruno Carelli, she plans to attend New Jersey AvengerCon, the inaugural fan event to celebrate Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but her parents Muneeba and Yusuf turn down her request to go when she refuses to dress up in matching Hulk costumes with her father. When she decides to sneak out with her Captain Marvel cosplay, she takes with her a bangle that belonged to her grandmother Sana (Samina Ahmad). She does enjoy herself being there with Bruno but by the time of the costume contest, her decision to put on the bangle causes a construct of cosmic energy. However, she is still able to use these powers to save her classmate Zoe Zimmer. Upon returning home at night, her mother is rightfully distraught with sneaking out and pleads with her to focus on her life.
‘Crushed’ shows Kamala practicing her new powers, under the alias “Night Light” with Bruno that seem to have been within her all along. Zoe uses the AvengerCon incident as a following boost on social media and invites people over for a house party. After surprisingly getting her mom’s permission, Kamala goes and falls for a senior boy named Kamran and exchanges numbers with him. This does make Bruno jealous to the point where he believes she’ll get distracted spending time with him rather than learn her powers. Later having dinner with her parents, her brother Aamir (Saagar Shaikh) and his fiance Tyesha (Travina Springer), Yusuf shares a story of how Muneeba’s mother Sana was briefly lost during the Partition of India before finding her way back to her father. Hearing this causes her to faint and later have a vision of a woman pointing at her. She then reaches out to her grandmother of what she saw, leading to Sana confirming the bangle came from her mother Aisha who disappeared. When attending an Eid al-Adha celebration at Eid Mubarak, Kamala’s classmate Nakia Bahadir encourages her and Bruno to spread pamphlets as she intends to run for Islamic Masjid of New Jersey’s imam. In the meanwhile, Zoe gets brought in by Department of Damage Control agents P. Cleary (Arian Moayed) and Sadie Deever for posting about the AvengerCon incident. The only information she willingly gives is that Night Light is Middle Eastern, causing DODC to sweep the tri-state area. During the celebration, Kamala suits up and uses her powers to save a young boy from falling but almost drops him after having another vision. She retreats when being chased by DODC drones, but is aided by Kamran who introduces her to the woman from her vision, his mother Najma.
‘Destined’ shows Najma explain to Kamala that she and her son are part of enhanced beings known as Clandestines who claim to be Djinn and originate from the Noor dimension and need her help with the bangle to let them go back. They give her time to think about it as they drop her off home. And as she looks over another social media post of her heroic deeds, Nakia later informs her she won the board election. Tension rises in the tri-state area when Nakia also prevents Deever from scouting the place due to not having a warrant in her search for Night Light. On the day before Aamir & Tyesha’s wedding, Kamala receives a gift left by Bruno for her Night Light persona, a domino mask. When working a night shift at the liquor store Circle Q, Carelli talks to Yusuf of the Djinn who originate of Islamic folklore. Looking into the teen’s research, the Khan patriarch reads of how their origins are as accurate to what Najma has shared. When he later meets up with Kamala, he shares that he got accepted by CalTech but won’t go if she needs his help being a superhero. He still shares his doubts on how it would work out for her. Kamala does share we make things possible the way Danvers, but he reminds her it’d still be dangerous no matter how hard they try to be safe. She reaches out to Kamran on feeling unsure on if she wants to surrender the bangle, but he chooses to let her take her time on the decision and focus on the wedding rather than overthink it all. On the day of her brother’s special day, an impatient Najma confronts her for it as she plans to take it by force. The confrontation happens with Kamala’s involvement being unbeknownst to her family and when she struggles for the bangle with her, she has a different vision involving a train. The conflict is halted when the Clandestines, involving Kamran get apprehended by DODC. When she and Bruno retreat, Nakia spots her using her powers. And when returning home, Sana calls to tell her she had the same vision and invites her & her parents to Karachi.
‘Seeing Red’ shows the Khans arrive to reunite with the elder matriarch. Kamala would at first be in awe of her artwork inspired by the Partition before telling her the bangle saved her life during those events and confirms they’re Djinn. When going out with her cousins Zainab (Varfah Aziz) & Owais (Asfandyar Khan), she gets the chance to investigate the train station where she was temporarily missing. Before she could look any further on her own, she encounters a vigilante group called the Red Daggers. Their leader Waleed (Farhan Akhtar) and fellow member Kareem (Aramis Knight) explain to her the Clandestines intend to break the Veil of Noor that separates the human world from the Noor dimension. If that happens, Najma and her disciples will start a hostile takeover with their kind, making them different from the folklore the Khans grew up learning. He also translates the bangle’s scripture, “What you seek is seeking you”. As this happens, the Clandestines break out of a DODC supermax prison to confront Kamala again, but Najma chooses to abandon Kamran for his decision to still protect her rather than side with his mother. When the leading Clandestine tracks down the teen, it leads to a confrontation with the Red Daggers. When she kills Waleed, she goes after the bangle and inadvertently stabs it, which causes Kamala to go back in time.
‘Time and Again’ shows Kamala in the Partition and witnesses the origin of Sana’s mother Aisha (Mehwish Hayat). In 1942, Aisha took refuge in India where she met her husband Hasan (Fawad Khan) who was an activist. Five years after falling in love and conceiving their only child, Najma would find her and order her to retrieve the bangle and open the Veil by the next sundown. Not wanting to go back to the Noor dimension, she convinces Hasan to leave with her and Sana to Pakistan. However, Aisha would die protecting her family from Najma who stabs her in the middle of a hectic crowd. As she collapses on a cart, she sets off a blue flare that brings her descendant to the past with the verse from husband’s favorite poem “What you seek is seeking you”. It is here where Kamala finds her great grandmother fatally bleeding and tries to save her, but the latter encourages her to save Sana. She creates a structure for her to step on but when losing focus, her young grandma is able to control the particles for herself before reuniting with Hasan. Just as that happens, Kamala returns to her present. Her trip to the past opens the Veil and Najma tries to absorb its energy but it vaporizes her and anything/anyone it touches. However, she passes on the energy to Kamran by saying his name before the Veil closes. Just as that commotion concludes. Muneeba tracks her down since she wasn’t answering the phone during this commotion and is in shock to see her daughter’s powers. With Waleed dead, Kareem departs to take command of the Red Daggers. When returning home, Muneeba finds amends with her mother for not listening to her before and quickly chooses to accept her own daughter for what she can do. In New Jersey however, Bruno tries hiding Kamran DODC, only for his newfound powers to cause destruction at Circle Q when defending himself from a drone.
The series finale ‘No Normal’ shows Deever continue her investigation the morning after the Circle Q incident by ordering a city wide lockdown. When Kamala returns to the United States with her family (who the rest honestly show support) and discovers from Nakia her friends are on the run, she dawns a costume made by Muneeba in which its symbol originates from her broken necklace. Bruno & Kamran do briefly hide in the mosque, but Nakia pushes them away for safety and guides them to hide elsewhere with brief assistance by Abdullah. Just outside the alleyway, they meet up with Kamala but Kamran releases a wave of energy in pain. The Night Light decides to call Kareem to set them up with a contact that’ll help him get out of the city. They briefly hide at their school, Coles Academic High School, before Nakia reunites with them and Aamir follows with the intent to help. Zoe would also be present as she was already on campus filming her social media posts. With DODC surrounding the school, they distract the agents storming in by using harmless traps (firing softballs, chemical foam and smoke) and having Zoe livestream the situation which quickly gets the public’s attention. Despite the efforts, most of the group gets apprehended, leaving only Kamala and Kamran to fend for themselves. When Khan admits to what happened to Najma, his anger leads to him wanting to kill the agents with his powers. Luckily, Kamala blocks his first strike and protects him from DODC in order for him to escape. Once he does, she frees her friends and public praises her bravery. With negative feedback, Deever withdraws and gets relieved of her duty by Cleary. In the aftermath of this incident, Yusuf has a heart to heart where he tells her her first name translates to ‘Marvel ’which pleases her because this means she shares a name with her favorite superhero. A week after this, Bruno tells her she possesses a genetic mutation that her family lacks. But she chooses to not overthink it for the time being. The series ends in a post credits cliffhanger in which the teen superhero switches place with Danvers herself.
THOUGHTS
With Kevin Feige choosing to continue the MCU after Endgame, the big must was introducing new characters to maintain the interest. With Bisha K Ali at the helm of being showrunner, it would all lead to something oh so fun. With all 6 episodes, you get the accurate tone of youth like a Disney Channel series yet still has the time to be fluent in the mold of the Multiverse Saga. The visuals are very creative in showing how the protagonist’s cosmic abilities come to life while expressing her inner imagination. I was even extremely impressed with the cultural immersion done where we are able to accept the representation because it’s part of the character and appreciate that part being respected as much as possible. With that being said, Iman Vellani lives the dream of a Marvel super fan by getting to play a superhero and give a great performance within the first try. We relate to her day dreaming half the time because sometimes, reality is too boring to accept. That’s not the case when looking up to Captain Marvel because she admires the fearlessness she brings to every fight and wants to share said bravery to be happier than she already is. Lucky for her, she gets that opportunity when gaining her own superpowers and confronts people who don’t understand what she can bring to the table. Seeing her be herself the whole time expresses the big theme where your calling will come to you before you know it as long as you keep your head up which is what makes life special. That’s what happens because whenever she had her obstacles, she maintained the morals on doing the right thing like any hero would do which easily makes us respect her. And seeing her journey continue through The Marvels and so on, it only made us appreciate her more than we already can because her tenure in saving lives will be generational. Vellani does carry this show on her back, but that doesn’t mean the titular protagonist is the only interesting character. Zenobia Shroff & Mohan Kapur were a great pair as Muneeba & Yusuf respectively for nailing the ideal dynamic of parents you expect. Yusuf is the fun loving one who tries making every second count, whereas Muneeba is quickly overprotective before becoming lenient, which originates from how she didn’t understand her own mother until she got older. Both parents however share the goal in wanting what’s best for their daughter which alone is what drives Kamala to be a good person with or without powers. And since she loves heroes so much, it was easier for them to trust her in handling herself in the field. Bruno is naturally the best friend to ask for because despite the loyalty, Matt Lintz grounds the character for thinking realistically when it comes to thinking of the responsibilities Kamala will need to take as a hero. She has her back so much because she’s the closest thing he has to having a family with his parents out of the picture. And there is no doubt he’s jealous of her crushing over Kamran when he’s known her for years compared to the guy she only knew for a week, but he keeps it together and doesn’t let his emotions get the best of him. From that alone, you gotta respect his conscience. Yasmeen Fletcher is also a great standout as Nakia for being a good friend that expresses confidence throughout, which Kamala does in return. Like a lot of people, she’s someone who is tired of oppression and chooses to join the mosque’s board to make a bigger change in her community that’ll satisfy her more than what’s done before her. Seeing Khan step up as a hero only drives her to do the same in her own way until she succeeds the way she wants. Laurel Marsden made Zoe the polar opposite of how Flash Thompson acted towards Peter Parker/Spider-Man because despite enjoying being the center of attention, she proves to have common sense by not lying about what Kamala did. She knows she saved her and appreciates that which she proves when helping her out in the climax. If she went to the same school as Parker, she would’ve exposed Flash in a heartbeat and I’d laugh my ass off because he deserves it for bullying him without reason. Moving on, Rish Shah made an interesting character out of Kamran because he didn’t share the same ambition as his mom which sadly drove a wedge between them. Even though she assigned him to take interest in Kamala, he still genuinely cared because she knows she never asked to have powers which scares her deep down. Because of his concern, she returned the favor in helping him flee the states. With them being on the same page before separating, I hope they reunite in one way or another. The villains felt simple compared to what we’ve seen before, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t make an impact to enhance the plot. Nimra Bucha definitely made an impact in making Najma a power hungry individual who got herself killed, but I think Deever made a bigger impact than one would realize. Alysia Reiner makes her the closest thing to a racist because she targets one person of color and doesn’t care how it affects others. She’s very uncultured due to lacking respect in places she wasn’t familiar with. By the time she started sending drones after teenagers, you just know she’s setting herself up for failure. It’s one thing to be afraid of people with superpowers, but it’s another to be reckless in good intentions so I did not care at all when her comeuppance. I had a blast watching this series, but there were still a few things plot wise that could’ve made more sense. Like coming from a germaphobe, Bruno was reckless to airspray Kamala’s costume at Circle Q when he could do it in his apartment. I find it more ridiculous when the two later ride bikes through a basketball game. I know it’s a show, but that’s one of the rudest things to do at a public park. I want to laugh when Kamala dives head first to grab the tree branch when sneaking out, but she’s way too lucky the pile of leaves is there because she would’ve gotten hurt for sure before unlocking her powers. If I got to get into continuity, why isn’t Vision in the same AvengerCon memorial for Tony Stark & Natasha Romanoff? It doesn’t seem like it’s common knowledge of Vision’s return in WandaVision, so I doubt New York citizens think he’s still alive when the Westview incident appears to be under wraps. And why doesn’t Bruno look up the bangle’s scripture to translate it? If he does it before Waleed, it would be an emotional payoff by the time we hear Kamala’s great grandparents say it. I like Kamran wanting Kamala to get comfortable in driving, but I disagree in saying it’s the best choice to de-stress when areas like Jersey City have hectic traffic. I’m surprised her driving with him led to a better experience than the first lesson with the teacher. I also think Zoe should ask for her parents and/or a lawyer when DODC takes her in for questioning because teenagers deserve just as much of a chance as adults do. I even think Kamala should be a little concerned with Najma revealing she and her group were exiled. She should’ve asked Kamran why that happened rather than ignore it. I then wonder how did she escape from the tablecloth unseen when the Clandestines had the jump on her? I doubt they looked away in distracted fashion long enough for her to make a break for it. And how did Najma know exactly where Kamala was gonna be when having to take an 18 hour flight to Pakistan? This is some dead ass luck if you ask me because she doesn’t say she’s got powers to sense people nor does she have a tracker. That was more confusing than her decision to kill Aisha before she could find the bangle. And I can’t stand the continuity error seeing two bystanders ignore Kamala being chased by the Clandestines because that shouldn’t be a normal day for them. If that’s how it is in Pakistan since I haven’t been there as of writing this, that’s crazy. I honestly found that weirder than the decision for Kamala to stop driving away from Clandestines when that gave her an advantage for quite a while. And it’s so random for the DODC to shoot at the kids in the hallway whereas they take a pause by the time Kamran’s outside. If they’re this trigger happy, I don’t see the reason for them to stop when they had an advantage. And lastly, how the hell does Yusuf not know who Captain Marvel is? Kamala idolizes her with tons of posters surrounding her bedroom, has talked about this superhero a bunch of times and you don’t know who she is? I know he probably chooses not to look it up, but he should know based on what his daughter has talked about. Ignore these issues, then you’ll still enjoy this show as much as I have. In conclusion, Ms. Marvel is another hit in the MCU for being fun while still being immersive with its representation. If you got Disney+ and love superheroes, check this out.
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