This was a legitimately hard review to write as I didn’t particularly like my time watching the show but it wasn’t because it was bad per say, just that it felt very much aimed at an audience that wasn’t me. I have zero interest in the life of an American high school girl, regardless of race, and as such large parts of the show just felt like I was watching something I had to rather than because I wanted to, all thanks to a want to say that I’ve “watched all of the MCU”. It’s not a bad show, it may even be a great show if your young enough (or have been waiting for Muslims or Pakistan to get some much deserved positive screen time) but for me… well, let’s take a look before I give away the score now and be done with it!
The first thing that leaps out about Ms. Marvel is, thankfully, Ms. Marvel herself as Iman Vellani is fantastic in the role of both nerdy fangirl Kamala Khan and as the titular superhero who is initially thrilled to be like her idol in Captain Marvel but soon finds the responsibility, and the attention from authorities, to be a far bigger downside than she would’ve thought. Definitely a star making performance and I’m looking forward to seeing her bounce off other MCU characters as the universe continues to expand.
Kamala sees a vision of her idol in that clip that was shown a 1,000 times in the lead up to the show’s release.
Her immediate group of friends are good too: Bruno (Matt Lintz) is a fellow geek but in a tech wiz way and acts as her sole confidant when she first discovers her powers, Nakia (Yasmeen Fletcher) is a close friend who acts as a strong teenager willing to stand up against convention whilst still dealing with the responsibilities of being a Muslim girl, including running for a position on the Mosque board which was certainly a side to life I’ve never been privy too so that was interesting, and eventual love interest Kamran (Rish Shah) does a good job of, um, looking good but not being a jock stereotype, I guess. I’ll get to his other twist in the minute but I’d also be remiss to not mention Kamala’s immediate family in her mother Muneeba (Zenobia Shroff), father Yusuf (Mohan Kapur) and older brother Aamir (Saagar Shaikh), who cover strict parent, soft parent and “older brother who gets all the attention but is actually a good guy” tropes well. Well, apart from Muneeba who switches from overly strict to completely fine in letting her daughter do anything towards the end of the series which felt completely lazy given how big of a personality change that was…
The villains of the piece are the Clandestines, a group of people from another dimension called Noor who wish to use the power of special bands and Kamala’s bloodline to rip open a way back home at the expense of all of humanity. They’re led by Kamran’s mother Najma (Nimra Bucha) whose unshaking dedication to returning home soon puts the two at odds when Kamran falls for a human girl in Kamala. We also meet a group in Pakistan that’s dedicated to taking down the Clandestines called the Red Daggers, including Kareem (Aramis Knight) who acts as a secondary handsome young man who falls for Kamala when Kamran is out of the picture for the few episodes. This is one of my major criticisms given that Kamala at her heart is supposed to be the outcast-style geeky character so having three attractive teens (Bruno is in love as well) all fall for her seems to go against the grain of the character somewhat. Is it not possible for a male her age to not see her that way and just be an ally of some description?
Kamala uses her Invisible Girl barrier to stop some bullets. Ms. Marvel has to steal ONE of the Fantastic Four abilities in whichever universe she finds herself in!
There’s a subplot involving Kamala’s great-grandmother Aisha (Mehwish Hayat) a Clandestine that fell for a human man during the Partition and leaves her magical bangles with her daughter Sana (Samina Ahmad as an old woman in the present, Zion Usman as a young girl in the past) who ends up getting saved due to Kamala after she travels back in time via the bangles for the sake of the flashback connecting to the present, I guess? Pretty sure you could’ve just had a flashback without inserting Kamala into it and then taking her straight back to the present… Oh well, it was at least an honest look at a very dark period of history, one that doesn’t often get told (in fact the only other time I’ve seen would be on Doctor Who a few years ago…)
So that’s the set up and the cast. While the first two episodes are heavily an origin story the rest of the series does play about with Kamala’s uncertainty about using her powers, and its not until the very final episode where she gets her MCU’d version of her trademark comic costume (not actually that different, pleasingly) and has full control over her powers, which it has to be said greatly differ from he mostly stretchy powers from the comics and funnily enough feel more Susan Storm than Reed Richards.
It’s Red Dagger of the Red Daggers… I’d call out a lack of originality but the show is about Ms. Marvel who’s a big fan of Captain Marvel, so…
Again a lot of it focuses on High School drama, and there is quite a bit of family drama and humour based around Muslim culture which is great to see highlighted on such a major platform, but also some things went over my head. This isn’t new for someone who watches so much animated content from Japan however, in fact their struggles were more relatable than most of those were when I was just getting started! So yeah, I’ll admit as a white Brit in his late 30s this show felt very much aimed away from me, but that’s perfectly normal, I’m not going to now track down every high school teen show or any other genre I don’t like and criticise it for not being to my tastes, and there was still plenty to like. It’s just if there is a Season 2 I might skip it and accept that it’s not something that appeals to me, MCU page consistency be damned!
Overall Thoughts:
Wait, there’s the Mr. Fantastic powers as well! Two for the price of one!
Ms. Marvel is a good show: well acted, fun set pieces and a unique setting with a charismatic lead. Yes, for me personally I’m marking it down because, as my rating says, I won’t be watching it again, but let it be known that it’s mostly because the high school teen drama aspect doesn’t appeal (plus a few quibbles with the story and certain characters listed above, I’m not saying it’s perfect or anything!) and not some sort of anti-Muslim or anti-female lead bollocks that’s somehow still a thing despite the fact it’s 2022, not 1922…
Not a lot I feel the need to mention here. The Clandestines are stopped because Najma can’t bear to leave her son behind to die but in stopping the rift she transfers a great deal of power to Kamran, leading to him having to deal with the same DODC (Department of Damage Control, haven’t actually mentioned them yet…) agents that Kamala has been dealing with. Kamala gets her costume (from the suddenly-supporting-her-actions mother) and together they fight off the DODC at Kamala’s high school with help from most of the supporting cast. Then we get a teaser as Kamala zaps away and is replaced with a confused Captain Marvel, leading to The Marvels film coming out… next year, I believe? That should be fun… on Disney +, because it will take a lot for me to go to the cinema these days…
Hogan Reviews 