Ms. Marvel is a six episode series that follows Kamala Khan. She is a 16 year old high school student in Jersey City. She’s obsessed with Captain Marvel, being a massive fangirl and to a degree, the rest of the Avengers as well. Being from a Pakistani family, she had strict parents. This is an origin story for Kamala and it starts when she gets a bangle from her grandmother. Kamala wears it and during a cosplay contest, she realises that she has powers and accidentally reveals it to the world.
Her powers are a type of cosmic energy, or as she describes it, “hard light”. She’s able to throw out purple light that hardens into a crystal-like material, which can act as projectiles, a shield, or platforms for her to run across. It’s a versatile ability and this allows for some nice visuals of her using her powers. However, its cartoony look clashes heavily with the live-action nature when it is used too much so that it can look extremely fake, taking you away from the immersion.
Given Kamala’s a teen, this allows for a sillier tone at times that works really well. She’s joined by her best friend Bruno, who is aware of her powers. There’s a romantic subplot going on between them. Bruno is conveniently tech savvy, making it feel that the show needed to fulfil the trope of having a sidekick that’s really good with machines. Bruno being that young tech prodigy is too much of a convenience.
The show does a good job of showing off the normal struggles that Kamala has to go through. She’ll be worried about something that a teenager would, from how other people perceives her to instantly being attracted to the hot new guy that just transferred in. There are also these bright colorful animated visuals overlayed on top that gives it plenty of character. There are scenes where Kamala has to deal with the restrictions from her parents to scenes where she, or the Pakistani community that she belongs to, can feel disadvantaged purely due to racial reasons and cultural differences. On the flipside, there are also plenty of scenes that celebrate the many facets of her culture.
Kamala’s public display of her powers naturally attracts unwanted attention and it comes in the form of a governmental organisation that is portrayed as… less than virtuous. They have access to a lot of resources, from advanced technology to sheer manpower. They are out to find out the identity of Kamala, which given their resources, seems like they’ll do so quiet easily. The other plot has to do with Kamala’s powers itself. Given that she has just obtained her powers, she’s still not sure what she is capable of, so she experiments with them.
The plot that deals with the origin of Kamala’s abilities is more mystical, and ties into Kamala’s family, which was heavily foreshadowed in the beginning. Unfortunately, the way the season handles the two different plots is to focus on one, and then the other. We get a huge chunk in the beginning of the second half of the season where it focuses on the cosmic side of things and somewhat anticlimactically resolves that issue.
Then the final episode deals with the government organisation that’s been in the background tracking down Kamala during most of the season. The climax is low-key in that while it still includes a lot of the action, it feels downright much more normal and grounded compared to the cosmic side of things. It’s fun to watch, and while unrealistic given how well planned the protagonists were considering they didn’t really have much time, that can be forgiven given the enjoyment of watching them win.
Overall, Ms. Marvel is a good addition to the Disney+ catalogue of MCU shows. Its focus on the origin story of a high school teenager gives it some Spider-Man vibes at times, and it works well here. The blend of kamala’s culture with her trying to understand her powers is an interesting watch although the two plots can interfere with each other as they’re visually opposites. There are feelgood messages of the values of family and community and of course, there’s the customary end-credits scene that teases the next appearance of the characters.
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