@captzaff007
I’m something of a newbie when it comes to knowing the ins and outs of Disney+ output of content: What If…?, Hawkeye, and Moon Knight are still on my “I’ll get to it when I get to it” list of shows to watch (Yes…Moon Knight. You’re not the only one who’s shocked by that revelation).
But the latest entry to the Marvel studios TV oeuvre, Ms. Marvel, is the one I’d looked forward to most fervently. And with a few small quibbles here and there, it was worth the wait…
First off, this is one of the more energetic, straight-up colorful projects to have been made for the MCU. What Hulu’s M.O.D.O.K. accomplished in turning the genre into a comedy, Ms. Marvel manages to accomplish in creating a teen-drama show for the canon universe. Iman Vellani — who had never acted before this project — absolutely owns the title role of Kamala Kahn, a Pakistani-American teen living in Jersey City, and obsessed with Captain Marvel (Brie Larson).
Effervescent, energetic, and with an active imagination that often materializes as graffitied cartoon, text bubbles, emojis that appear onscreen, Kamala is the sort of teenager that I imagine is typical in this day and age.
Living with her traditional Muslim parents, Kamala constantly finds herself having to balance pleasing her parents, and navigating those tumultuous teenaged years. Oh, and she has realized that a bangle gifted her by her grandmother ahs unlocked some latent powers that she never before experienced. Adolescence, amirite?!
Soon she finds herself in the crosshairs of not only the government agency Department of Damage Control (the DODC, founded shortly after the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home) and the leadership team of agents Cleary and Deaver (Arian Moayed and Alysia Reyner, respectively), but also a shadowy group of ex-pats known as the Clandestines, who themselves possess latent abilities and powers and may actually be djinn, and have their own plans for not only Kamala’s mystical jewelry, but with Kamala herself.
That’s the plot of the first season in a nutshell, and it was more interesting to basically see a Degrassi-style show set within the larger Marvel universe, than it was to see most of the superheroics and derring-do that usually inhabit shows such as this (particularly with mostly half of the Disney+ Marvel series). It’s not that the show is lacking in action, nor that it wasn’t staged competently and clearly, and with a good amount of fun, but Vellani seems (and acts) much more comfortable and natural in “regular teenager” mode as opposed to “superhero” mode.
This is the first live-action depiction of a fairly popular comic-book character, and Vellani NAILS the home-life, teenage drama, and the pressures and uncertainties that comes with being a first-generation American in a bustling inner city (something to which I could personally relate). But seeing her in action, in bits and pieces of her costume, before finally revealing the full-blown outfit during the final episode…felt a bit off.
There are several major deviations between Kamala’s abilities in her comic, and here on her show. These changes in her abilities aren’t make or break in the long-run, and seem to be par-for-course in how Marvel adapts its characters for live-action. Whereas in the comics Kamala has enhanced healing, embiggening, and the occasional shape shifting, her show has elected to grant her energy projection, and the ability to project energy-based platforms on which she and others can stand.
While it makes for some interesting set-pieces (and at times her energy projections at least LOOK like she’s increasing her size), there’s something iffy about them. Maybe it’s because there’s already an X-Men member who projects energy (Armor), and perhaps by changing her powers the show changes her origin, which disconnects her from the larger Inhumans (who, let’s face it, might have shat the bed on their own show, but there’s no way they’re done in the MCU, as shown in Anson Mount‘s return in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness). And while the last episode does introduce a certain M-letter concept into the MCU (FINALLY), by using Kamala Kahn…it feels a bit like fitting a square peg into a round hole.
Is Ms. Marvel enjoyable? Yes. Is it lighter, and with lower stakes than the other Disney+ Marvel fare? Yes. Does it inevitably set-up an upcoming Marvel project, as all these shows and movies now need to do? Yes. Is it a good adaptation? It gets most of the beats right, and while Bruno Carelli (Matt Lintz) gets almost all of the geeky mannerisms right, for some reason, I always pictured the character much, much taller. Again…minor quibbles.
The stakes are lower, the lead actor is perfectly cast, and this is one of the more vibrantly-colored Marvel live-action anythings, really. If you’re into the pace, dramas, and characterizations found in something along the lines of Degrassi, or any one of the million CW shows — only with government agencies, superpowers, other dimensions, and time travel thrown in — you could do much worse. (P.S. — the soundtrack slams.)
3.5/5 Samoas.
Ms. Marvel is now streaming in its entirety on Disney+.