Ms. Marvel (2022) / YMMV

Adorkable:
- Just like in the comics, Kamala is a shamelessly nerdy and imaginative fangirl of the Avengers (especially Captain Marvel) who's downright ecstatic when she gains superpowers of her own.
- Yusuf Khan is utterly delightful when he pops out in a salwar kameez-based Hulk costume to offer to take Kamala to AvengerCon, complete with green face paint.
- Between his good looks paired with his meek Nice Guy demeanor, and thinking that Nikola Tesla is related to the Tesla car company (which in itself is amusing), Kamran is definitely this. Especially for someone related to a Clandestine.
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Did the Jersey City police switch sides because they were disgusted with Damage Control's methods? Or did they just do it because they realized that Damage Control being recorded attacking two Muslim teenagers with extreme force is going to attract a lot of bad press and wanted to dodge the public backlash?
- After the reveal she knew it was Kamala who saved her and had powers, Zoe claims that it's not up to anyone but "Night Light" to reveal her identity, and she shouldn't have to reveal herself until she's ready, followed by a Longing Look with Nakia. In the comics, Zoe is gay, but was Forced Out of the Closet by a blackmailing supervillain that decided to Kick the Dog and out her. Was Zoe's attitude here just Hidden Depths, or a subtle hint of her sexuality? Regardless, there's a certain tragic irony that Zoe is the person expressing this attitude knowing her right to such privacy was ripped away from her, but given the many changes made from the source material, Zoe's sexuality would be far from the only thing changed.
Alternative Joke Interpretation: Carol Danvers's appearance during The Stinger in the Season Finale. Is her reaction a result of her sudden appearance back on Earth, her creeped-out reaction to Kamala's room adorned with memorabilia dedicated to her, or the realization that, since she and Kamala switched places, she just endangered the life of a kid by leaving Kamala in the depths of outer space? Or all three?
Awesome Music:
- The show makes great use of songs by Pakistani music franchise Coke Studio, using notable local hits such as Pasoori, Peechay Hutt and Tu Jhoom.
- The use of The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" in the trailer and the opening of the first episode.
- The X-Men: The Animated Series theme makes a grand appearance upon The Reveal in "No Normal".
- In the final episode Bangladeshi American artist Jai-Wolf's song Indian Summer plays during the social media scene.
- During the Raid on the school. The kids play British Pakistani Riz Ahmed's song Deal With It. Most likely Kamran's taste in music considering his British Pakistani upbringing.
Catharsis Factor: Agent Deever getting fired near the end of "No Normal", given the lows she would go to attack two innocent teens. Cleary chewing her out and the crowd cheering as she departs with the DODC agents just adds to how extremely satisfying it already is too. Cleary and the rest of DODC are also going to have to endure the backlash to Deever’s actions, providing a satisfying Break the Haughty to a man and an organization who have lately enjoyed far too much power and gotten away with ruining the lives of too many young people.
Common Knowledge: The conspiracy theory that Marvel only created the Inhumans to replace the X-Men began to get echoed on social media in the wake of the reveal that Kamala is a mutant in the MCU. While partially correct, (in the sense that Marvel's notorious former CEO Ike Perlmutter did force them to the forefront of the comics and pressured Kevin Feige to give the Inhumans a push in the MCU during the time 20th Century Fox owned the X-Men film license), the Inhumans actually debuted in Fantastic Four #45 (December 1965) (although Medusa and Gorgon appeared in earlier issues), co-created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (the name of their home, Attilan, came from a Golden Age-era story by Kirby). They've appeared in numerous stories over the decades. Most notably, they had a twelve-issue miniseries from 1998-1999 as part of the Marvel Knights line that won an Eisner Award for "Best New Series" in 1999.
Crosses the Line Twice:
- Kamala accidentally endangering Zoe's life when she awakens to her powers? Not funny. Zoe getting bonked by a giant replica of Mjolnir after she decked Kamala in the face earlier in the first episode? Priceless.
- Damage Control running into (what looks like) a bomb in the Season Finale might seem tense at first… but then rather than blowing up on them, it plays Urdu music instead!
- Bruno getting decked in the face by a Damage Control officer in the same episode wouldn't be nearly as hilarious if it wasn't for him taunting them beforehand with a ridiculous dance!
Diagnosed by the Audience: Kamala constantly daydreams and has trouble paying attention in school, leading some fans to believe she has ADHD.
Fandom Rivalry: A small, but vocal one with the comics iteration. Fans of Ms. Marvel (2014) lambast the changes to the character while MCU fans have pointed to some changes being improvements upon the source material.
Fanfic Fuel:
- With the reveal of Kamala being a mutant, does this mean there are other mutants hiding out there? Will Kamala eventually meet up with Professor X? Add the fact Kamran could be one as well and his powers were out of control. Sounds like the type of young Mutant the X-Men would recruit. Bonus points if you consider Kamran's Adaptational Nationality makes him similar to a British Asian Muslim Mutant from the comics called Zeeshan who committed suicide over his unstable mutation and the X-Men expressed regret for not recruiting and saving him in time.
- Kamran mentions to Kamala that the Red Daggers have hunted the Clandestine for centuries and is naturally apprehensive about seeking refuge with them. But it means that Kamran may have been hunted by them back in the UK before coming to the US. By the final episode, Kamran is now hiding out in Pakistan with Kareem as his ally. Considering his initial apprehension, the dynamic between the two could be like a rivalry.
Friendly Fandoms:
- Fans of this show tend to get along with fans of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings due to Simu Liu's praise of Iman Vellani and the show in general.
- Fans of this show and the Tom Holland Spider-Man films are likely to get along due to the similarities in the lead characters (being Adorkable fans of superheroes) trying to balance their lives as aspiring heroes and being an Ordinary High-School Student. The fact that Damage Control serves as an antagonistic force for the show (with EDITH drones and Agent Cleary to boot) also helps with that intersection.
Genius Bonus: The hats that Bruno and Kamran wear in "No Normal" read "Halal" and "Haram" which translates to "Lawful" and "Unlawful". The terms are usually to talk about animals and how they are raised in relations to the religious text and reflect Bruno and Kamran's upbringings.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- One of the Captain Marvel costumes Kamala and Bruno brainstorm is a zombie Carol. At San Diego Comic Con 2022, Marvel unveiled art for the What If...? spinoff set on Earth-89521, which featured a zombified Captain Marvel as one of the foes. To make matters worse, another piece of art has revealed that Kamala will be a Survivor hero, meaning she may very well have to kill her idol or her idol kills her.
- Kamala's death in The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) may have been directly caused by this series. People speculated that her death and subsequent resurrection were meant to make her a mutant for further synergy with the MCU... and were vindicated when she was resurrected as "Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant".
I Knew It!: Quite a few fans suspected that Kamala would be revealed as a Mutant, not an Inhuman, due to a variety of factors. This was proven true in the season finale.
Jerkass Woobie: As much of a jerk as Zoe is, there’s some sympathy to be had in the second episode when she’s being interrogated and manipulated by Agents Cleary and Deever into giving information on Jersey City's new superhero. Especially when she's fully grateful to Ms. Marvel for having saved her life and she very much twinges in discomfort when Deever starts asking about the individual's race. There’s a look of guilt on her face when she accidentally gives info away, hammering home that she’s Just a Kid in over her head. This ultimately leads to her starting to grow past the "jerk" quality altogether when she plays a heroic role in the season finale.
Just Here for Godzilla: Some viewers find the exploration of Pakistani and Muslim culture to be far more interesting than the teen superhero plot.
Memetic Mutation:
- "Fuck Ike Perlmutter." ^{Explanation (SPOILERS!)}
- We Don't Talk About Bruno ^Explanation
Moe: Just like her comic book counterpart, Kamala is a very kind, cute, and dorky teenager, making it easy for viewers to root for her and have a protective instinct over her.
Most Wonderful Sound: In "No Normal", there's an electrical rendition of the first few notes of the 1992 X-Men theme after Bruno reveals that there's a mutation in Kamala's genes.
Narm Charm:
- The final joke in the Destiny TV spot ends with an exchange between Bruno and Kamala on the legality of using a costume based on Captain Marvel's costume, with Kamala ending it by stating that it will be the first court case in history settled by a hug. Is it a little silly? Yes. But it only further exemplifies her adoration and worship of her idol.
- The obvious shoehorning of the line "mutation" in the final episode and the 1992 "X-Men" theme is a little eye-rolling, but it's largely overshadowed by the fact the mutants are now in the MCU!
Nightmare Fuel:
- Kamala's newly discovered powers unintentionally going haywire due to Power Incontinence at AvengerCon in the first episode, setting off a series of Disaster Dominoes that leads to Zoe's life being put at risk.
- The strange purple dimension where everyone is a silhouette with pure white eyes that Kamala passes through when the bangle activates. It's completely unexpected and gives off a foreboding atmosphere.
- Damage Control now has control of the E.D.I.T.H. drones. This doesn't seem all that startling apart from the fact they deploy the drones against a teenager.
- The Clandestines in all their Determinator glory are this for most of the latter half of the third episode. Not only are they hell-bent on getting back home no matter what the cost, but the fact that Kamran is actually scared shitless as he's telling Kamala that they're coming should say something about them.
  - The scene the Clandestines have Kamala cornered in the kitchen feels like something straight out of a horror movie, complete with flickering lights and them slowly, but creepily inching closer towards her.
- The train station in the '40s, crammed with thousands of people desperate to leave India due to the Partition. Not only is the whole scene claustrophobic, but the fear of losing your child in all the chaos is very real. Were it not for Kamala's timely intervention, Hasan might have never found his daughter.
- Episode 6 begins with a warning about some scenes being upsetting. These scenes depict Damage Control using excessive force (which does significant damage to an empty high school) on high school students, all of whom except two are Muslim.
  - Muneeba and Yusuf having to see with horror how Damage Control open fire against their daughter.
- The Stinger for Episode 6 shows Carol Danvers somehow switching places with Kamala. If Danvers was in some mission in faraway space, then Kamala is lost in deep space somewhere with no idea how to get home, or even worse, what if Danvers was in the middle of a dangerous battle? Also, can that bangle let Kamala breathe in outer space? Fortunately, The Marvels (2023)'s trailer shows that Kamala ends inside Monica Rambeau's space suit near the S.A.B.E.R. space station.
Periphery Demographic: Despite primarily told from the perspective of a Muslim Pakistani teenager and her relationship to her cultural heritage both in New Jersey and her home country of Pakistan, this show ended up appealing to a number of older viewers of varying ethnicities. Not only is Kamala's perspective of the world new and interesting, but its homage to teen comedy movies of the 1980s also provided a source of nostalgia for people who grew up with those kind of movies.
Questionable Casting: With the show featuring a diverse cast that matches the ethnicities of the characters, it sticks out that the New Jersey Italian-American Bruno Carrelli is not played by an Italian-American but by Georgia-born Matt Lintz. Even generally positive reviews like this one criticized Disney for prioritizing representation of some ethnicities while excluding others.
- Similarly a minority of fans accused this series of laziness, colourism, minor Islamophobia or just treating the casting with a case of Interchangeable Asian Cultures. Notably with colourism, Pakistani Muslim Kareem and Turkish American Muslim Nakia are portrayed by non-Muslim half-white actors Aramis Knight and Yasmine Fletcher (similar to the critism of Naomi Scotts casting for Jasmine in Aladdin as the whitest non-muslim brown girl they could find).
- Yusuf, Muneeba and Kamran are Pakistani Muslim characters but their actors are all non-Muslims of Indian origins. This wouldn't raise any eyebrows if it wasn't for the fact Shang-Chi cast exclusively actors of Chinese descent for Chinese characters yet for the Pakistani Muslims of Ms Marvel the casting was more half-assed and chose easy picks with Zenobia Shroff and Yasmine Fletcher having worked for Disney before. Most notably MCU casting Director Sarah Halley Finn is notorious for treating South Asian casting with a case of Interchangeable Asian Cultures attitude as noted with Extraction being set in Bangladesh but featured only Indian and Iranian actors for the Asian cast.
Salvaged Story: While Spider-Man: Far From Home, Black Widow, and Hawkeye already went to some lengths to acknowledge Natasha's role in undoing Thanos' snap after Avengers: Endgame was criticized for overlooking it, this show continues this by adding a lovely memorial picture of her and Iron Man at AvengerCon.
The Scrappy: Pretty much the entirety of Clandestine, save for Kamran. In addition to their presence in the show often being seen as shoehorned in and a distraction from the more interesting stories involving Damage Control and Kamala battling street-level threats, their powers are often seen as lame and unfun to watch, as despite their supernatural origin, they fight just like any other super soldier in the MCU. Their leader Najma is especially disliked, with her supposed Anti-Villain qualities ringing hollow for most of the audience and her actions often being seen as nonsensical in relation to her motivations.
Ships That Pass in the Night: Despite no interactions at all so far, Kamala has already been extensively shipped with the MCU Peter Parker due to the fact that they are both Adorkable teenagers who geek out about superheroes.
Shocking Moments: Two from the final episode.
- Bruno stating that Kamala's genes have a mutation, complete with a familiar leitmotif.
- The Stinger having Kamala's bangle make her swap places with Carol.
Spoiled by the Format: By the end of Episode 5, the Clandestines have been defeated, Najma has sacrificed herself to close the Veil, and everything seems to have been nicely resolved... except there's still one episode left, so naturally something else has to go wrong. Sure enough, the episode's final scene has a Damage Control drone track Kamran back to Bruno's house and blow it up after Kamran instinctively attacks it.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
- Changing the powers of Kamala - making them energy/light-based powers derived from an object of power instead of shapeshifting and size-changing - has originated a lot of complaints, as her original power-set was seen as more fun and original, to say nothing of G. Willow Wilson, her creator, being recorded as saying that Kamala not having "a pretty power" is an important part of her character.
  - Relatedly, Kamala losing her shapeshifting power. In the comics, the first thing she did was transform herself into Carol Danvers Ms. Marvel, only to quickly learn that being tall, blonde, buxom, and wearing a skimpy superhero costume isn't everything she thought it would be — a subtle but powerful metaphor about accepting yourself, good and bad, rather than trying to be someone else. Losing the shapeshifting power loses this metaphor, which may or may not be important to Kamala's overall journey as a hero, depending on how you feel about it.
- Getting rid of her Inhuman heritage is a particular sore spot for fans of The Inhumans, given that Kamala, to this day, remains one of the most acclaimed elements of the Inhumanity era. Long story short, the Inhumans were pushed as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for the X-Men back when Fox used to own the film rights until they were gained in 2019 with the 20th Century Fox buyout. During the time period, the Inhumans were regarded as a Replacement Scrappy, and the franchise went through a notorious Audience-Alienating Era. Once the X-Men's film rights where back in Disney/Marvel's hands, the Inhumans property went back on the shelf and the Marvel Television series that featured them (namely Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Inhumans) have their canonicity with the MCU in doubt. However, many Inhumans fans feel that Marvel is sweeping the franchise under the rug without acknowledging the era's strengths. The eventual reveal that Kamala is a mutant further sparked discourse on whether or not the MCU is erasing the Inhumans and removing one of their more well-known characters. There's also the worry about this retcon could make its way into the mainline comics itself, since she and Moon Girl are the last of the "Nuhumans", which are Inhumans introduced during the Inhumanity era.
Unexpected Character:
- The Stinger for the first episode of this series revealed the reappearance of Agent Cleary, the Jerkass Damage Control agent who arrested Peter Parker and his known associates in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Given how minor his role was in that film, very few people expected he would return.
- The third episode tells us we're dealing with characters based on the Destine family from ClanDestine, who are not related to Kamala or the Inhumans at all in the comics. They're a pretty minor group in the comics with very limited runs, giving the creators here a lot more leeway to connect them with a Pakistani family.
- Fans knew that Carol Danvers was appearing, but the question was when and how. The Stinger answers those questions: Kamala's bangle somehow makes her swap places with Carol.
Unconventional Learning Experience: Despite it being a devastating event that still affects the region and its people even today, many Western viewers admitted that this series was their first exposure to the 1947 Partition of India.
Visual Effects of Awesome:
- Kamala's crystalline constructs seen in the promo material have been praised for having a vibrant and crisp design, averting the Special Effects Failure that other Disney+ Marvel series were noted to suffer from.
- The show's use of "sketchbook style" animation to bring Kamala's thoughts and ideas to life is nothing short of amazing.
- The scene where Kamala and Bruno text each other, with their text messages being superimposed through the environment such as the road and neon store signs.
- The closing credits graphics depict various styles of art pulled straight from Ms. Marvel (2014), and it's nothing short of breathtaking.
Watched It for the Representation:
- The show has obtained many Pakistani viewers for fully embracing Kamala's roots. To the point that Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai tweeted her excitement about it.
- Many bi-racial fans joined in, especially how they agreed with Nakia over the dilemmas they face of being a child of two worlds.
WTH, Costuming Department?: While the Ms. Marvel outfit is an almost exact recreation of her costume from the comics, some have lambasted the sneakers she wears instead of proper boots and also complained that the rest of the costume looks too professional, lacking the homemade Civvie Spandex quality her original costume had.

YMMV / Ms. Marvel (2022)

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