Ms. Marvel: ‘Generation Why’

Developed for television by Bisha K. Ali, starring Iman Vellani

Eight years ago, I gushed enthusiastically about a new Marvel comics series, Ms. Marvel. Since then, Kamala Khan, Jersey City’s teen Muslim superhero, has gone from strength to strength (though right now she doesn’t have her own ongoing book). Now, she’s the star of the latest MCU Disney + TV series. The head writer is British-Pakistani writer Bisha K. Ali, and one of the executive producers is Sana Amanat, the Marvel editor who was involved in the creation of Kamala. So, it would be reasonable to assume that the series is in good hands.

And so it is; it’s good. Okay, it’s not as mindblowingly good as the original comic, which was a terrific breath of fresh air. The TV series doesn’t push its resepective creative envelope anything like as much. Nevertheless, it’s full of excellent bits. Where the original comic recalled early Amazing Spider-Man, the TV series recalls early Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It certainly builds on a lot of the strengths of the comic. Like the comic, the first episode spends most of its running time building its cast, before anything superhuman happens. Immigrant Muslim communities aren’t often shown in US media, and rarer still are they at the centre of a story. So here it’s great to see them depicted as entirely normal, and, as in the comics, clichés are avoided. These are all fully-rounded, realistic human beings, not stereotypes.

Another of the comic’s strengths was how G. Willow Wilson understood social media. The social media landscape has moved on quite a bit in eight years; fortunately, the show has kept up, and it feels plausible. We also get a good look at how the world of superheroes looks to ordinary people.

Some things have been changed. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Carol Danvers was never Ms. Marvel, so Kamala is entirely a fan of Captain Marvel. Nor was there an Inhumanity event; in the MCU the Inhumans have rather been tidied away into the corner marked Agents of SHIELD, and are not really talked about. Instead, Kamala’s powers derive from an ancient South Asian artefact. I actually think this is an improvement, tying Kamala’s powers in with her heritage. Her powers (as seen so far) are also somewhat different, and less reliant on changing Kamala’s body size and shape. So even if you’re familiar with the original comics, the story is likely to develop separately

My favourite bit.

In the centre of all of this is a winning performance by Iman Vellani. You can’t help but like Kamala. Indeed, there’s little here to object to unless you are the sort of person who just objects to central characters not being male and white.

As with Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain Marvel, I’m probably too much of a fan of the character to give a wholly objective response to this series. But, I think this is a really good series, well worth watching. The graphic design is really innovative (think Spider-Verse but with its own style). Ms. Marvel is welcoming to a general audience, whilst including plenty of continuity Easter eggs for the long-term MCU fan (most of these are in the Avengercon sequence, but look out for finding that Scott Lang is a podcaster). I smiled all the way through. Recommended.