Ms Marvel, Disney Plus review — the franchise unveils its first Muslim superhero
Iman Vellani charms as teenager Kamala Khan in an adventure story as much about heritage as battling evil
For those who struggle to tell a “cinematic universe” from a “multiverse”, the news of another addition to the Marvel stable might not quicken the pulse. But the release of Ms Marvel, a new six-part series on Disney Plus, is a small yet significant piece of pop culture history. For the first time on screen, the franchise presents a superhero story fronted by a Muslim character.
She is Kamala Khan, a seemingly typical, gawky high-schooler, played by newcomer Iman Vellani in a charming debut performance. Still only 16, Kamala finds herself under pressure from all sides to figure out what she wants to be in life. Unfortunately, her dream of becoming an Avenger is hardly viable; she’s clumsy, scared of the dark, and lacks supernatural gifts. Yet there is another, more systemic issue standing in her way. “It’s not the brown girls from Jersey City who save the world,” she laments. That won’t be true for much longer, you suspect.
For now, the best she can do is try to win a costume competition at an Avenger fan convention. Rooting around in a box of old ancestral trinkets for something to embellish her outfit with, Kamala stumbles upon an ornate bracelet that once belonged to her great-grandmother, a woman fabled to have had mystic abilities. Sure enough, as soon as Kamala puts it on, she is transformed from a mere lookalike into the real deal, equipped with the (as yet unharnessed) ability to crystallise light and jump dimensions.
Ms Marvel is as much about heritage as it is about adventure. That Kamala is a practising Muslim of Pakistani origin isn’t treated as incidental. Much of the first two episodes is devoted to giving a sense of her world, showing a service at her mosque and the streets of Little Pakistan. At an Eid celebration, Kamala gives her schoolmate a run-through of her community’s cliques, from the “pious bros” to the “illumin-aunties”.
Numerous battles no doubt await her alter ego, but it’s the conflict at home that promises to deliver the richest narrative thread. Like the recent Pixar film Turning Red (and everything from Bend It Like Beckham to The Big Sick), the series humorously and sensitively reflects on the cultural gulf between parents rooted to tradition and children caught between their sense of identity and the desire to assimilate.
“Focus on you, your family, your story,” tigerish mum (Zenobia Shroff) tells Kamala after she catches her sneaking back from the convention. Early indications suggest that Ms Marvel will be doing exactly that.