Wednesday brought us the return of Ms. Marvel and most of my reservations about the show took a pretty whacking, as I had hoped they would. Episode 2 perhaps allowed Iman Vellani’s true self to begin to show and develop. The first episode was largely formulaic and those types of episodes can often be the hardest to judge. On the one hand, you’re tired of the tropes and wonder if it means they’ll ever end. On the dominant hand, there’s no real way to know and a lot of what we do here as critics is speculative or reactive. Whatever you wanna call it, Episode 2 offered us a lot more.
This week’s show focused a lot on the mystery of Kamala’s bracelet’s history and it’s previous owner, her growing crush on one of her classmates, and the search for who Kamala is by a United States Damage Control team who are obviously the good guys being portrayed as bad, I think. It was decidedly more interesting than last week’s. Perhaps the biggest thing to be crushed in this show was my worry that they were going to make Kamala’s bracelet the source of her power. Well, last night put an end to that in a big way and it honestly relieved a ton of worries I had. All in all, it was a pretty important piece of the show’s puzzle.
Episode 2 opens by showing Kamala’s relationship to her family, friends and community. It also introduces a character who will become central to her story later in the episode and likely overall in Kamran. It also establishes where Kamala sees herself in the social spectrum of her own school. It honestly seems like she’s more reserved than disliked and that some of these situations are more of her own inability to stand up for herself. This is rather critical to who Kamala was as a person in the comics and it’s lovely to see it explored here in-depth, at least in this episode.
Another major point and likely the most significant thing for a large population group was seeing the representation of Southwest Asians and the trials of their people, most notably the breakup of India and Bangladesh, also known as The Partition. I know that Bangladesh and India had been one country at one point, but I had no idea the history or story of the break up and it was pretty moving to see the reactions on Twitter. This was a major thing for the second most populous country in the world. It’s a major historical event.
It was helpful for me to hear about these events as they were real world events, not something that happened in a comic. I saw how it made people feel to see that and it was special in its own right. I’m thankful I’ll get to learn more about the Partition as it seems very much tied to the central story and I’m damn sure that’s not by accident. The cuff belonged to Kamala’s great-grandmother, Sunnah, who was the one who went through the Partition, and it held the family’s money as they fled. It’s a very neat way to tie history and tragedy to a new story for Kamala Khan.
One thing that would have been nice would be getting a baddie introduced before the halfway point of the show, but that moment has passed and I’m not really feeling the Damage Control stuff. But I also sometimes need to remind myself that people are asking for “real TV” while Marvel is also trying to deliver “genuine comic feeling” and comics have those clearly and obviously good people portrayed as bad at the start of stories to “throw people off the scent,” even if it hasn’t worked in… well, ever. It’s what comics do and getting upset at comics being comics is something I try to check whenever I can. That said, those two could stand to be a bit more interesting as characters or as a storyline.
The show kinda leaves us with a cliff-hanger when Kamala meets Kamran’s mother, who gives off a very “official” vibe. She seems obviously evil and that’s why I bothered using the above paragraph to set the stage for this one. Given that she seems evil, she’s most likely just a central character in some way who could have selfish motives, but may not be outright evil. It’s another very comic/Marvel thing to do. We also learn from Bruno that Kamala’s powers do not come from the bangle, but from within Kamala herself. Did Sunnah’s story have something to do with an otherworldly being? Is Kamala really in possession of Kree/Skrull genes in some way?
After two episodes, the show is definitely trending up and has already grabbed my attention more than Moon Knight or What If? I’m still not completely sold on Iman Vellani as Kamala, but I am completely sold on her as an actor. She’s clearly got the personality and the charm to fit in well with the MCU, and it’s not her job to live up to my every expectation. Whether or not I learn to “love” her as Kamala, I already respect her and know she’ll have dynamic interactions with the MCU proper when she stars in The Marvels, set to release in 2023. The show has definite potential, I’m excited to see what else I learn from this show, as it was one of my favorite aspects of the comics.
Ms. Marvel airs new every Wednesday exclusively on Disney+ streaming service.
Kane Webb covers video games, comics, and film/tv for BSO and The Marvel Report. He also covers the USC Trojans for Athlon Sports. He is an entertainment journalist and you can follow him for more on Twitter: @FightOnTwist.