Ms. Marvel, Season 1, Episode 2: Crushed
Yeah, this show really should've released the first two episodes together, the way they did for Hawkeye. "Crushed", the second episode, is still relatively slow-paced. And by no means is it bad at all! It's still very enjoyable to watch, and does a lot of great things to set up Kamala's character and the world around her, but at the same time I really do feel that this is definitely a show that would work a lot better in binge-watching format instead of the weekly one. Or, well, at least to show episode 1 and 2 back-to-back as a two-parter.
This episode goes through a lot of the motions, and... and it's good stuff, y'know? Iman Vellani is perfect in showcasing Kamala's dorkiness, and the episode juggles between developing the mystery behind Kamala's powers and building up her supporting cast while also being unashamedly happy to delve into the cultural parts of the Muslim-Pakistani community is extremely well-done. It's just that it's all mostly stuff we've seen before with a superhero that Kamala is often compared too -- good ol' Spider-Man. We get scenes of Kamala testing out her powers on a rooftop, we get her running around in a 'beta' outfit (basically her cosplay outfit), we get her showing off her confidence in school now that she has something cool under her belt, we even get a love triangle between friendzone-Bruno and hot-new-guy Kamran. The episode ends with Kamala's first public and heroic act, rescuing a kid who climbed up on top of a tower to take a selfie... but she kind of fucks up when visions happen at an inopportune moment, causing her to drop the kid. And then she stumbles quite literally onto the Damage Control guys, before the rather clever twist that Kamran and his mother's actually out there looking for Kamala (or maybe her powers) for a long time.
And it's neat, y'know? Just like what I stated when I reviewed shows like Stargirl, Runaways and Cloak and Dagger; or even the Spider-Man movies the teenage drama stuff... I don't really care much for them, but as long as it's acted well, I don't mind them. There's something very nice, though, that brand-new hot boy that Kamala meets in a party that sends her life into a whirl turns out to be involved in some sort of conspiracy or something.
And those parts, I feel, are pretty well done and very enjoyable. Set against a backdrop of Kamala juggling side-plots like her brother Aamir's wedding, Nakia running for a leadership role as part of the mosque board, Kamala's massive crush on Kamran, we also get Kamala realizing that there's something about her great-grandmother Aisha. When Kamala's parents tell her soon-to-be sister-in-law about what happened to their family during the period of Partition, turns out that Kamala's grandmother was saved by following a 'trail of stars'. However, Muneeba and other members of their community (hilariously called the 'Illumi-Aunties') deride Kamala's great-grandmother as some kind of pariah, who seems to have done something horrible. Kamala can't really dig out that much information since she's also keeping her superpowers a secret, but it is pretty appealing, and a nice way to twist the whole 'Inhuman powers are my lineage' as something intrinsically tied to a real-world culture. Muneeba clearly knows something, but is also very traumatized by whatever happened to her grandmother.
(Still 50/50 on whether the crystal fists look better than comic-Kamala's stretchy powers, though)
On the other end of things, Damage Control has been investigating Zoe Zimmer's instagram posts, and we get to see Agent Cleary and his partner (google tells me she's called Agent Deever) interrogate Zoe. Deever is very clearly who we're supposed to hate, being very explicitly prejudiced against ethnic groups and even making Cleary feel uncomfortable. Their side of the story is just spinning its wheels while we focus more on Kamala's story. Them having Mysterio drones can't be a good thing!
And a lot of it is admittedly kind of fluff around Kamala, but I really do like so much of the world-building around her. Her being dorky as hell when she sees the shirtless Kamran (that Masha'Allah is hilarious) and I'm just happy that Kamran is immediately established to be someone relevant and potentially sinister instead of just a pointless love interest. Also, as someone who's "not quite white enough, not quite ethnic enough", I absolutely relate so much to Nakia's struggles when she discusses the hijab with Kamala in the bathroom.
The most hilarious scene, however, are the girls taking selfies in the mosque, before being interrupted by one of the adults who tell them that they shouldn't "snapchat" in the mosque... and then one of the kids indignantly say that "it's insta!" That's hilarious. Another rather hilarious moment is Aamir totally buying into Kamala's excuse that Kamran is their distant cousin, and is totally bamboozled by Kamala, while Tyesha just shoots her a knowing grin.
A rather delightful second episode. It's just such a shame that the show is a bit of a niche thanks to its subject matter and pretty slow pacing, but I definitely have been enjoying this show a whole lot.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- Kamala and Kamran discuss Bollywood movies, and talk about Kingo from Eternals, who is a Bollywood star in the MCU. They also make allusions to "Kingo Senior", which is a nod to how Kingo poses as a whole generation of identical-looking descendants.
- The drone that Damage Control uses are the EDITH drones used by Spider-Man and later Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
- Speaking of Far From Home, the public calling Kamala as "Night Light" seems to be similar to how Spider-Man was given the nickname "Night Monkey" by the media when he operated in Europe with his stealth costume.
- Kamala lies to Aamir that Kamran is their distant cousin. In the comics, they actually are distant cousins.
- The hijab that Kamala Khan gives to Nakia is patterned identically to the scarf she wears on the first issue of her comic book.
- Speaking of that first issue, Kamala arriving at a party and being given a drink containing alcohol and her going 'am I drunk?' is a reference to a near-identical scene from that book.
- At one point, Kamala notes that Ant-Man 'looks younger than [he is]', a nod to a common running gag within the MCU fandom that Ant-Man's actor Paul Rudd doesn't seem to age.
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