Ms. Marvel, Season 1, Episode 3: Destined
And how does this third episode of Ms. Marvel stack up? It's all right. We get the revelation that Kamran's mom Najma and her little clan are actually extra-dimensional Djinns with vague superpowers, which I guess is how they're trying to make Kamala's old Inhumans background work in a way while still making it more tied to her Pakistani heritage? I'm not quite sure how I feel about it, although I will note that this feels suspiciously like it's riffing on Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which also had the more mystical elements of Chinese mythology handwaved as 'extradimensional'.
And... and I can take it or leave it, I guess? I'm not that married to the idea of Kamala being an Inhuman, and having her power because her great-grandmother Aisha is one of these extra-dimensional Djinn, and the bangle activates her powers, is... that's neat enough. And the situation set up by "Clan Destine" (get it?) is believable enough to cause some sympathy for Najma and her cronies, while also making their bloodthirstiness easy for us to root against.
Kamran ends up helping Kamala and Brian Bruno in the climax when the Djinn party-crash poor Aamir and Tyesha's wedding to force Kamala to open the interdimensional gate for them... and all of this is because Najma can't wait for one or two days after seeing Kamran's text messages with Kamala. This does give us that fun sense of urgency and our first real fight scene against the Djinn... who... don't really have all that colourful superpowers. Kamala finally gets to make her big embiggen CGI fist, and that's cool and all, but so far Najma and her Djinn friends are kind of just... generically super-powerful and super-durable, I guess? It's serviceable, and I've watched superhero shows with much less budget making action scenes work, but I wouldn't be lying if I said that I wasn't underwhelmed.
Honestly, I'm surprised to say that I was far, far more invested in the supporting characters. I think being Asian myself, there's just something that speaks to me when Aamir speaks to Yusuf before his marriage, and Yusuf gives this amazing speech about choosing family... and how a man who chooses family is never alone. That speaks a lot to me. Muneeba also has a great moment where she talks to Kamala, about how her 'mountain' was trying to live as an immigrant, raising a young child, barely speaking the English language... and, again, the way she survives it is by finding her family.
And I guess that's one of the central theme of the episode (especially since a huge part of it is showing the massive community that arrives to celebrate a wedding), where the episode's big cliffhanger is Kamala, who pulled the fire alarm without telling anyone but Bruno about her superpowers, ends up alienating all her extended family and friends (including poor Nakia!) and while she has dropped some hints about being troubled to Mama Muneeba, Kamala's parents really can't help their daughter if she keeps shutting them out. It's pretty heartbreaking because you can see that Muneeba and Yusuf have gone from angry and worry to just... just exhausted.
Family, I guess, is also the theme of the bad guys, although as I mentioned above I really didn't care all that much for them. Kamran ends up finding enough of a friend in Kamala to decide to tip her off instead of helping her family, though, honestly, Kamran's family are kind of acting like one-dimensional dipshits who just can't wait until a wedding is over. How dare they interrupt Brown Jovi... although I audibly cheered when "Livin' On A Prayer" ends up being the soundtrack to the battle.
Kamala pulls a fire alarm to get everyone out of the building before fighting the Djinn (one of them has the power of... waving a whip menacingly) but even with Kamran's help, it takes the arrival of Damage Control who comes in to arrest Clan Destine while Kamala and a broken-arm Bruno sneaks out, only to be found out by Nakia who feels absolutely betrayed that "Night Light" is her friend. Typical Spider-Man plot, honestly. I don't really have any complains about that.
Ultimately, it's serviceable. I do really think that there's a fair amount of great character work here, and despite my dismissal of them in previous episodes, I have grown a bit more attached to Kamran, Bruno, Nakia, Muneeba, Yusuf and Aamir as their stories kind of unfurl in the background. Next episode seems to have Kamala go to Karachi to meet her grandmother in order to make sense of the strange train vision, and I'll be along for the ride.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- Clan Destine is a very loose adaptation of the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. In the comics, Clan Destine was the result of the offspring of a Djinn, and their stories sometimes cross over with that of the X-Men and Fantastic Four. Other than the connection with the legends of the Djinn (which, of course, Ms. Marvel keeps to be much truer to actual cultural myths) and one of their members being called Adam, it's really just an adaptation in name only.
- The ruins that the Djinn found the bangle on has the symbol of Wenwu's Ten Rings engraved on the ground.
- The blue arm may or may not be a Kree (featured in Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel and Agents of SHIELD). In the comics, the Kree did create the Inhuman race.
- Bruno mentions papers on other dimensions written by dr. Erik Selvig, a supporting character in the earlier Thor movies.
- Sheik Abdullah drops Kamala's motto from the comics, "good is not something you are, it is something you do."
- Sana Amanat, Kamala Khan's co-creator and executive producer of this show, is among the wedding guests.
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