Ms. Marvel S01E06 Review: Home Alone

Ms. Marvel, Season 1, Episode 6: No Normal

And we close off the first season of Ms. Marvel with them trying to mish-mash every ignored plot point together. It's... it's not the worst superhero TV show seasonal ending I've ever seen, but I still maintain that the show's pretty much focused all of its effort on building up Kamala's community in the first two episodes, and then the Khan family's history in episdoes 4-5. That leaves a lot of the rest of the show to be rather... underbaked, and when we go from the heavily dramatic scenes in the previous two episodes and into the glitzy, wacky-youth stuff in Jersey City and Kamala's high school, it kind of feels rather forced. Or jarring, at least. The fact that all the fancy integration of thoughts and instant messaging all but disappeared in the past three episodes and return in this one also feels rather jarring. 

But, again, the show is still carried by the strength of its characters and their actors. For all the faults of this episode, Kamala Khan herself and most of her supporting cast are still extremely likable. We get to see Kamala break the news to her family -- and in typical Asian family fashion, that damned smartphone speaker means that ammi told abbu and abbu's speaker told everyone else in the house. That's nice, and the fact that big bro Aamir sticks around for the climax is much appreciated. The callback to the first episode with Muneeba and Yusuf telling Kamala that they trust her -- a stark contrast to their attitude to Kamala sneaking out for AvengerCon -- is nice, too. 

We also get this whole episode as essentially Ms. Marvel's first proper superheroing as a superhero, complete with a brand-new costume that Muneeba made for her, and it's pretty triumphantly done. Again, just like what I felt with Daredevil's first season, I'm never a big fan when a superhero TV show stretches out the superhero costume reveal, but at least Ms. Marvel does it well. There really is nothing overly unexpected with the proceedings, it's just nice to see. And we even get Kamala's catchphrase 'embiggen' tossed in there. 

It's just that, just like Najma last episode, the antagonists in this episode are very much underwhelming. There's a distinct similarity to Falcon and the Winter Soldier, I think, when most of the story of what they're trying to tell has dried up at the penultimate episode, and what's left is just the big superhero costume and identity debut. And that's okay. Both shows handled it well, but it also leaves the feeling that maybe with a bit of story editing and ironing, it could've been done better. 

Agent Deever is just super gung-ho and super racist and just a flat caricature of your typical anti-superhero cop ever, refuses to compromise or respect other cultures, and she leads an army of faceless Damage Control goons on something that her partner Agent Cleary didn't authorize. Between Cleary's constantly being the 'good cop' in this situation, her blatant triggerhappiness and her constant refusal to take off her shoes in a place of worship, she really is written to be as flat as possible and while it's certainly on purpose, it does make her unbelievably dull. 

Kamran, meanwhile, is having trouble controling his powers, causing crystals to pop up wherever he touches, and Bruno brings him on the run. We get to visit some of the places and side-characters we've met all throughout the series, including a return to the mosque and the return of characters like Nakia and Sheikh Abdullah. We get a fun scene of the community banding together to help Kamran and Bruno escape, before they meet up with Kamala Khan, decked out in full Ms. Marvel costume and running across the buildings of Jersey City. 

Then we lead into the high school scene, and... and it's okay? It's not my type of humour, but I get where they're going for. I do like that they didn't drag out the make-up between Kamala and Nakia. Aamir shows up because he's been shadowing his little sister, and Zoe Zimmer randomly shows up because she's apparently figured out both Kamala's identity and also has been in the empty school to do her TikToks. And then they basically do all Home Alone on the Damage Control agents on a rather extended scene of running around the school and using things like the science lab and a disco ball to bully the highly ineffective Damage Control troops. Again, a bit jarring considering how super-serious the past two episodes have been, and I guess the humour just didn't particularly land for me? Anyway, they slow down the highly ineffective soldiers that are supposed to be good enough to deal with metahumans (SHIELD they ain't) while Zoe uses the power of social media and TikTok to summon the entire community there. 

Reality ensues (although not as quickly) as Bruno, Aamir, Nakia and Zoe all eventually get arrested by the Damage Control, but because Kamala keeps dragging out the revelation that Najma's dead, Kamran ends up going ballistic and starts using his yellow crystal Noor powers to attack Damage Control while Kamala uses her own powers to try and combat Kamran's. Unlike Najma last episode, though, Kamala talking to Kamran and managing to calm him down makes sense. We've spent enough time with Kamran to know he's not bad, the fact that he's in grief makes sense, and he's clearly good enough friends with Kamala that their shared bond makes it believable for Kamala to talk him down in under a minute. 

Oh, and we get Kamala embiggenning, tossing cars and giant sci-fi cannons around, and creating a forcefield and stuff. It's... it's not super impressive as far as MCU standards go, admittedly, but it's still superhero fun. We get the harrowing moment when Deever actually orders her agents to shoot a teenager and damn, it must be terrifying to be Muneeba and Yusuf in the crowd at that moment. Thankfully, Ms. Marvel has embiggening powers. Anyway, Kamala stalls enough to get Kamran out to safety to where Red Dagger is waiting for him in the harbour, while the community (including the local police and even Agent Cleary in Damage Control's office) all block the way of Deever's goons and protect Kamala. Pretty cheesy, but pretty sweet and fits the tone of the show. 

And then we get a couple of wrap-ups, which I felt was, again, handled much, much better than the action climax because at the end of the day, Ms. Marvel was a show that's much more about the characters. We get a TikTok montage of the Jersey City community appreciating their new local hero, which is nice. We get the nice scene of Yusuf hanging out with Kamala on the rooftop of their house, where we get the payoff to one of Muneeba's friends in Karachi remarking that 'Kamala' is not a typical Pakistani name -- as with the genesis of the character's name in real life, Yusuf says that 'kamal' means wonder in Urdu... or 'marvel'. And then he name drops that Kamala Khan is always their little 'Ms. Marvel'. There we have a superhero name!

After a recreation of one of Ms. Marvel's most iconic comic-book covers, we get Kamala, Nakia and Bruno meeting each other, and in a massive swerve to comic-book fans, Bruno tells Kamala that her Noor-controlling powers isn't just because of her djinn heritage (since Aamir and the rest of her family can't do it) or the bangle... and that there's something unique about Kamala Khan. Something like... a mutation. 

We even get the fucking 90's X-Men cartoon theme playing. 

So yeah. I guess this is MCU finally admitting that, yeah, mutants are the real profitable way here. I guess their attempts to shoehorn the Inhumans down the fandom's throat has finally led them to shrugging and turn Ms. Marvel -- a.k.a. the most and arguably only notable Inhuman outside the original royal family -- into a mutant.

We don't take too much time to dwell on it because Kamala just waves it aside as 'another label', but is that why there has been no hints of Lockjaw or any of the Inhuman stuff? It was an interesting swerve to make her seemingly fully-magical, powered by a bangle or her djinn heritage, but it is a very, very interesting direction they're taking by making Kamala Khan a mutant in the MCU. 

But her mutant heritage isn't probably going to be anywhere on the radar anytime soon, because the mid-credits scene seems to be a scene from The Marvels, with Kamala Khan randomly switching places with a very confused Captain Marvel. 

Anyway, that has been a ride. It's a real shame that Ms. Marvel does remain the least well-performing among the Disney+ shows. It does have some glaring flaws, but honestly? Honestly, I really do enjoy my time through it. It's just kind of a shame -- I think maybe with one extra episode or maybe some cut characters (like the extra Clandestines or the Red Dagger mentor) and some time to develop the side-characters and antagonists, the show could've been much better. But it's definitely fun!

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The post-credits scene, seemingly taken from The Marvels, shows Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel switching places? Or something? Carol Danvers sure shows up in Kamala's room for sure. 
• Kamala says her comic-book catchphrase 'Embiggen', which she usually says when she goes ham on stretching and expanding her body parts.
• 'No Normal', the title of this episode, is the title of Kamala Khan's first trade paperback. 
• In stark contrast to her Inhuman heritage in the comics, Bruno identifies Kamala's ability to use the bangle as being part of a "mutation", which, of course, means that MCU Kamala Khan is a mutant instead of an Inhuman... something that probably raises a lot of waves in the community considering Kamala is widely considered to be one of the only few well-written Inhuman characters during the period of time when Marvel Comics was trying to push Mutants out with Inhumans. 
• When Bruno says that Kamala's powers are due to a 'mutation', a riff of the theme song of the 90's X-Men: The Animated Series (complete with 90's guitar!) plays. 
• Kamala Khan's co-creator G. Willow Wilson appears among the TikTok montage at the tail end of the episode.
• One of the final scenes of the episode is Ms. Marvel sitting on top of a street light overlooking Jersey City, recreating the now-iconic cover for Ms. Marvel #5. 
• Nakia yells out that they're going off to get some Shawarma, a cuisine that has become iconic thanks to its usage as a joke in The Avengers. 

Ms. Marvel S01E05 Review: The Flashback One

Ms. Marvel, Season 1, Episode 5: Time and Again

Okay, questionable disintegration CGI aside, this one is a pretty good episode. Again, I'm not someone that has a particularly high bar in terms of how good CGI looks -- and in fact just roll my eyes at people who constantly bitch about sub-par CGI. (I don't mind Kamala's crystal powers either, unlike half the internet) But I have to admit that the effects of the Clandestines disintegrating into rock and showing pearly-white skeletons within? Now you could chalk that up to different djinn morphology, but nah. In this case, I do have to admit that for the first time in a long, long while, I went 'well, that's just dumb looking'. 

Anyway, I got that out of my system, so let me talk about the rest of the episode. Which is pretty spectacular! Ms. Marvel is strongest, I have said in my previous episode reviews, when it focuses on the stories it wants to tell. In this case, it's definitely the story of the Khan family. And honestly, with the benefit of having watched the next episode, I do really think that this episode offers a much more compelling season finale.

The episode does take around a third of its runtime just giving us the story of Kamala's great-grandmother Aisha, the djinn who found love in a human, the crippled Hasan. The show does a pretty great job at showing us how their love blossomed, and how everything got screwed up by all the political events happening in pre-Partition India. I am readily someone who's not well-versed in that part of history -- in fact, it's only after this show that I've began reading up about it. It's all the British's fault, really, but it's also depressing to see everything happen frm the eye-level of the common folk. The cultural context is very well done, I am sure, but what's done beautifully is how much the theme of family shines through it all. Aisha has left behind her original djinn family and found love with Hasan and baby Sana. And so much of both the present-day Kamala and Sana's motivations are all driven by their own family. It's something that's so lovingly done and feels just so authentic. 

Now it is arguable just how effective spending nearly 20 minutes on Hasan and Aisha, since it doesn't have Kamala in these scenes, and Aisha's death at the end is already set in stone. Perhaps those could be trimmed down a little, or to include a bit more Najma in order to build up this poor, under-developed antagonist and make what she does in the climax a bit more believable. 

But the story about loss and the discussion of finding your own history and all that? That works out amazingly. Yes, the show could have done with a bit more of a superhero comic-book explanation on how Kamala actually traveled in time beyond 'djinn bangle powers' -- and Aisha imparting the bangle to protect baby Sana. Especially since time travel was treated as kind of a big deal in the MCU's primary movies. But presumably Kamala also gets to see the same events being told about Aisha and Hasan that the audience does, and when we cut back to our main heroine, she does seem to feel the same oomph given by the backstory that we did. 

And as Kamala gets transported back in time to 1942, amidst the bustling and confused people on that fateful train station, as Aisha gets stabbed by Najma for her supposed treachery, Kamala puts things into full circle by being the trail of stars that little Sana sees which leads her back to Hasan. The bangle and the mantra of 'what you seek is seeking you' ends up bringing Kamala to the past, allowing her to save her grandmother. 

And then we cut to the present, with the whole space-time rift between our dimension and the djinn's home dimension (is that why Kamala was able to travel to the past?) and we get to see that the veil... is apparently destructive. Oh, hey, Bruno and Kamala's warning about doing some research before broaching the interdimensional borders turns out to be true after all! Fariha, the only Clandestine member left* other than Najma excitedly reaches out towards the way to her home and gets disintegrated in the aforementioned bad CGI death. 

*I am genuinely not sure what happened to the two men, did they die in the action scene last episode? The wikis all list them as deceased...

Kamala uses her crystal forcefield powers to try and contain the veil, while Red Dagger evacuates the civilians. All that's left is Kamala and Najma, and Kamala gives an impassioned speech -- that she has robbed Aisha of her family, and she shouldn't do the same thing to Kamran. Iman Vellani's acting and delivery is good and all, but here's the problem... I just really don't care about Najma as a character. The Khan family, Kamran, Bruno, Nakia? Them, the show does a spectacular job of making me care for them. Najma's just... she's just kind of there. I do feel like the flashback could've devoted a bit more time between Aisha and Najma to build Najma up without compromising on what we got. 

But when Najma end up going "yes I have made a mistake", it feels flat for me. She really does remind me of the Flag-Smashers from Falcon and the Winter Soldier in that the prompt to write them and their backstory is pretty good. In Najma's case, she's someone so obsessed with a single goal that she forgets all about her family, the exact opposite of Kamala's situation. Even when Fariha disintegrates before her eyes, even when she has to leave her son behind, even when she stabs Aisha to death, Najma is only consumed with a single goal. To return to her dimension. That is interesting, right? You could write a whole show just about Najma, even. But we barely know the woman, so when she does her anime-villain death-and-redemption moment, I just shrug. She dies helping Kamala close the rift with her undisclosed powers (again, another complaint is that they could've given these djinn some actual powers) and dies, but the glowing power flies halfway across the world and infects Kamran because we still need some plot for the final episode.

Oh, and Kamran, confused with how the powers has found him (a twisted mirror to how the bangle's powers found Kamala), goes to find Bruno, and as the two of them try and figure things out one of Damage Control's Mysterio drones blows up the house. Oh no!

But it's hard to get mad about how the next episode goes when this episode does end up concluding what I felt has been the most well-done conflict, which is Kamala hiding her superhero identity from her family. Muneeba and Sana, with the joys of the amazingly-delivered line of "spyware for parents", arrive in the alley just to see the back-end of Kamala and Najma's confrontation. 

It's a sweet, sweet and amazingly acted moment between the three actresses as they bond over the fact that, hey, Kamala Khan is that 'light girl', and that everything nani Sana has been saying, all of her crazy theories... are actually true. Kamala gives her nani that photograph from 1942, and we get to see this old family matriarch just crumble as she basically goes back to when she was a scared little child looking for her parents. It's beautiful. And Muneeba? Muneeba, after so long of trying to be the one sane person in her family to try and hold her mother's crazy theories and her daughter's strange escapades, finally manages to understand everything that's going on and they finally bond.

And, hey, as underbaked as his character was, it was nice that the show does treat Red Dagger's exit with some dignity. I was a bit too hard on him last episode and while he won't be anywhere close to being the most memorable thing from this show, having the guest star get a good exit is pretty nice. Kamala even gets Red Dagger's red face-scarf, which magically becomes much longer than it looks on Kareem's face. I guess that became her sash when her costume becomes complete?

Anyway, despite my misgivings with the handling of Najma's character, this episode and the previous one are easily two of the strongest ones in Ms. Marvel. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• A rather obvious one, but when Muneeba picks up Kamala's mangled necklace, it is twisted into the 'S' lightning bolt symbol associated with Ms. Marvel. 

Ms. Marvel S01E04 Review: Out of Jersey

Ms. Marvel, Season 1, Episode 4: Seeing Red

I actually did catch up with Ms. Marvel over my July trip, but I didn't get the chance to actually write reviews for the episodes. Better late than never, right? 

One thing that I do feel the need to mention since I've actually watched all the way to the end of the series is that... there are two stories running together across the six episodes of Ms. Marvel. And you can tell which one the show-writers and directors and actors poured their heart and soul into, and which one is... I don't want to say 'phoned in', because that implies a lack of effort, but it feels obligatory more than anything. And episodes 4 and 5, telling us about Kamala Khan and her family background and how it relates to the India-Pakistani culture and history? That's the strongest part of the show, and the most enjoyable. I don't think that the show does anything drastically monumental or innovative, but it feels genuine and the story being told as episode 4 takes us all the way to Karachi to meet Kamala's grandmother. 

And a lot of the episode is just... scene-setting. Removing literally all of the side-cast other than Kamala and her mother Muneeba is an interesting move that, while odd, does serve to highlight Kamala's journey for the better. Again, the show is strongest when exploring family dynamics, and the dysfunctional and cultural-clash between Kamala and Muneeba; as well as the estranged Muneeba and Sana; while Sana and Kamala bond over their shared mystic-bangle visions? All very well-done. I can't really elaborate all too much about them without essentially recapping the entire episode, and I definitely am not qualified to analyze all the cultural details, but it feels authentic and genuine. All the little passive-aggressive jabs that the three generations throw at each other, the cultural clash over jeans... a lot of great stuff here. One of my favourite lines is Sana talking about her multi-cultural background, and even though she's already a grandmother she's still trying to figure out her own identity -- something that Kamala herself is doing, albeit with regards to her Djinn-derived heritage and powers. 

And after ditching her two nosey cousins (who are much less interesting than grandma Sana), and a short fight with rather forced banter, Kamala stumbles into a group of local superheroes called the Red Daggers. Or, well, two Red Daggers -- the main guy, Kareem, and his mentor Waleed. And... okay, here's where I think one of the biggest criticisms of Ms. Marvel stands. It's something that I felt this show shares with Falcon and the Winter Soldier's Flag-Smashers in that they just keep introducing these small organizations with multiple members, and none of them really do have any personality. I barely remember any of the Clandestines other than Najma and Kamran, and now we have a second group to keep track of. 

Beyond being 'good guys' and vaguely associated with Aisha and the 'good' Noor, the Red Daggers really do feel under-baked, and I feel like other than to provide some (not very impressive) action scenes, all they're good for is to give the exposition about how the Djinn's home realm is layered over the 'physical' realm. It's something similar to Shang-Chi or the first Doctor Strange movie and... I don't know. This one does actually feel randomly shoved in as an explanation. It feels like this is exposition that Bruno or Sana or Najma could've given Kamala, and the Red Dagger sidequest is just something that felt like time-waster that could've been given to developing the still-uninteresting Clandestines. At least Kamala gets some information and bits of what would become her final costume -- embracing the more cultural aspects of what she finds at the bazaar or from Red Dagger, in stark contrast to her rejection of the Hulk cosplay in episode 1. 

Which is where what I mentioned at the beginning of the show becomes relevant -- it's clear that the show-writers care a lot about developing the Khan family and their history. They care about developing the supporting cast around Kamala in Jersey City and making it feel like home. But as far as the more superhero-ey plot part, that's where Ms. Marvel as a show doesn't do so well, I feel. 

Because we jump from the honestly very bland Red Dagger stuff to Muneeba and Sana are interacting at home, with Muneeba going on what Sana calls a 'cleaning rampage', the two of them try to bond over foot massages and toffees and memories of their past... before getting into a verbal spat again over Muneeba's frustrations that Sana refuses to admit that their family were shunned for Sana's "wild stories"... while Sana is also sad because those wild stories are true -- a tragedy that the audience also knows, as a third-person observer. This short scene of two ladies talking in a room ends up being far more engaging to watch than Ms. Marvel and Red Dagger fighting each other, which is... interesting, to say the least. This show is definitely different.

Meanwhile, speaking of superhero-supervillain stuff that should by rights be exciting, the Clandestines escape from Damage Control's prison. And... and I really want to try to care about them, I really do, but none of the Clandestines other than Najma have any personality (or any memorable powers, because after all this is still a superhero show) to speak of, and Najma barely qualifies. She does leave Karman behind because Kamran helped Kamala last episode, and... I don't know. With better buildup for Najma's character I feel like I would care more, but we spend so much time with her false friendliness that when she becomes cartoonishly evil like this, it's really hard for me to care. 

Then we get an action scene, because the Clandestines chase down Kamala and Kareem throughout the streets of Karachi. It's... it's all right. The rickshaws are fun and whatnot, there's a bunch of wanton destruction, but the scene did run on for a bit too long. In the midst of it all, the older Red Dagger Waleed dies fighting Najma. Again, we barely know him and the show brushes his death off so quickly that I'm kind of left wondering if he was necessary at all. Did some of the Clandestines fall this episode, or is that the next one? The ones whose exits are memorable are just Najma and the other lady. But Najma strikes Kamala's bangle with her weapon, and that causes a magical veil-rift that transports Kamala back to the train station in 1947, leaving us with a huge cliffhanger. 

Again... I really do enjoy Ms. Marvel, at least when it's firing on all cylinders when the show actually focuses on what it manages to do very well -- telling the story of Kamala and her long history and culture and family. Everything else is a bit less well-developed, and I think my apathy towards the Red Daggers and the Clandestines really reached its peak in this episode. It really is unfortunate considering how this show already has a lot going against it, but this is a review and I'm still obligated to highlight the weaker parts of the show. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• In the comics, Red Dagger, or Kareem, is a local Karachi superhero that Kamala Khan met when she visited Karachi in Ms. Marvel (Vol. 4) #12. Both the comic and live-action versions of Red Dagger doesn't have superpowers, they just throw daggers. 
• Before fighting with Red Dagger, Kamala was looking for a while at a mural of Ant-Man on the train station wall. 
• During her fight with Red Dagger, Kamala asks him "how do you know I'm not Canadian?" Kamala's actor Iman Vellani actually is Canadian.
• Waleed brings up Thor specifically when he notes that if he had landed in the Himalayas, he'd be called a Djinn as well. 

Ms. Marvel S01E03 Review: Conspiracies Everywhere

Ms. Marvel, Season 1, Episode 3: Destined

After two rather slower episodes of exposition and introduction to Kamala, her little slice of New Jersey and her supporting cast, this episode finally starts to go from the 'comic book superhero origin' part into the 'comic book meets her first supervillain' phase of the movie. And... sure, the actors are very charismatic and the Pakistani community is very charming, but otherwise everything is more or less going by the books. Which, of course, isn't a bad thing -- we've been rather spoiled with how great shows like WandaVision, Moon Knight or Hawkeye played around with the genre and format, but to be fair to Ms. Marvel, most of those shows kind of already had a majority of their cast already introduced so they can jump into the fighty-fight comic book part immediately. Moon Knight is the exception, but that's like, peak superhero television, so I can't begrudge any show for now being able to live up to that. 

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.

Ms. Marvel S01E02 Review: Superhero 101

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. 

Ms. Marvel S01E01 Review: Fangirls Unite

Ms. Marvel, Season 1, Episode 1: Generation Why

That was certainly different! To be honest, I didn't even realize that Ms. Marvel was out because I was under the impression that Disney+ was alternating between Marvel and Star Wars project, so I thought that we were going to have the first season of Obi-Wan Kenobi finish before we get Ms. Marvel. 

And... and I've been aware of Ms. Marvel for quite a while now. As part of Marvel's "All-New, All-Different" soft-reboot-rebrand thing, Kamala Khan has probably been the one 'legacy' character that was universally accepted by almost everyone. There were a lot of characters that debuted alongside her, but I think most people agreed that Kamala Khan not only benefited from being a great jumping-on point for new readers, she was also sufficiently different enough from her hero Captain Marvel that it's not just "X-hero, but [insert ethnicity]". It really does help that the early issues of Ms. Marvel's 2014 comic-book run was genuinely fun, too.

And her first episode is... it's authentic, at least? It doesn't really quite have the same bombastic feel as Moon Knight's first episode, but that's not really fair because they're not really in the same genre. Ms. Marvel takes its time to introduce us to geeky Kamala Khan, who lives in a very conservative Muslim family with strict parents, barely has any friends at school (the Peter Parker parallels are definitely there) and struggles because she's way too much of a daydreamer who fantasizes about more creative stuff instead of being stuck in the humdrum of schoolwork and college applications and the like. It's something that most people can relate with, albeit delightfully seeped in the Pakistani-Muslim culture that is core to the character's identity. 

Kamala is introduced to us retelling the events of Avengers: Endgame through her own YouTube channel, and we get to see that she's a massive dork and fangirl of Captain Marvel, she writes ten-part fanfiction (only ten parts? Amateur!) and has secretly been harbouring a grand plan of... winning the Captain Marvel cosplay competition in AvengerCon.

...and for the most part of this first episode, it's pretty... pretty slow, really. There are some super-powered action in the last five or ten minutes or so because Kamala's grandmother's bangle ends up giving her superpower, but otherwise the episode is content to just focus on Kamala and her supporting cast -- her strict mother Muneeba, her less-strict father Yusuf, her brother Aamir, her best friend Bruno -- plus spending scenes just exploring the family dynamics and the somewhat-suffocating culture around her. As anyone who's lived as part of an ethnic diaspora would know, yeah, this really is what the younger generation feels. Lump it in with Kamala herself being kind of a social outcast at school, having to deal with alpha-bitch-and-closet-Captain-Marvel-fangirl Zoe Zimmer, as well as her well-meaning but demanding teachers, we do really set up a pretty well-done introduction to Kamala and her supporting cast.

A good chunk of this episode is basically just everyone around Kamala telling her to focus on herself and her future, like a good little girl that her parents raised her up to be. And I feel like the show (and the comic it's based on) does a wonderful job at showing just how well-meaning Kamala's parents are, yet how much Kamala feels constricted living with them. Of course, her one deed of rebellion -- running away from home to join the world's first-ever AvengersCon -- ends up giving her far more than she bargained for as she went from a mere cosplayer to... to discovering that the random bangle she found in her attic actually granted her superpowers.

Kamala causes her own crisis and resolves it pretty quickly when her powers activated and caused some large props to break free, almost injuring her classmate Zoe in the process, and she and Bruno proceed to skeedadle from the convention. While her mother gives Kamala an amazingly well-acted dressing down, Kamala realizes that she has access to potentially 'cosmic' powers.

(There's also a mid-credits scene where we get Agent Cleary from Spider-Man: No Way Home, representing the organization Damage Control, who is going to investigate this new emergence of superpowers)

And... and from a comic-book-geek standpoint, they admittedly change a lot of details about Kamala Khan's actual powers. She creates Green Lantern energy constructs now instead of having Mr. Fantastic/Plastic Man stretchy-powers, and instead of being an Inhuman, she gets her power from a mysterious bangle. I... I honestly do genuinely think that the 'Inhuman' side of Kamala's story really isn't super-relevant to her story? It's like that argument on whether Spider-Man's webs comes from web-cartridges or organically created by the spider-bite. It doesn't really bother me in that sense, I guess, and as someone who's read her comics before, Kamala's appeal has always been her character instead of her powers. 

I haven't watched ahead and I might sound a bit like an apologist, but I do wonder if the change to the source of her powers coming from her bangles is going to tie in to the fact that there is a great focus on Kamala's own heritage as she struggles with it, getting visibly irritated at the micro-aggressions when people mispronounce her name, but also getting pissed off when more traditional aspects of it -- like aunties gossiping about how dare a woman would rather travel the world instead of getting married... but at some points also accidentally yelling at how 'humiliating' it is -- a messy web of small things throughout the episode that also overlap a lot with her overprotective parents. 

And I think more than any other Disney+ show except maybe Falcon and the Winter Soldier, this episode does a pretty great job at showing what the world of the MCU is like after Endgame. Merchandise about the Avengers and the Guardians, YouTube channels speculating on whether Thor is secretly a gamer or not, cosplayers (some vastly misrepresenting who they are supposed to be), Scott Lang making a podcast, speculation by the masses about who this mysterious 'cosmic hero' Captain Marvel that shows up, fights in a war and disappears... all very fun stuff, and the general convention vibe feels a lot more authentic and to-the-point for a superhero show compared to Hawkeye's LARP sequence.

Anyway, it's a pretty strong episode. It's very slow, though, and I can understand that people who come in expecting a more bombastic first episode like Moon Knight or Hawkeye might be a bit more disappointed since Ms. Marvel is a bit more by-the-books as far as superhero origins go. But they do a lot of great, stylish things like integrating Bruno and Kamala's texting into the neon lights and road signs in the background, and... I don't know, I just really do enjoy the idea of a fangirl as a main character, I guess? I really do enjoy the awkward-parents-trying-to-be-hip phase of Kamala's parents trying their best to hang out with Kamala with their Big-Hulk-Little-Hulk cringe act. Although I will admit that I kind of zoned out during the actual process of Kamala and Bruno escaping from home to go to AvengersCon. It is a slow but definitely well-done opening act for the show.

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• 
  So many continuity nods to other superheroes -- mainly those in the MCU movies. Kamala gives us an abridged and very Captain-Marvel-biased depiction of the final battle of Avengers: Endgame, and "AvengersCon" gives us cosplayers and artwork of basically everyone who showed up in Endgame.
• Among the artwork in AvengersCon, there's a drawing of Captain America with emphasis on his butt, a nod to the "America's Ass" joke from Endgame. 
• A running gag in his debut movie, in a documentary about Star-Lord, his codename is parsed as "Star-Boy", referencing how no one ever remembers his codename in the two Guardians movies.
• Kamala's Youtube video notes cheekily about a topic on how "Thor is secretly a gamer", which he actually is in Avengers: Endgame.
• Also among Kamala's video, a cockatiel is prominently seen. This, plus a neon sign saying "Edison Electronics" when Kamala is up on the roof, refers to Kamala's first villain in her comic run -- The Inventor, an imperfect bird-man clone of Thomas Edison... who I'm pretty sure isn't going to be adapted into this season.  
• AvengersCon is held in Camp Lehigh, a prominent location in Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I guess they rebuilt it after Hydra blew it up.
• The whole idea of Kamala's powers activating in a convention is a reference in the recent PS4 Avengers game, which heavily features Kamala Khan as well. 
• The mid-credits scene character is Agent Cleary, first seen in Spider-Man: No Way Home, a member of Damage Control.
• In the closing credits, one of the 'Trust a Bro' vans from Hawkeye show up. 
• Kamala covering her butt with a sash is a nod on how the comic-book version of Carol Danvers prominently has a sash around her waist, something she only wore in her brief Endgame appearance. 
• Zoe's cosplay, while clearly inaccurate to the MCU's Captain Marvel, is a mixture of various Carol Danvers looks in the comics -- she has the blue-and-red colours of the modern look that the MCU version borrows from, but her bare legs is taken from Carol's time as Ms. Marvel.
• "Generation Why" is the title of an issue of Kamala's original 2015 comic run.
• A reference to Kamala falling into the Hudson River is a reference to how Kamala's first superhero act is to rescue Zoe from drowning in that river. 
• Gabe Wilson, Kamala's guidance counselor, is named after Kamala's real-life co-creator G. Willow Wilson. The plaque outside of the high school feature other writers and artists from the comics.