tek's rating: ½

Ms. Marvel, on Disney+
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Caution: spoilers.

Kamala Khan is a 16-year-old Pakistani-American Muslim girl from Jersey City, who is a major fan of the Avengers, and especially Captain Marvel. She wants to attend a convention called AvengerCon, but her parents, Muneeba and Yusuf, don't want her to go (especially her mom). She also has an older brother named Aamir, who is preparing to be married to a woman named Tyesha. Anyway, Kamala sneaks out of the house on the night of the convention to go with one of her best friends, Bruno Carrelli. Kamala enters a Captain Marvel cosplay contest, along with which she wears a bangle that had belonged to her grandmother, Sana, who lives in Karachi, Pakistan. (It originally belonged to Sana's mother, Aisha.) The bangle gives Kamala access to super powers, which appear to come from within her, which comes as a complete surprise. At the convention, Kamala saves the life of a girl named Zoe Zimmer, who is a social media influencer. Kamala goes viral, and people start calling her "Night Light", a name she really doesn't like (but it won't be until the season finale that she gets the name Ms. Marvel). At the end of the first episode, there's a mid-credits scene with a couple of Department of Damage Control agents, Cleary and Deever, watching a video of Kamala from the convention, and in the coming episodes, Deever oversees a search for Kamala. Aside from Bruno, Kamala's other best friend is Nakia Bahadir, who runs for (and eventually wins) a position on their mosque's board. It's some time before she learns that Kamala is "Night Light", and is upset that Kamala didn't tell her.

During the series, Kamala works on figuring out her powers, which involve emitting energy that crystallizes. She can use this in various ways, including creating stepping stones for her to run across the air, and making elongated arms/fists, among other things. She also meets a boy named Kamran, whose mother, Najma, is a member of a group called the Clandestines, who come from the Noor dimension, to which they wish to return. (I guess "noor" is also the name for the energy Kamala uses.) Kamala also learns that the Clandestines are Djinn, and that her great-grandmother, Aisha, was one of them, though the rest of the Clandestines lost track of her many years ago, during the British occupation of India. They hope Kamala can use her power to open the veil between worlds, but Bruno determines that this could be dangerous. When Najma learns that Kamala is hesitant about helping them, she tries to force the issue, and the Clandestines attack her. But they end up being captured by the DODC. In episode four, Kamala and her mother visit Sana in Karachi, after a vision Kamala and Sana both had of the train that Sana and her father, Hasan, had left India for Pakistan on when Sana was a young girl, during the Partition of India. (Sana knows about the powers of the bangle, but Muneeba and the rest of Kamala's family don't learn about it until the finale.) While in Karachi, Kamala meets a group called the Red Daggers, including a teenage boy named Kareem. He takes her to the Red Daggers' leader, Waleed, who tells her more about the Noor dimension. The Clandestines escape from prison and go to Karachi, where they again get into a battle with Kamala, who ends up being transported back in time to the day Sana left India. Episode five is set during the years leading up to that day, and we get to know Aisha and Hasan. At the end of the episode, Bruno and Kamran are attacked by a DODC drone, setting up episode six, in which they flee from the DODC. Kamala and her mother return home, and Kamala helps Kamran and Bruno, leading to a standoff of Kamala, Kamran, and their friends against the DODC.

Well, I think I've said more than I wanted to, but I don't know how I could have left any of it out. I am leaving out a fair bit, though, and I don't want to say how it all ends, except that it is a happy ending. Then there's a mid-credits scene the nature of which I don't want to spoil. Anyway, the show has a fan's sensibility and imagination, which is cool. And it was good seeing parts of Kamala's cultural heritage and history. I think that helped make this one of the best Marvel Disney+ series yet (though of course it also triggered a lot of racist, Islamophobic haters). And I think Kamala herself is a pretty geeky-cool character. The family dynamic was also really good. And I don't know what else to say, except I hope there will be a second season. For now, I look forward to Kamala's upcoming appearance the movie "The Marvels".


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Marvel Cinematic Universe
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Phase One: Iron Man * The Incredible Hulk * Iron Man 2 * Thor * Captain America * The Avengers
Phase Two: Iron Man 3 * Thor: The Dark World * Captain America: The Winter Soldier * Guardians of the Galaxy * Avengers: Age of Ultron * Ant-Man
Phase Three: Captain America: Civil War * Doctor Strange * Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 * Spider-Man: Homecoming * Thor: Ragnarok *
Black Panther * Avengers: Infinity War * Ant-Man and the Wasp * Captain Marvel * Avengers: Endgame * Spider-Man: Far from Home
Phase Four: Black Widow * Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings * Eternals * Spider-Man: No Way Home *
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness * Thor: Love and Thunder * Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Phase Five: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania * Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 * The Marvels
short films: Marvel One-Shots
TV: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. * Agent Carter * Inhumans * Cloak & Dagger
Netflix: Daredevil * Jessica Jones * Luke Cage * Iron Fist * The Defenders * The Punisher
Hulu: Runaways * Helstrom
Disney+ (P4): WandaVision * The Falcon and the Winter Soldier * Loki * What If...? * Hawkeye * Moon Knight * Ms. Marvel * I Am Groot *
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law * Werewolf by Night * Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
Disney+ (P5): Secret Invasion * Loki s2