I’ll admit I wasn’t sure they could do it, but I think Ms. Marvel pulled off a finale that brought most of the threads together, introduced some new ones, and made me joy punch the air on several occasions. (They also dropped a couple of giant ideas into the final moments, but I’ll get to those further down.)
“No Normal” was written by Will Dunn and A. C. Bradley & Matthew Chauncey from a story by Dunn, and directed by Adil & Bilall—let’s talk about it!
Recap
Bruno and Kamran are on the lam. As they run through a train, Kamran’s powers begin to manifest again, and Damage Control catches up. Luckily, Kamran’s powers “manifest” by exploding a hole in the side of the train, and the boys escape.
Meanwhile, Ammi is giving the family the gifts she brought back from Pakistan, and Kamala is gathering up her courage to make an announcement. She is…the Light Girl. Night Light. Aamir and Abbu are shocked!
A little too shocked.
“You told you told them already?” Kamala wails at her mother, who protests that she only told Abbu, but then Aamir and Tyesha overheard it because Abbu was on speaker.
UGH, speaker.
They’re all bursting with pride at their superhero, although Abbu has to admit he’s worried she’ll go running into danger. She reminds him that he didn’t raise her to stand aside when people need help, and it’s so sweet I don’t even know where to look, but there’s no time to be overwhelmed with emotion because Nakia’s Facetiming Aamir to get to Kamala to tell her that the Circle Q exploded.
The Khans are going to have to get used to having a working superhero in the family.
But wait! We’re not out of the emotion woods yet. As Kamala’s getting ready to rescue Bruno, Ammi comes in with a gift. It’s Kamala’s final outfit. Once she fits Bruno’s domino mask over her face, she finally fully looks like Ms. Marvel, even if she doesn’t quite have the name locked down yet.
UGH, AMMI.
Bruno brings Kamran meets Nakia at the mosque. He thinks they can seek sanctuary, but as Nakia reminds him, they’re in America—they’re going to need a better plan if they want to hide from a shadowy government agency. Maybe the school? No one’s there on a Saturday. The umma stalls the DODC when they arrive, offering cookies, wisdom, and diversions, with Nakia even inventing a secret boyfriend to throw Agent Deever off.
Sheikh Abdullah stops the boys before they leave to remind them “Just because someone treats you as their enemy, doesn’t give you the right to treat them as yours.” And then he gives them a perfect update to the patented MCU “I’m in disguise” disguise: a pair of baseball caps, one for Bruno labelled “Haram”, and one for Kamran labelled “Halal”.
Kamala finds them in the alley and hugs the crap out of Bruno. She thought the worst when she heard Nakia’s news. (Speaking of, how did they escape?) Kamran has another attack, and tells her he feels like he’s “being crushed from the inside”, but they have to bolt before the DODC catches up. Kamala calls Kimo, pleads with him to offer Kamran shelter, and he reluctantly agrees. Now they just have to get Kamran to the harbor by midnight.
But it’s not going to be that simple, because they’ve barely reached the school before the DODC gets there. Kamala has just enough time to apologize to Nakia for hiding her powers before Zoe Zimmer shows up. She was filming a video in the theater (it has good lighting!) and she wants to help. After all, Kamala saved her life. The show does a fun quasi-Assembled-Avengers spin around the group, and then Kamala outlines her plan!
Except then Aamir shows up to keep an eye on Kamala!
Ammi insisted!
I love you, Ammi.
The plan involves softballs, fire extinguishers, Bruno’s chemistry skillz, skeletons (???), and all of them wearing school hoodies to confuse the agents. And it works! For a while. One of the agents even thinks the target can duplicate himself because of all the be-hoodied kids running around. Kamala tells Bruno that Kamran’s mom died back in Pakistan, and Bruno makes her promise not to tell him until after they’re safe.
I love you, Bruno.
Zoe posts that they’re under attack, and asks her followers to come help. Agent Cleary, who seems to actually understand what the words “damage control” mean, calls Deever to tell her to stand down before they hurt a bunch of kids, but Deever ignores him and escalates. Soon the agents are surrounded by people: Zoe’s crew, the Khans, people from the mosque, the Gyro King, everybody. Inside the school Kamala and Kamran almost kiss, Bruno walks in on them and basically walks into a bunch of agents as a distraction but probably also because he’s got some feelings. Everyone except Kamala and Kamran are caught.
Kamran, of course, figures out about his mother, he and Kamala fight a little bit, and in the swirl of grief and anger he walks out of the school to face off with Damage Control.
Oh, no.
Of course he lashes out and uses his power—which he can barely control—to knock cars over and throw people. And of course Kamala comes out and creates shields, catches the cars, and protects him when DODC agents blast him. She whispers “Embiggen”, grows to a great height, knocks a lot of the weaponry out, and creates a bubble around her and Kamran. Kamran asks what he can possibly do now—he’s not normal, he’ll never be accepted, and he can’t go back to his mother’s world. But Kamala tells him that his mother used her last moments to save this world for him, rather than going back by herself. “She chose you.”
And as far as “normal”? “There is no normal. There’s just us, and what we’ve been given.”
Kamran considers this. Kamala says she’ll distract everyone so he can head for the harbor, and punches a hole in the ground. (Not sure how that’ll work, but I’ll go with it.)
Once the bubble starts to crumble around her, the DODC moves in again, but the community has had enough. They surround Kamala to give her time to escape with her secret identity safe. Even the police join in, and when Agent Deever gets another furious call from Agent Cleary it’s all over.
We cut to a series of TikToks of people who were at the battle. Ice Cream Pizza kid wonders if maybe he was a beta test, and that’s why Kamala broke his leg when she dropped him. The Real Gyro King is happy to demonstrate some of Kamala’s moves. Sheikh Abdullah is excited that his community has their own superhero, but also wants to remind everyone to come for prayer at the mosque. Zoe includes Nakia in her videos now. Kamala gets to watch her community celebrate her, and ugh, I think we’re back in the land of emotion again. We see Bruno drop a note into her locker—he’s wearing a CalTech sweatshirt, so I think he’s made a decision. And Kamran’s tentatively walking into ABC Chinese, where The Red Dagger awaits. And…ah, crap. Kamala and Abbu are gonna have a quiet talk on the roof. I’m doomed.
Abbu just wants to tell her how proud he is of her. He and Ammi didn’t think they’d have a second child, and then she happened, and she was perfect. That’s why they named her Kamala: it means “perfect” in Arabic, but in Urdu it’s more like…”wonder”? Or maybe… “marvel”. She’s their “Miss Marvel.”
And yes, she has the same name as Carol frickin’ Danvers.
We cut to “One Week Later”. Bruno pulls up in Kamran’s sweet ride. He has Nakia with him, and a brief argument breaks out between the three besties over whether the car should stay in its true home, Jersey City, or accompany Bruno to CalTech. But Bruno also has something important to tell Kamala. He looked at her DNA again (nerd!) because Aamir wanted to know if he also had powers (awww, Aamir!) and, well, he discovered something. Kamala’s DNA appears to be…mutated.
And then the classic 90s X-Men theme plays.
AAAAHHHHHH—
But Kamala brushes it off as just another label. Nakia has somehow swiped Bruno’s keys, and leans out of the driver’s side window and says: “Get in losers, we’re getting shawarma”, and reader if the MCU ended right there I’d be fine with it.
But of course it doesn’t—there’s an after-credits. Kamala’s back in her room. Her bangle glows, and as she stares at it she’s sucked through her closet door. And who steps through the Kamala-shaped hole? Carol frickin’ Danvers! Who stares around at what is, essentially, a shrine to her, muttering, “Ohhh, no. No no no no…” until the screen cuts to black and informs us that Ms. Marvel will return in The Marvels.
Cosmic Thoughts!
After going maybe a little too big with the flight to Karachi/battle with the Clandestines, Ms. Marvel brings it all back home this week. We’re back in Jersey City, on the street, watching a bunch of kids work together to help each other, with some help from a loving and supportive community. A lot of this episode was pure fun, especially the Home Alone-esque plan to hold Damage Control at bay, until we were watching Bruno get cold-cocked by a federal agent.
I have to say watching the agents invade first a mosque and then a school, guns blazing, shouting orders—it was a lot.
But until that I thought this episode held an amazing balance of warmth between the Khans, deadpan humor, some more serious moments, and action that felt appropriately BIG without ever overpowering the story. Giving Bruno a scene to tell Kamala not to tall Kamran about his mom was a great choice—again, the show hasn’t made it clear what happened with Bruno’s family, but I liked that after everything he’s looking out for someone who’s just become an orphan. I loved that the writers took time for Kamala to apologize to Nakia, and for Zoe to come back into the fold.
Speaking of Zoe. Softball team, hm? And you think Kamala should be able to talk about her identity only once she’s ready? Noted.
Probably my favorite scene was the gentle standoff between Sheikh Abdullah and Agent Deever. The image of a white U.S. official snapping orders in the face of a brown Muslim is already going to be fraught, and the way the writers kept playing with Agent Deever as an exasperated Karen frustrated by the imam’s quiet moral authority was perfection. And the cookies? How can you turn down Uncle Rasheed’s cookies? They have nutmeg! I love how the writers are completely matter-of-fact about the way a mosque would be treated in the U.S., and they expect all the non-Muslim viewers to keep up.
But OK let me get to the bit I have to yell about: Kamala Khan is a mutant??? An X-Person??? Is THIS how they’re bringing them in??? Is this like the MCU soft-launching a mutant gf on Instagram? What???
AND USING THE THEME SONG????????
Again, AAAAHHHHHHHHH
But of course, Kamala’s right. It will just be another label. I’ve been so taken with Iman Vellani’s performance, and everything she brings to Kamala, that I don’t really care how they define her powers, or how they veer away from the comics, as long as they give her good scripts.
And in the midst of everything else, thanks for the “My Body, My Choice” poster, Ms. Marvel.
OK now about that shawarma thing—a few years ago I wrote a (lengthy!) piece about how everything the MCU has done is an attempt to undo 9/11/01 and heal New York. One of my points was that the Avengers’ choice to go get shawarma as a celebratory post-battle meal was significant, because it read as a pop cultural attempt to push back on the wave of horrific anti-Arabic and anti-Muslim crap of that era. After all, it’s New York, and Stark was paying—they could have gotten any kind of food they wanted. (And, Stark was paying, so seriously they could have gotten any food they wanted, but his whole arc in Iron Man is about being an arms dealer supplying wars in the Middle East, no? Which he renounces and puts into being a force for world peace and sustainable energy?) So, for this show, with its Pakistani-American superhero, with her Arabic name, and her Muslim family, for that show to end with her and her freaking mosque board member bff driving off for a post-battle shawarma feast? Did I yell into my hands a little? Reader I did. Apologies to my neighbors.
As ever the acting here was uniformly excellent. Matt Lintz’s Bruno remains my favorite, with Saagar Shaikh’s Aamir almost bumping him out of the top spot. Wait, what the hell am I saying, Mohan Kapur’s Abbu is my favorite. Or Zenobia Shroff’s Ammi? Or maybe Yasmeen Fletcher as Nakia.
UGH. Who am I kidding, I love them all.
But special shout to the way the writers put Abbu in center stage this week, since Ammi got so much time last week.
I have to say I was worried about how they were going to fit everything into six episodes, and I do think trying to weave the Clandestines, and Partition, and a trip to Karachi, and the Red Dagger all into a story about a Jersey girl coming to terms with her superpowers was a little too much. It would have been nice to stay in Jersey City the entire time, and save the Clandestines and Kamran for season two. But I guess if they’re trying to get Ms. Marvel established before The Marvels they needed to rush a bit, and I really enjoyed what we got.
Favorite Quotes
Bruno: It’s Kamala. She stress-ate a gyro
***
Kamala: You told them already!
Ammi: I only told Abbu!
***
Abbu: Speaker is just very convenient!
***
Nakia: You crazy? You can’t hide in a mosque!
Bruno: Houses of worship are supposed to offer sanctuary!
Nakia: This is a mosque in America!
***
Uncle Rasheed: The secret ingredient is nutmeg.
***
Sheikh Abdullah: I don’t need anyone on my side. I’m not even concerned if God is on my side as long as I am on His side. God is always right.
Agent Deever: I don’t have time for Quranic quotes. Excuse me.
Sheikh Abdullah: Actually, that was Abraham Lincoln?
***
Kamala: Superheroes don’t need chaperones!
***
Kamala: Zoe, you’re on the softball team, right? You and Nakia grab as many balls as you can.
***
Zoe: I think Kamala should be able to tell the world when she’s ready.
***
Kamala: There is no normal. There’s just us and what we’ve been given.
Sheikh Abdullah: Looks like I am now a hot dog! Let us hope this hot dog is halal.
***
Sheikh Abdullah: Come celebrate our own superhero! Free ice cream pizza! …after salah of course.
***
Kamala: I have the same name as Carol frickin’ Danvers???!!!
Abbu: I don’t know who that is.
***
Nakia: Get in losers, were getting shawarma.
Beste Brandmarken wie Viagra, Cialis, Levitra sowie preiswerte Generika. Breites Sortiment an Arzneimittel ist an die individuellen Bedürfnisse der Männer angepasst. Schrittweise Anweisungen erklären, wie die jeweiligen Arzneimittel in Ihrer konkreten Situation eingenommen werden sollen. Halten Sie bitte immer die positive Regel im Hinterkopf. Die erektile Funktion ist eben das, was sie kontrollieren können und kontrollieren müssen. Sind sie fest entschlossen, werden Sie Erfolg erzielen! Unsere Apotheke diskrete-apotheke24.de ist benutzerfreundlich und das erspart Ihnen eine Menge Zeit.
I agree it was a bit much to devote a third of this 6-episode series to Pakistan instead of Jersey City. I wish the season had been longer. But this finale did a good job of grounding it back in the essentials of the comic, even if it did distill a few things to the bare essentials. Ms. Marvel is now Jersey City’s beloved hero, Zoe is on her side and closetedly flirting with Nakia, etc.
The costume looks great, though I wish there’d been a bit more explanation of how Muneeba whipped it up/obtained it so quickly. I like how they reinterpreted the lightning bolt as more of a colored ribbon, since in this version it’s not an homage to Carol Danvers’s old Ms. Marvel costume.
Also great that Kamala’s heroism was so strongly focused on protecting people rather than fighting people. And I love the bit where she stopped to wait for the green light, even though she was hovering dozens of feet off the ground. The MacGyvered defenses against DODC in the school were a lot of fun too. The oobleck was my favorite. (That’s what it’s called, right?)
And yes, we got in an “Embiggen” at last. I wasn’t sure that would happen. It looks kind of weird with only the arms and legs growing, but that’s sometimes the way it’s done in the comics.
I realized that every episode of the series is named after a story arc/trade paperback collection of the Ms. Marvel comics, except for “Seeing Red,” which is named for a short story that appeared in a comics anthology.
It’s interesting that pretty much the entire core cast is in on Kamala’s identity and helping her out with her heroics. I don’t think the circle of secrecy in the comics is quite that wide.
I find it a bit surprising that “Ms.” seems to be pronounced “Miss” by a lot of people these days. When “Ms.” was introduced, the whole point was to be a marriage-neutral alternative to “Miss” and “Mrs.,” the idea being that women shouldn’t have to define their identity by marital status any more than men do; so the difference in pronunciation was emphasized.
So… Kamala’s the first official MCU mutant (at least in the “home” MCU universe). It makes sense in a way. She was introduced as an Inhuman at a time when the comics were really trying to play up the Inhumans as an alternative to mutants, because of Fox holding the movie rights to mutants. But now Disney has assimilated Fox and the rights are back with Marvel, and the MCU is using Ms. Marvel to usher in the mutants in much the way the comics used her to promote the Inhumans.
And yes, the music credits at the end actually credited the composers of the ’90s X-Men TV theme. I wish the modern Star Trek shows would do that when they quote TOS themes.
The post-credits scene of Kamala swapping places with Carol may have been an intentional echo of the comics, where the first manifestation of Kamala’s shapeshifting power had her transform into a duplicate of Carol Danvers, her hero. That couldn’t work with her entirely different power set here, but they found a way to do something reminiscent of it.
The Pakistan episodes were both interesting, but I was glad to get back to Jersey City and most of the supporting cast for the finale.
(And the sonic cannon callback to The Incredible Hulk, and then Kamala checking on the operators after trashing it, and then sighing when they call her Miss Night Light.)
Excellent Series finale, didn’t expect them to launch Mutants into the MCU through this show but I think it worked and the classic 90s X-Men theme was a nice touch in the background,
Iman Vellani Has been excellent in this series with a real star making performance and held the show together though it’s ‘Karachi time travel’ mid season wobble so I was also glad we got back to Jersey City where the initial delightful opening episodes we’re set for the finale.
Agent Deever being outsmarted at the Mosque was very cathartic and she gives herself away when commenting on the ‘wrong people having powers’ before walking it back saying she meant Kids.
The post credit scene makes me wonder if the MCU is going to link the bangle to the 10 rings as it seems to be what brought Carol through to Kamarla’s room and the last time we saw Carol was in the post credits of Shang Chi when investigating the rings with Bruce Banner.
I would give this series a strong 8 out of 10 and restores my faith in Marvel a bit having been so disappointed with. Love and Thunder in the cinema earlier this week
@@.-@ /Chadefallstar:
The post credit scene makes me wonder if the MCU is going to link the bangle to the 10 rings as it seems to be what brought Carol through to Kamarla’s room and the last time we saw Carol was in the post credits of Shang Chi when investigating the rings with Bruce Banner.
I’ve assumed that was the route they’re going, too. And is a nice mystery of how this tech ended up on Earth — and who created it.
High Evolutionary? Beyonders?
@5/Mr. Magic: “And is a nice mystery of how this tech ended up on Earth — and who created it.
High Evolutionary? Beyonders?”
In the flashback, when the Djinn discovered the bangle in the temple, it was around a severed blue arm, suggesting the Kree. Although you’d think the Kree would make more sense if they’d kept the Inhuman angle.
07 / CLB:
Although you’d think the Kree would make more sense if they’d kept the Inhuman angle.
Oh, yeah, good point.
I’m personally ambivalent about the Inhuman-to-Mutant change for the reasons outlined earlier (it never really played a major part of her character long-term and a byproduct of Ike Perlmutter’s corporate vindictiveness and greed).
I just hate how much long-term damage the Inhumans push did to the IP (both in the MCU and the comics). They’re not my personal favorite corner of the 616 Universe, but they are a classic piece of the mythos and Perlmutter really screwed the pooch.
Ms. Marvel has been sort of a strange experience; even the Spider-Man movies haven’t been so focused on the family and community life of a person (a kid!) in the MCU. All of that stuff is pretty delightful; sometimes maybe a little too delightful. I understand why they sanded off a lot of the edges and difficulties of Kamala’s personal life, but those problems were part of what made the original comics pop so much. Still, it’s worth those sacrifices to see characters like this in the MCU.
I’m a lot less sold on the superheroey stuff. The Clandestine stuff all was a bit of a letdown, and while the attack on the school was… um… interesting… it also was a window into where Marvel struggles most: making any of this feel like it could actually be taking place in the real world. I get that the Home Alone antics of Ms. Marvel’s crew was supposed to be charming, but the sight of a heavily armed intrusion into a school in 2022 is even more distressing than the Jedi Temple sequences from Obi-Wan.
For a very, very brief moment when those Damage Inc. thugs catch Bruno, we get a glimpse of what heavily armed thugs would actually do to kids in a high school: break their bodies. It’s a mercy I guess that they cut away from this and everyone seems fine at the end, but it feels false. Just as false is when the street police line up against the Damage Inc. officers–in 2022, this feels more incredible than Nega Bands and mutants.
@1: I find it a bit surprising that “Ms.” seems to be pronounced “Miss” by a lot of people these days.
And indeed, the title card for the fifth episode [1] spelled it “मिस”, using the consonant for /s/ rather than /z/.
[1] Along with a ton of other scripts used in the subcontinent, many of which I can recognize but none of which I can really read.
Great finale to a great series that captured all the energy and charm I enjoyed in the original comics. I was glad they worked out a way for Kamala to “embiggen” with her new power set.
And the post-credits scene was a callback to the days when the former Captain Marvel (the male, Kree one) was trapped in the Negative Zone and used nega-band bracelets to swap places with the ubiquitous Marvel sidekick Rick Jones. Maybe Kamala’s bangle has a Kree connection after all.
I mean, this isn’t the comic. It does go to many of the same places. Is it okay that it’s not the comic? Mostly it’s okay… for me, it depends on whether the comic goes on being itself or whether this reality replaces it… like red shoes in “The Wizard of Oz”.
I like when comics characters see their own movie and make fun of what it got “wrong” and then go back to what they’re doing.
But with Kamala Khan, one version of Kamala will be superhero fan fiction written by the other one. Or both! Holy Flash of Two Worlds!
@10: ……I understood that reference.
But only when you referenced it just now.
@@.-@ “The post credit scene makes me wonder if the MCU is going to link the bangle to the 10 rings as it seems to be what brought Carol through to Kamarla’s room and the last time we saw Carol was in the post credits of Shang Chi when investigating the rings with Bruce Banner. “
This connection is what had me putting my money on a cameo from Wong in the post-credits of Ms. Marvel. Feige said the direction of the MCU will be clearer as we near the end of phase 4. I think these two credits scenes are the bigger keys to that direction. I’m glad we didn’t get a retread of the Shang-Chi credits scene here (which having Wong would have been) and this credits scene was delightful.
Maybe Mom ordered the costume from Etsy?
I guess they’re trying to have their cake and eat it too. They’re referencing her original Inhuman origin by having the bangle come from the Kree. They’re tying her powers to her heritage by making her part djinn (1/8th?) and they’re throwing in the mutant angle because that’s what they wanted to do in the first place.
Everybody’s happy!
But anyway I liked this show. I didn’t realize it was only going to be 6 episodes long (last week felt like a mid-season finale) but I’m pleased with how they ended it, which was by avoiding a big power battle for the most part and instead have her focused on saving people.
Like the main post & several commentators, I thought the middle episodes lagged: but within moments of episode 6 starting I remembered why I loved the first few so much. It’s not just Kamala, great as she is: it’s her whole community, and all the other characters. (I love the positive reactions of the community, how they tried to protect her, etc.) And the marvelous way they play with superheroes being an in-universe phenomenon (like the scene with her family asking questions). That was the heart of the show. I think the clandestines/Pakistan/partition plot was just too much. I like seeing her family, her friends, her mosque, her city. That was what I was there for.
I’m delighted they stuck the ending & I look forward to her movie with Carol Danvers!
I’m not sure how the bangle fits in, but the rings I understand. In the comics, the rings go on fingers. They also do so in the MCU, just that it’s Galactus’s fingers
Oh, the comments about Pakistan are so interesting…
For someone from an immigrant community, the home country is an integral part of the identity. It’s not the whole identity, but it’s such a vital part of what makes the family and community what it is that it would be incomplete not to at least deal with it..
This episode’s villain was far more convincing than last week’s. It does make sense to monitor people with powers (and Kamran is clearly not in control of his and does look scared of the damage he could inflict upon people) yet the way it’s portrayed looks appropriately disgusting. Deever’s biases are very well highlighted (that scene of the people in the mosque immediately showing their ID was perfect) without making her a caricature, and she only goes over the top when caught in the fire of the action: it’s really bad, but believably so. And even then, her boss, who is not in the heat of the action, doesn’t lose his sense of perspective and realises attacking a school is a terrible look and demands that she stops. I think the message works better when the villain is just as bad as the thing they represent, and no more.
I think Kamala doesn’t understand the purpose of the mask, considering how often she’s in costume with her face naked. Then again, her family called her by her name so many times in the crowd, it doesn’t seem like secret identity is much of a concern.
Regarding the hoodies, there is precedent concerning Inhumans with duplication power in the MCU: Alisha Whitley in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The agent still sounds stupid for suggesting this as his first explanation.
So ice cream pizza is becoming a thing!
Like everyone else here, I’m glad to see the show back in Jersey City. Unity of time, unity of place, and unity of action are still a good idea, even more than 2 millennia after Aristotle.
I had trouble with my suspension of disbelief, though, in that none of the unmasked normal people seem to be facing serious consequences for resisting arrest, assaulting law enforcement officers, etc. In the real world, they’d likely all end up doing hard time.
@16/Gwangung: “For someone from an immigrant community, the home country is an integral part of the identity. It’s not the whole identity, but it’s such a vital part of what makes the family and community what it is that it would be incomplete not to at least deal with it..”
Well, sure. Of course they should’ve dealt with it. It’s just that with only 6 episodes, the Jersey City stuff got short shrift. The solution would not have been to remove the Pakistan stuff, but to add more Jersey City episodes, to make it longer than 6 episodes overall.
I mean, yes, of course the home country is important, but what’s integral to Kamala’s character, and to the statement that the comics make by telling her stories, is that she’s the American-born child of immigrant parents. She values her Pakistani heritage, but Jersey City is her birthplace, her community. She’s very much a “friendly neighborhood” hero in the tradition of Spider-Man, but if anything has even stronger ties to her neighborhood and her school. It would’ve been nice to spend more time solidifying that before jumping to Pakistan for two weeks.
@18/robertstadler: “I had trouble with my suspension of disbelief, though, in that none of the unmasked normal people seem to be facing serious consequences for resisting arrest, assaulting law enforcement officers, etc. In the real world, they’d likely all end up doing hard time.”
During the “One Week Later” time jump, they met with a very good lawyer named Matt Murdock… ;)
I figured it out almost right away — context — but it sounded to me like Bruno said Kamala ate a euro.
I’m apparently the only person who didn’t recognize the X-Men theme. The cartoon suffered so much in comparison to the contemporary Batman: The Animated Series and the source comics (in my opinion) that I never got into it, although I surely would have regardless had I been younger.
I like this variation on the embiggening. While elastic/stretch abilities work all right in the comics they usually look too silly in live-action drama and the fact that Kamala’s oversized limbs are really sheaths made of her Noor energy that extend from her “normal” body totally saves it visually for me.
I’d say the post-credits scene reinforces the idea that the bangle is a Nega-Band. Some time after Marvel’s original Captain Marvel changed his costume and expanded his power set he spent a period swapping places on Earth with a human teenager named Rick Jones via the bands — an homage to the very first hero of that name* being transformed into young Billy Batson, and vice versa, by the magic word “Shazam!” [*created at Fawcett; in publishing limbo when Marvel laid claim to the trademark with a new character; eventually acquired by DC] — with the other banished to the Negative Zone. Later both got to live their lives wearing one Nega-Band each. Which doesn’t mean the bangle isn’t Ten Rings adjacent. The Noor dimension could also be related to, or conflated with, the Negative Zone in the MCU, bringing them all together.
I’m really curious what if anything specific the rise of mutants will stem from and whether Kamala’s is the first generation to exhibit such mutations. While both are traditionally stationed in the New York area, Bruno’s CalTech stint could possibly bring him into contact with Charles Xavier or Reed Richards. I just hope they’re professors and not fellow students.
@16 and @19: I agree about wanting more time in Pakistan – especially since Kamala now has this stronger connection to Aisha and her Nani! I just ended up feeling like that part of the story was rushed, and I would’ve loved to spend more time there – I wish they’d either created a two-season arc to deal with the Clandestines, or at least given us another couple episodes to relax into the story they were telling. But also I think I just want to spend more time with them in general, because I love all these characters so much.
I plumb forgot to repeat my praise for this delightful cast and the show’s visual stylings from earlier posts, but it bears saying again. Yes, I wish the season had been longer — for reasons of pacing and, selfishly, just getting more. Overall though it put to rest any concerns I had and really triumphed.
My one quibble is with Kamala’s secret. Others have pointed out that the civilians seemed to get off lightly in the end and surely the community would be under surveillance even if the specific identities of Aamir, Bruno, Zoe, and Nakia weren’t logged while they were in custody. Kamala going out to patrol from her bedroom window and using her powers in everyday garb “one week later” are even harder to swallow than the success the kids had against Damage Control at the high school. Outright fantastic elements are much easier to suspend disbelief over than stuff we can equate with real life.
I did really like the time in Pakistan, so I have no complaints about that. I AM surprised at how quickly the Clandestine plot was resolved – like, apparently, that was basically it. I really thought Najma had some other trick up her sleeve, but I guess not. But I am so glad the rest of the family will be seen again int he Marvels too.
I felt all smooshy inside at the fact that her mom made her costume and her dad inspired her name.
I think everybody got most of what I wanted to say (I love the little bit of musical storytelling) regarding mutants and whatever was going on in the stinger (I’m still a little confused but my first gut instinct is that it was connected to the Ten Rings and maybe Captain Marvelw as studying it and they swapped places somehow).
The shwarma thing was perfect for all the reasons mentioned.
The only things that took me out was a few of those real-world intrusions which a few people have already commented on. Would Damage Control really have pulled their punches? (Yeah, we see them get manhandled a bit but honestly I would expect much worse). Would the cops actually stand against them? I can maybe see why nobody actually got arrested because presumably that was part of the other agent ‘cleaning up’ the mess.
Which makes me wonder what – Deever aside (and yeah I definitely did yell BITCH TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES at one point) who clearly had another layer of suspicion/bias – what is Damage Control’s usual purpose and function? In Homecoming they seemed primarily interested in just cleaning stuff up and keeping dangerous artifacts out of the public (at least, that was their stated intent), although they were huge assholes about it. Who actually controls them/runs/funds them? Whose authority are they under? (If this has been answered in a different movie, I don’t remember – I remember them showing up in some of the Spider-Man movies but my memory is fuzzy. I know they were interrogating Peter but that’s it.)
But the other thing that is kind of an interesting discussion point (for me) . There really is no reason to worry about Kamala (aside being aware that, hey there is a superpowered person in New Jersey, that might come in handy if we need some help or if a bunch of crazy shit starts happening) or for them to assume any hostile intent on her part This seems to be where Deever seems to be approaching it from, and why the DODC is starting off on dodgy ground, ethically, as they seem to be assuming that she is a threat that needs to be actively monitored, Deever especially fueled by additional racist bias. Maybe she has the Zemo-philosophy as it pertains to superpowered beings in general anyway, but it’s clearly not just that with Kamala specifically (and again, she is flagrantly disrespectful of their religious practices). The worst that can be said about Kamala is that she lost control of her powers at the con and indirectly endangered others, but it’s reasonable to assume it was not intentional especially given that she saves Zoe. At most you might want to find her just so you can hook her up with others that could help her control it. Then she pretty clearly saves the shoe thief, and even if it wasn’t a perfect save, it clearly wasn’t due to malice.
Kamran is a little fuzzier, though. He was last scene in the company of a bunch of superpowered people who were attacking a wedding with the intent (or at least lack of concern about) of killing everybody there and assaulted at least one staff member. We know Kamran was innocent (not that I think DoDC was super concerned about ascertaining that or about due process, or about the collateral damage their MURDER DRONES cause, which to me seems to be the exact opposite of ‘damage control’ but ok) but then he not only escapes, but aids the escape of people that do intend (and cause) additonal harm.
Which actually makes Zoe’s tiktok plea kind of an interesting thing. It definitely shows how social media can be used to expose/call to light injustices that were too easily swept under, which is the function it serves in this show, but at the same time, it’s not like all the people seeing it really have the full perspective one way or the other. What does the average person even really know or think about what is going on? I just always get kind of existential about what I would do/think if I were the NPC and only had partial information and how would I be able to ascertain the truth of a situation? DODC is clearly dodgy, but what would be the right way to deal with it? What does a reasonable agency look like?
I wonder of DoDC will become a precursor to some type of ‘mutant registration act’ type thing though as they seem pretty interested in surveiling all of that.
I also wonder what wil happen (if they follow up on it) with Kamran or Kimo – I do hope he took Kamala’s words to heart (and I was worried on his behalf it was a trap by Red Dagger and that would be the big ending twist) but I could also see it going elsewhere if he still has his mom’s influence in him somehow, OR, if he feels like the Red Dagger(s) don’t trust him fully since he clearly already feels like he’s not accepted. But I really liked the Shiekh’s words to him as well.
Not enough Lockjaw, the only Inhuman that matters. Also I want five minute mini-episodes with the Jersey crew. No heroics just cast interaction. I want Abbu to bring Bruno a home cooked meal at the Circle Q and sneaking junk food. I want Kamala to meet Bon Jovi and not know who he is. I want the whole cast teaching Kamala to drive.
@25 While it doesn’t come up much, is there any reason to think the Sokovia Accords are no longer in force? Odds are all enhanced individuals are already supposed to register as a matter of course, though enforcement is likely uneven.
Of course they could explicitly say it was dropped during the Blip after it became obvious that the effort was kind of pointless. (Since it won’t restrain supervillains measurably and barely restrains heroes- Accords super-advocate Tony Stark violated them within days of signing.) Only to try again with Mutant Registration because “this time it’s different!”
@26 In “DC Superhero Girls” – female hero characters (well, these ones) are all teenaged and at one high school in Metropolis – there’s an episode where Diana – Wonder Woman, later if not now – takes a driving test. Technically, no heroics occur. The title is “Crash Course”.
So, regarding the Kamala is a Mutant controversey, co-creator Sana Amanat herself has weighed in.
Ironically, she’s revealed 616-Kamala was initially conceived as being a Mutant when she and G. Willow Wilson were developing the character back in 2012. This of course would change with Perlmutter’s Inhumans push.
So, MCU Kamala being a Mutant is thus a Mythology/Development Gag (to use TV Tropes parlance) and ironically has come full circle with the original ideas for the character.
Hmm… It occurs to me that it’s a common pattern to introduce the X-Men through the eyes of a novice student, usually female — Jean Grey in the first comic, Kitty Pryde in the first animated pilot, Jubilee in the ’90s animated series, Rogue (and Wolverine) in the movies, Nightcrawler in X-Men Evolution. I could see the MCU using Kamala the same way, with the advantage that it’s a character we already know and relate to.
@25. SHIELD. A reasonable agency would look like SHIELD. Coulson would never have made a mess like this.
Pity the MCU lost them the same time they lost the Inhumans.