Marvel Studio’s newest original series on Disney+, Ms. Marvel, stars newcomer Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel. Ms. Marvel is the first Marvel Cinematic Universe project to star a Muslim superhero, and it has been ensnaring Marvel fans’ hearts despite the controversial power change.
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The first episode of Ms. Marvel debuted on Disney+ amid fan outcry over Marvel Studios’ decision to change Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel’s powers. In Marvel Comics, Ms. Marvel is an Inhuman with polymorphic abilities – or the ability to change her size like Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), stretch like Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, and shapeshift like the mutant Mystique.
However, in the MCU, her powers come not from a Terrigen Crystal but from her Nani’s magical bracelet. Kamala Khan’s new power is cosmic energy projection to make her more like her favorite superhero Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), before they meet on the big screen in The Marvels on July 28, 2023.
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Anonymous internet trolls have taken this criticism as a reason to review bomb Ms. Marvel on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the negative reviews which pulled Ms. Marvel’s audience score down to around 64% at its lowest are also motivated by sexism, racism, and Islamophobia. This is also what happened with Star Wars’ Obi-Wan Kenobi, which streamed on the same days as Ms. Marvel as Moses Ingram plays the Third Inquisitor, Reva, received an onslaught of negative feedback.
However, despite their best efforts, Ms. Marvel now has the highest Average Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes at 97%. It takes the record from Black Panther (2018), which has a rating of 96%. Black Panther was the first Marvel Universe project starring a person of color, King T’Challa/Black Panther, played by the late Chadwick Boseman.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is headed to hit theaters on November 11, 2022, without Chadwick Boseman but will star Letitia Wright as Princess Shuri, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Angela Bassett as Quen Romando, Winton Duke as M’Baku, Daniel Kaluuya as W’Kabu, and Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross. It will introduce Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams/Ironheart and Tenoch Huerta as Namor, King of Atlantis.
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More on Ms. Marvel
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah direct Ms. Marvel for Disney+. It stars Iman Vellani, Aramis Knight as Kareem/Red Dagger, Saagar Shaikh as Aamir Khan, Rish Shah as Kamran, Zenobia Shroff as Muneeba Khan, Mohan Kapur as Yusuf Khan, Matt Lintz as Bruno Carrelli, Yasmeen Fletcher as Nakia Bahadir, Laura Marsden as Zoe Zimmer, Laith Naki as Sheikh Abdullah, Azher Usman, Travina Springer, and Nimra Bucha.
During the production of Ms. Marvel, the hashtag #FixMsMarvel trended when some characters like Nakia Bahadir were whitewashed when Yasmeen Fletcher (Andi Mack) was cast. Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah, Meera Menon and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy will direct Ms. Marvel.
The official description of Ms. Marvel on Disney+ reads:
“Marvel Studios’ “Ms. Marvel” is an original series that introduces Kamala Khan, a Muslim America teenager growing up in Jersey City. An avid gamer and a voracious fan-fiction scribe, Kamala is a Super Hero mega fan with an oversized imagination-particularly when it comes to Captain Marvel. Yet Kamala feels like she doesn’t fit in at school and sometimes even at home-that is until she gets super powers like the heroes she’s always looked up to. Life gets better with super powers, right?”
Let us know in the comments if you think Shah Rukh Khan would be a great addition to the MCU.
You can stream Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and the six series in Marvel’s Phase Four so far — Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany’s WandaVision, Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, Marvel’s What If…?, Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye, and Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight — on Disney+ anytime.