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Credit: Marvel StudiosMs. Marvel is the newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Disney+, with the first episode premiering on Wednesday.
Fans have had quite the journey bringing Marvel Comic’s most famous Muslim superhero to the MCU, complaining about controversial changes to Ms. Marvel’s powers. Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) is an Inhuman who goes through Terrigenesis and gains polymorphic shape-shifting abilities, but in the MCU, these powers have been swapped for sparkly constructs that make her more like her favorite superhero, Carol Danvers a.k.a. Captain Marvel (Brie Larson).
Related: ‘Ms. Marvel’ Star Reveals What She Hates Most About Joining the MCU
Khan’s best friend, Nakia, is played by Yasmeen Fletcher. Some Muslim fans have taken issue with this casting, as Fletcher is half-white and a Christian. In the Marvel Comics, Nakia is a devout Turkish Muslim who wears a full hijab.
In the Marvel Comics, Kamala Khan is Pakistani-American and her powers are a metaphor for how she feels growing up in Jersey City as a Muslim girl.
Ahead of the series premiere on Disney+, Ms. Marvel was review-bombed on RottenTomatoes, with an average 64% audience score. Twitter user @starkzayob49 shared a screenshot of the site, writing:
Review bombing has begun!(the show haven’t even aired)Rtwt so that everyone would know that the show is/will get criticized not on the basis of the story or acting but purely bcz some mfs has prejudice against #MsMarvel let us not make another #Reva situation
Review bombing has begun!(the show haven’t even aired)Rtwt so that everyone would know that the show is/will get criticized not on the basis of the story or acting but purely bcz some mfs has prejudice against #MsMarvel let us not make another #Reva situation pic.twitter.com/UDW5ODtulO
— EreinionGchad (@starkzayob49) June 8, 2022
The Marvel fan referenced recent racist reaction to Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022), a Disney+ original series in which Moses Ingram plays the Third Inquisitor, Reva, and the newest villain in the Star Wars universe.
Once the series officially premiered, the average audience score shot up to an 87% as of noon on Wednesday.
Fans were still frustrated with the review-bombing, arguing that it shouldn’t be possible for reviewers to pre-judge a show that hasn’t released. Many fans cited sexism, racism, and Islamophobia as the reasoning for the review-bombing.
Twitter user @cheezyvIRL wrote:
Bruh the review bombing better niy be because of racists and islamaphobes
Another fan, @heavensrun, replied:
Of *course* it is.
Of *course* it is.
— Jason Heavensrun (@heavensrun) June 8, 2022
Fan reaction to the first episode of Ms. Marvel is overwhelmingly positive, and Marvel-lovers are already looking forward to next week!
More on Ms. Marvel
Ms. Marvel follows Moon Knight (2022) starring Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke as the most recent addition to the MCU. The show premieres every Wednesday on Disney+. From Disney:
Marvel Studios’ “Ms. Marvel” is an original series that introduces Kamala Khan, a Muslim American teenager growing up in Jersey City. An avid gamer and 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?
What do you think of the first episode of Ms. Marvel? Let us know in the comments!