Ms. Marvel Series Review & Summary: Iman Vellani is the Breakthrough MCU Needed

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Video Source – Marvel Entertainment (Marvel Entertainment YouTube Channel)

The latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Ms. Marvel. The series released on 8th June 2022 and is the origin story for Ms. Marvel. Produced by Kevin Feige and created by Bisha K. Ali.

Ms. Marvel Series Cast

  • Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel)
  • Matt Lintz as Bruno Carrelli
  • Mohan Kapoor as Yusuf Khan
  • Zenobia Shroff as Muneeba Khan
  • Saagar Shaikh as Aamir Khan

Ms. Marvel Series Plot

Kamala Khan is a Muslim American girl from Jersey City. Kamala is a Super Hero big fan with an enlarged imagination, especially when it comes to Captain Marvel. She is an enthusiastic gamer and a voracious fan-fiction scribe. Kamala, on the other hand, feels out of place at school and sometimes even at home—until she gains superpowers like her idol, Captain Marvel.  

Ms. Marvel Series Review

Ms. Marvel Series Review

The twelfth instalment of the Marvel Phase 4 released recently. Though I am truly grateful for this continuous stream of content from Marvel, I do miss the wait. The tension. The emotional mess that the wait for a new Marvel production would give. Humans are vicious creatures because till it isn’t there anymore, we don’t understand the value. I know, we are evil. If Marvel took a break and didn’t release anything for two or three months, I probably will bite the ears off people with excitement for the next one. That has not been the case though. Phase 4 has been a constant supply of Marvel and it probably has raised expectations about each of their projects. Audience no longer gets entertained by the smallest things.

Not to sound ungrateful, but they need to pace themselves. I have still not processed Moon Knight, after which I have the awful Morbius to deal with and then there is Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness to theorise over. Marvel franchise is powered by overthinking nerds who, if not given time, will not be able to do their best and scrutinise every detail. Give us the excruciating wait. We love to hate it. Keep this as a disclaimer because Ms. Marvel was a great show but just not entertaining and up to the really high mark.

Ms. Marvel is the perfect series for Marvel to redeem their disappointing representation of the South Asian Representation in Eternals. They had missed the mark there as soon as they played Arabic music for a Bollywood number. For that reason, I had my reserves this time around too. Fortunately, representation wise, they went above and beyond.

The speculations and the excitement over the cast release of the series had well preceded their plot theories. Names like Fawad Khan, Farhan Akhtar and Mohan Kapoor are prominent in Indian Subcontinent which was a key demographic that needed to be appeased. Iman Vellani who plays the pivotal role of Kamala Khan is also from Pakistan which is why the expectations of proper representation increased. In addition to that, Moon Knight had done a great job in bringing the Egyptian culture authentically on screen.

While it is important to note that some of their household quips were a little excessive, the heart is in the right place. I don’t know any father who enters the room screaming, Chat de Phatte but it isn’t completely off their capabilities. They have to be a little on the nose so that the non-brown people watching know that it is a brown family. They also did not make a medley out of all cultures known to exist in the subcontinent (cough, Bridgerton, cough) and have stayed pretty on track with the Muslim culture throughout.

Coming to the show, the first shot itself was reassuring of the quality. There have been mixed reviews about Marvel’s graphics and animations in the recent productions. From the looks of the first episode there seems to be a consensus that this series has nailed their animations. As Kamala Khan is a huge fan of the Avengers, she has a fan page dedicated to them where she releases shorts and doodles. She primarily dreams about a fantasy magical world and thus her reality merges with it. The series uses animations to bring Kamala’s mind in front of the audience.

Iman Vellai is the best part of the series. She made a lasting impression from her first shot. The enthusiasm of a fan and the rigid rebellion of a teenager in a brown household is accurate. I love the scene where she explains her masterplan for the Avengers Con as it has the two best things of the episode; the graphics and Iman.

This brings me to the point about how it was a good episode but just not up to the mark. As audience we are now entitled fans who expect to be edge of the seat throughout especially in matters of Marvel. Horrible attribute. Moon Knight from the first episode and from the beginning had a gripping problem. there was something making me drill my eyes onto the screen which was not there in Ms. Marvel. The story was heading in all sorts of direction and simply because it didn’t have any hook in it yet, the engagement to the episode was also less. Till the last scene I didn’t have anything making me want to know what is going to happen.

Truthfully, the only thing that sold the end credit scene for the episode was the fact that Arian Moayed would be reprising his role as Agent P. Cleary. While I am slightly curious about how the new found powers will play out in Kamala’s life, I am not dying to know. In comparison to some of the other Phase 4 series where the wait for the next episode was painful, this one does not have as much tension for the next.

As it is still just the first episode, there is a lot more scope for the series build up.

The Movie Culture Synopsis

The series seems to have a lot of potential simply because of the phenomenal performance by Iman and the best animations of Phase 4. I pray for a more gripping plot in the next episode. Till next Wednesday, I guess.