A fangirl turns superhero
‘Ms. Marvel’ brings a high schooler from an immigrant family into the Marvel canon
One of the most amusing things about “Ms. Marvel,” premiering Wednesday, June 8, on Disney+, is the existence of Avengers conventions in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. People dress up like them, buy homemade merchandise and generally rejoice in their favorite heroes. While this is an obvious parallel to comic book conventions in our world, one wonders if a better analogy — given the Avengers’ role in saving that world several times over — would be conventions where people dress up like their local firefighters or police officers, which I don’t think is a thing.
The intersection between superheroing and real-life struggles has always been one of the central appeals of Marvel, and it’s given unique expression with the story of New Jersey teen Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani). Attempting to navigate high school life as the child of Pakistani immigrant parents (Mohan Kapur and Zenobia Shroff ), she has a favorite-child older brother (Saagar Shaikh), and a fixation with Captain Marvel (played in the MCU by Brie Larson) that no one in her life really understands except for her best friend, Bruno (Matt Lintz).
But after coming upon a magic bangle among her grandmother’s things that gives her the ability to project energy in a variety of configurations, Kamala suddenly finds herself part of a very exclusive club (what Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner referred to as “the circus” in 2021’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”). And just like that, Kamala has to live up to the example of her heroes while trying to make her way through high school.
While this bumps up against the limits of how many times the same superhero tropes can be wheeled out within a franchise without feeling tired (I’m happy to hit pause on origin stories and training montages for a bit), what makes a difference with “Ms. Marvel” is the execution and specific cultural point of view on display. The show, created by Bisha K. Ali, offers audiences something we haven’t yet seen from a property like this, with a portrait of Muslim immigrant life that feels authentic and relatable.
Iman Vellani, making her screen debut, is delightful in the lead role, helped along by a very capable supporting cast of veterans and newcomers. Kapur and Shroff as Kamala’s parents, Yusuf and Muneeba, could easily have become Pakistani caricatures, but instead feel like people you’d bump into at a dinner party or sit next to at the local mosque. Older brother Aamir, a more observant Muslim than his sister, steers away from hoary stereotypes thanks to Saagar Shaikh lending empathy and relatability. There’s room for nuance here, and it’s so very welcome.
That specific challenge, how to encapsulate a Muslim community that itself encompasses so much diversity of expression, wasn’t an easy task, but it’s where the show most excels. Things like Kamala and friend Nakia (Yasmeen Fletcher) talking about joining the board of their local mosque — or Nakia describing her decision to wear the hijab headscarf while discussing being judged by others for being either too ethnic or too white — are reflective of so many real-life conversations.
As a Muslim American who grew up loving Marvel Comics and voraciously devouring the monthly exploits of Iron Man, Captain America and others, there was something magical about seeing a family like mine conversing in instantly familiar cultural shorthand while existing within a fictional universe I never would have thought included people like me.
In fact, the creators have done such a solid job laying a foundation of character work that the superhero business feels at times like an intrusion. Of course, said superhero business (culminating in Kamala making a splashy rescue at the local Eid holiday festival) is the reason Marvel fans are going to tune in, and at present “Ms. Marvel” has an intriguing mystery at its center, bolstered by an appealing protagonist.
With Vellani already set to appear in next year’s “Captain Marvel” cinematic sequel, we know this is just the opening act for Kamala Khan’s onscreen journey.