With the premiere of Ms. Marvel on Disney+, Marvel unveiled their newest hero, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani). The show follows a young New Jersey girl as she juggles to fit in at school with her friends Bruno (Matt Lintz) and Nakia (Yasmeen Fletcher), with the pressure from her traditional parents (Zenobia Shroff and Mohan Kapoor) to be the perfect daughter, and then discovered her superpowers that rival those of her favorite character, Captain Marvel.
Kamala’s tenuous equilibrium was illustrated in the first episode of the show. It’s difficult enough to be a teenager without the added stress of having to save the world.
But who is Kamala, the world-saving hero?
On the surface, Kamala’s greatest adversary appears to be the same as every other adolescent’s: high school life. Kamala is having trouble finding her place in school, whether she’s getting hit by balls in gym class or colliding with other pupils as she walks up the school steps. When you add in the fact that her extremely traditional Pakistani mother expects her to be the perfect, obedient daughter who has to get her head out of the clouds, Kamala appears to be fighting against the current.
However, the viewer is introduced to a familiar character in the episode one post-credits scene: Agent Cleary (Arian Moayed) of the Department of Damage Control, who was originally introduced to the MCU in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Agent Deever (Alysia Reiner), one of Cleary’s coworkers, informs him about an incident involving Kamala at Avengers-Con, and his instructions are simple: “Bring her in.” In the last time we saw them, Cleary and Damage Control made life difficult for Peter Parker (Tom Holland), and it appears that he’s poised to take on another teenager-led case.
Despite the fact that he doesn’t appear in Episode 1, the show’s teaser revealed another major villain in the Ms. Marvel world. This villain is Kamala’s high school crush, Kamran (Rish Shah), who is also an inhuman capable of transferring his energy onto items and causing them to explode. In the comics, the two become friends until Kamran turns against her, making him a character to watch out for throughout the story.
There is another possible villain to watch out for in Ms. Marvel, Kareem alias Red Dagger (Aramis Knight), based on the series’ casting and appearance in the trailer. In comic books, Kamala and Kareem have a convoluted past as adversaries and love interests for one other. Because Red Dagger is more of an anti-hero than an unambiguous villain, his Disney+ representation remains a mystery.
Ms. Marvel has already established Kamala and the Khan family as a crucial component of the MCU’s next chapter, regardless of who is lurking in the shadows.
