Ms. Adventure

The part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that isn't actually at the cinema recently wrapped up its latest series, Ms. Marvel.

Like Moon Knight, this was another fun series to approach as a viewer unfamiliar with the comics. No trailers, no expectations, no real clue about what the series was going to be made this a more intriguing prospect than, say, another Thor movie. But also: I found it a bit tough to get into at first.

Kamala Khan is not the first young superhero in the MCU. But she feels more authentically youthful and modern to me than Peter Parker -- partly due to the writing and partly because it's been 6 years since Tom Holland first played his role, and he's not really looking like a high school student these days. To get right to the likely heart of the "problem": I'm officially becoming an old person. Kamala came roaring out of the gate as a very bubbly, very outgoing, demonstratively enthusiastic character who initially felt like "a lot" to me. But of course, if I'm identifying more with the "parents who just don't understand" than the protagonist? Yeah, this is saying something about where I am in my life.

But the show improved, more or less, over each of the subsequent five episodes. Part of this was probably my acclimation, but I think the show also improved as it included more material centered on Kamala's Muslim and Pakistani heritage. The MCU is a Play-Doh Fun Factory attachment that's always forcing the dough, whatever color, to take a particular shape. But occasionally, the attachment put on has wider holes, and so it was here. Real world history mixed with legend drawn from that history. The show made some effective statements on family (and extended family), bigotry, and representation. And it did it while fundamentally just letting a kid be a kid.

There were still peaks and valleys, even on that steady arc of improvement. A weird one-off element of time travel seemed quite shoehorned into one episode, where a more straightforward flashback had been doing the narrative job just fine. Marvel's standard "villain problem" was back, as the "bad guy" was by far the least interesting, least defined element of the story. On the other hand, a triumphant finale delivered the best version of "the Hero is ALSO all the supportive people around them" in ages (really cementing the themes of family throughout the series).

All told, I'd say Ms. Marvel averaged out to around a B for me. The prospect of a future movie that has this hero interacting with her hero sounds like fun.