I finally got a chance to watch Ms. Marvel’s first episode and I didn’t really have many high expectations going in. However, I was left pleasantly surprised by the first installment and I have to say, I think Marvel’s shows have been going up in quality lately.
Although it’s no Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel’s target audience is probably younger teens (so…definitely not me). Even so, I still found a way to enjoy it.
Of course, there are some things that I didn’t really like about the first episode, as I am a critical person, but overall, I didn’t find anything particularly egregiously terrible about the first episode.
Let’s dive into the review:
Synopsis
Kamala Khan is a Pakistani-American girl living in Jersey City. She has an older brother named Aamir, a father named Yusuf, and a mother named Muneeba. They’re about what you’d expect from a typical family in the United States.
Kamala is also hugely obsessed with Captain Marvel. Now, I’m no fan of Captain Marvel, but live your dreams, I guess? Either way, Kamala’s extremely excited to go to a convention for the Avengers in her city and she’s planning out how she’s going to go with her best friend, Bruno.
At this convection, she wants to dress up as Captain Marvel to win a cosplay competition. So, basically, she’s just being a teenager. She has interests and she’s excited to go to an event for something she’s a big fan of. It’s pretty average stuff for someone her age.
However, she’s constantly critiqued for living in the clouds and day-dreaming all the time. This day-dreaming becomes a problem as she has to figure out what she wants to do in college and what her future will look like.
Kamala’s story begins with her failing her driver’s test. Now, look, a driving test is one of the most stressful things ever. When I did mine, I literally couldn’t think. I feel like I was probably on autopilot mode because I was sure that I’d fail the parking test. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t!
She’s not a very popular kid at school, but Kamala has her friends and she’s got her interests. However, her guidance counsellor, Mr. Wilson (who’s a pretty funny character), tries to tell her about how she needs to start getting serious about college.
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Now, Kamala’s got a bit of a problem: She thinks her parents won’t let her go to AvengerCon. And yeah, they don’t really want her to go. Her parents are a bit unenthusiastic about her going out at night by herself. Honestly, I get it: Jersey City at night doesn’t sound like a great idea to be honest.
Her brother, Aamir, advocates for her and her parents decide to let her go. But there’s a catch: Her dad has to go with her. And they both have to dress as the Hulk. And Kamala is very embarrassed. It leads to her saying something a bit hurtful and her parents decide she can’t go after all.
But, she and Bruno come up with a plan and Kamala sneaks out to go to AvengerCon. She ends up getting there, but this is where the plot of the show begins to unfold.
The Bracelet of Powers (maybe? idk what it’s called)
Kamala’s grandmother, Nani, is constantly referenced by Muneeba as being a dreamer obsessed with fantasies. Nani sends Muneeba a box of her old stuff, including a strange bracelet. Kamala tries to ask about the bracelet, but her mother doesn’t allow her to touch it.
Still, Kamala finds a way to get the bracelet because she needs some sort of a piece of herself to bring to her Captain Marvel cosplay. The bracelet turns out to be a much more important thing than she initially thought.
The bracelet actually has…wait for it…
MAGIC POWERS!
Okay, you probably figured that out by now. Nani’s bracelet is magic. I’m not exactly sure what the magic is supposed to be, but it’s magic all right.
Anyways, right before she gets on stage for the competition, her bracelet starts doing some weird stuff and while she’s showing her costume on stage, her powers start activating and she nearly annihilates the entire place after her magic hit the Ant Man statue’s head.
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The funniest (and I’m not sure if it was supposed to be funny, but oh well) part of this scene was when the Mjolnir’s hammer replica swings down and slams into a student at Kamala’s school called Zoe. This Zoe character is also a stuck-up bully with 80k on Instagram, so yeah, you can imagine that Kamala’s experience with her isn’t the best. I’m not sure what about this scene made me laugh, but it was very sudden and unexpected.
Kamala gets home after the incident and tries to sneak back in, but her mom’s waiting for her there in what was probably a heart-attack inducing moment for Kamala. Her mom is obviously disappointed about her sneaking out and tells Kamala to start thinking about her future.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, Ms. Marvel is a show that’s got its ups and downs. I can see that the actors really enjoy their roles and feel the passion of being these characters. It didn’t feel like a show and it was realistic enough to feel natural.
Although some of the moments and visuals may be a bit cringe inducing, I didn’t try to look too deep into it. I also forced myself to not compare Ms. Marvel to other shows on Disney+ because at the end of the day, it’s a different story with a different target demographic.
FINAL RATING: 8/10
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Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
