Miss Marvel on Disney+ fulfills her role as a refreshing teen drama very well, but the positive heroine that is Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) represents more than that. Here’s what we thought of the first two episodes.
A new character joins the galaxy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it is in a new series, available from this Wednesday June 8, 2022 on Disney+, that she makes her first appearance: Kamala Khan is the heroine of Miss Marvel.
Kamala is a young Muslim high school student from a Pakistani family. She lives a perfectly normal existence, but, fan of the entire Avengers team, her idol is none other than Captain Marvel – alias Carol Danvers. Posters of the latter dot her room, when she is not creating her own cosplay.
And then one day, thanks to the discovery of a strange bracelet, it’s her turn. She develops impressive powers. We then witness a origin storythat of a “normal” teenager becoming as powerful as those she admires.
On paper, Miss Marvel is the Marvel series that seems to be aimed the most at young people — teen drama style. And it is: the series evokes the life of a high school girl, with issues on this scale – rebellion against parental authority, classes, friendship, love. But the character of Kamala Khan is much more interesting than that.
The pleasure of the origin story
We find, in the first two episodes of the series, all the pleasure that we can feel with a origin story : the sudden intrusion of the extraordinary into a seemingly banal daily life, the discovery of new powers to grasp. This discrepancy is even more interesting in the context of adolescence, where it turns into a quest for identity.
In this, the character of Miss Marvel is reminiscent of the different versions of Spider-Man. Like him, she is a fairly invisible teenager at first sight and leads a routine life. She is equally ingenuous and generous. His journey exudes the same force of benevolence, with refreshing adventures. They are clearly the two most endearing teenagers in Marvel right now.
But the pleasure of discovering theorigin story of Kamala, however, has the flavor of novelty. As in the comics, the Disney + series shows a bright and particularly positive character. Her quest for a superheroic identity also has a social dimension: that of a young racialized woman in a superheroic universe that is still very conventional today. The whole challenge of the series is to represent Islam as faithfully as possible, without that being the subject itself. The Disney+ series is doing very well, narrating with great simplicity the daily life of a Muslim family.
Series Miss Marvel can it be of interest?
The teen drama that is Miss Marvel will convince the youngest in priority – which is not a bad thing, because Kamala has everything of a new generation “role model”. The series will also be ideal for family viewing. It may attract less attention from such a large audience than Wanda Vision Where Loki due to its teenage atmosphere.
However, it would be a shame to deprive yourself of a brand new positive origin story and far from being as basic as it seems (more interesting in any case than that of Kate Bishop in Hawkeye, for example), especially since the series benefits from a production that attempts a “living comic book” style staging that is somewhat out of the ordinary. So far – after 2 episodes – it lacks a significant threat that would put Kamala’s powers to the test, which would give the series a little more solid superheroic stakes.
The first episode of Miss Marvel will be on Disney+ from Wednesday, June 8. The subscription starts at €8.99.
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