“Ms. Marvel” Episode 2 R&R: Learning to be a Superhero on a Teenager Budget

Spray-painted cardboard helmet? Check!

By Rob LoAlbo

All photos courtesy Marvel Studios and Disney Plus

So it seems like episode 1 wasn’t just a fluke: the show really is that good. Maintaining its bubbly-fizzy-pop approach focused mainly on adolescence, the story keeps up all of the splash and zip established in the opening episode while sticking to its authentic cultural and comic book roots. With so far low but crucial stakes, the show has completely renewed my faith that Marvel does have a heart: and with Kamala it grew three sizes that day.

Eid Mubarak, my friends! Vote for Nakia and watch out for spoilers!

Thankfully, the show has kept its initial perspective—through the eyes of a teenage Pakistani girl who is just trying to fit it with her peers and keep her family happy and off her back. And what a find Iman Vellani is! Now with a renewed sense of confidence given her superpowers, the filmmakers replay the opening scene in her high school hallway, but she’s got this now. The moves, the right words: handling every situation with ease. But the latest obstacle for our enhanced teen? Boys. 

I’m not staring and drooling. You’re staring and drooling.

There’s a new beau in town, Kamran the transfer student. Kamala hasn’t really had much dating experience, so she’s all ga-ga and goofy around this Middle Eastern hunk of halal. The show deftly juxtaposes her mishandled attempts at love with bungled efforts at using her superpowers, as if one is allegorical for the other. But to summarize a famous ancient philosopher (or something): things are not as they seem.

The show gets more adorable (how?!?) in watching Kamala get all jealous of Zoe who has waaay more YouTube followers than her. Incredibly insightful in showing that teens would trade enhanced superhero abilities for acceptance and popularity in a heartbeat, the dialogue snaps and crackles, actually sounding the way they speak. Clearly, someone’s been listening in and closely observing, and it’s not just the scriptwriters.

Exhibit A: evidence as to how clueless adults can be when it comes to teenagers.

The Department of Damage Control has been trying to get their nefarious bureaucratic hands on the brown teen from Jersey City. They’ve got Stark tech (EDITH drones), and they’ve already brought Zoe in for a fireside chat, minus the marshmallows. Can they grab Kamala and probe her to see what ticks? Not this episode, and not before the (we called it last week)...

Superhero training montage!!!

Kamala’s testing what she can and can’t do. She can grow certain parts (just like in the comics), but she can also create “hard light” energy platforms which she’s learning to walk on and catch people with, but all without an instruction manual. So she’s still falling and breaking stuff, can’t pick up her oversized hand, or keep her nose from glowing, but just like puberty, it can’t quite be controlled, stopped, or convenient.

All of your election board vote belong to her.

But teen girls gotta girl, so even though there are religious rules to follow, they still gotta tag everything (“No Snapchatting in the masjid!”). And girl power rules just like in the comics. While listening to Sheikh Abdullah (a sometime mentor to comic book Kamala) Kamala complains about the female side of the mosque and how no one gives girls a break. She won’t be held back by the world, cause “girls get it done”! Which is why she convinces Nakia to run for Mosque board of elections, mounting a huge push to get her elected which includes utilizing teen guilt and possibly more Instagram (#mosquelife).

Since high school is all about following the tide to wherever it takes you, Bruno and the bunch are off to Zoe’s Friday night shindig, and this time Kamala’s doing right by Ammi with permission. She’s still not sure how the world works (after an accidental sip of OJ and vodka, she asks, “Am I drunk?”), but she’s navigating it now in Kamran’s uncle’s sporty new wheels, the new guy that’s taking just a little too much interest in her. 

“I told you Kamala, those boys only have one thing on their minds: ice cream pizza.”

Yes Kamran’s got all the right moves and curves, along with the perfect musical and film tastes, as if he’s been studying her, but Bruno’s bro-blocks whenever he can. Yet that can’t stop the musical numbers! Kamala’s smitten, and her dance moves confirm it (something only a teen would understand). John Hughes would be proud, especially with frank discussions about feminine hygiene, insecurity, and body changes. And pressures to go to California during the most important and agonizing time in their lives? A plot twist that screams 80’s pink wonderful breakfast clubs on their day off. 

This focus draws attention to the fact that incredibly, no other MCU property seems to exist in the real world. Why don’t they talk about their favorite movies or music? Here, the Bollywood and Bon Jovi references fly, but when was the last time Dr. Strange had a conversation about his favorite clothing designers? Or Thor and his top 5 action movies? Or details about these people before they got here (like Aamir’s goth phase)? We rarely get to see the historical context of our characters, like how the British partition—the bloody division of British India into India and Pakistan—affected the life roads of these people. (Wouldn’t it be great to see how some of our MCU characters dealt with COVID, Vietnam, or 80s punk?) This grounded approach works and we identify with characters who don’t exist in a weird MCU bubble. They are affected by the world, instead of only affecting the world.

“Yes, I know that you were previously in Adam Sandler’s ‘Pixels.’ I forgive you.”

And it's this background that leads us into the significance of Kamala’s family tree. Right now, it’s all a little unclear, but something about her grandmother getting lost in 1947 India and her great-grandmother Aisha disappearing somehow ties into Kamala’s powers and visions of a mysterious woman. Again, unclear, and techno-savvy grandma doesn’t really want to give up the goods, either. (She knows more than she’s letting on!)

And I now know that I need to head to Eid Mubarak next year! (How do I know so little about this?!?)

Illumin Aunties…Assemble!

At the party, the Illumin Aunties gossip about bad-reputation=great-grandma only to be interrupted by (ripped from the Spider-Man tropes) a pre-teen damsel in distress. It’s Ms. Marvel’s first rescue mission, it’s a complete disaster (but at least it’s got a superhero landing), and she barely makes it out and away from the DODC. Kamran is again just where she needs him, which turns out to be overly convenient—the woman in Kamala’s visions? HIS MOTHER! What role she’ll play is unclear, but if I had to guess Najma’s all about more serious training beyond Bruno’s amateur hour based on her knowledge of the Khan family. (In the comics, Kamran turns out to also have powers and leads Kamala to an extremist faction of others with Inhuman powers, so that scenario is on the table, too, but given the nature and tone of the show, I count it unlikely.) 

Yes, the stakes are ramping up, but thankfully not too much. The DODC seems to be a plot point, but the show is still all about adolescence and navigating that uncertain time of life, firing on all cylinders thanks to the snappy writing and Vellani’s winsome personality. This episode manages to maintain the good will created in the first episode, expanding the character work and sticking closely to the spirit of the comics (even down to Kamala’s Holden-esque hunting hat).

“Don’t worry. The shirt will totally take the attention away from your haircut.”

Now, only these two episodes were screened for critics, so what comes next is anyone’s guess. The comics have her revealed to be an Inhuman, so she hooks up with Medusa and Lockjaw, and even Wolverine makes an appearance. There’s also The Inventor (a half cockatoo bad guy whose image has actually shown up TWICE in the show as Easter eggs for the eagle-eyed viewer) and attacks with giant robots. PLEASE DON”T GO THIS WAY MARVEL! The show has had the most promising opening two episodes of any show thus far, and if the showrunners are smart (which I believe them to be), we should stay in Kamala’s candy-colored daydreamy world for the remainder of the series.

Star City Rating: 4½ out of 5 (again!)

Next week: It’s not Morbin’ time, it’s embiggen’n time!