“Ms. Marvel” Episode 6 and Series R&R: Super Fast, Not Cheap, and In Control
“No, the super suit is not animated. My mom made it for me….Actually that sounds worse.”
by Rob LoAlbo
All photos courtesy Marvel Studios and Disney Plus
Given that Marvel Disney+ shows tend to sag in the middle but make a decent comeback in the finale, our hope was that Ms. Marvel would embiggen our rating score a bit more this week. Did she manage to? Or did the DODC arrest any fun we might have had? The one thing I know for sure: Fiege saved most of the budget and fight choreography practice for this episode.
Fasten those spoiler belts, because we’re in for a bumpy Jersey City subway ride.
Secretly, Nakia always shipped Brumran.
With the boys on the run from Evil Agent Deever (We can tell she’s evil because she wears her hair back tightly—come on, people. Keep up here.), Kamaran is infected with hard to figure out mom powers that we’re pretty sure aren’t the nurturing kind. He’s got uncontrollable light coming out of every orifice, and without a handbook from those that gave him the powers, he’s far from becoming the Greatest Pakistani Hero.
Returning from Karachi, Kamala’s ready to come out to her parents, but in true non-closeted red tights form: everyone already knew (which was the same reaction people had when I confessed to suffering from night screams). They feign surprise, but the persian’s out of the bag. As a sign of support for her new lifestyle, Ammi takes everything that they collected on vacation (minus the airport tchotchkes) and makes her a superhero suit that comic-accurate slaps. She’s ready to save Garden State! #browngirlpower
“Alright, I confess. Whenever I sleep, I make sure Sloth Baby’s head is above the covers so he can breathe.”
Since it takes a mosque to raise a child, Scooby and the gang gather en masse to protect Bruno and Lite-Brite Kamran from harm. Pushing that whole post 9-11 “government is here for your protection” vibe, the DODC storm the houses of the holy but Sheikh Abdullah is armed with nutmeg-laced chocolate chip cookies, and he’s not afraid to use them. They sneak out thanks to some clever disguises, and who should come down the drainpipe, giving Peter Parker a run for his money? It’s your friendly neighborhood Light Girl! (Can she swing from a thread? Take a look overhead!)
She’s got a plan that involves some Home Alone shenanigans at the high school, minus the paint cans on strings. If they can just get Kamran to the docks by midnight the Red Daggers can get him out of town, so stalling tactics and diversions it is. Ready to fight? Line up! It’s superhero roll call!
Nakia! - Whom we expected to show up and help. She’s still salty at Kamala for being secret-y, but she gets over it fast.
Zoe! - Remember her from episode 1? No? Well too bad cause the comics say she’s a part of the group so she gets to come.
Aamir! - Because reasons! Who cares what the comics say!
What do these four have in common? That’s right! That special New Jersey smell.
Time’s ticking, but we somehow have time for a detailed chalkboard animation meeting about a plan that could have been in an email. (At least the fun is back!) Deever’s got it in hard for these rogues and no bureaucracy is going to tell her no. (She’s a loner, Dottie! A rebel!) Stun-guns and plastic explosives a blazin’, the motley crew hurls back softballs, chemistry explosions, and party music at them, reasonable defenses from the point of view of every teenage daydream. But you know what? Don’t think about it all too much, and it manages to be a decent chunk of chicanery. (I’m just glad the DODC waited to invade the school until the gang had all their traps set up!)
Zoe keeps going on about how Kamala saved her life and that she owes her, which leads me to believe that a lot of her scenes were left on the cutting room floor. (Damn you, Wolverine! #ReleaseTheZoeCut) Despite being a major part of the comics, she’s barely a character here and works only as a social media plot device to get the crowds to come out and support the good fight. But whatever gets Jersey-ites to gather, I guess. (My experience? It’s a North Jersey Sloppy Joe Sandwich, which isn’t what you think it is. Look it up! It’s delish!) Hence, Zoe becomes a major part of the plan.
“I’m sorry, who are you again? Do we have a class together or something?”
In the middle of fighting, Kamran suddenly gets the willies about mom and realizes something’s up (or not) with her. Turning on a dime, he starts with the deadly flashlighting, and Kamala’s there to block him at every turn. It’s not unexpected; it’s just sudden and seemingly unprovoked. (Teenagers..with their texting and their murder, amiright?) When Kamran goes too far, it turns into Kamala vs. Kamran, and no, that’s not a court case (unlike Batman v. Superman, which is still in litigation).
What makes the final fight work here—in addition to much stronger choreography than past episodes—is that the stakes are not world-ending. We are watching the rise of a superhero and the protection of her friends, something that resonates on a viewer level. Where Moon Knight had the entire fate of humanity at stake (again? snoozefest), this show makes the better choice to be about family and close neighborhoods filled with memorable characters and strong personalities. And embiggening, which looks WAAAY better here than before. It’s still unclear what her powers are (is she bulletproof?) but I”m glad they’re drawing more attention to her comic accurate stretchy abilities.
“What I really want to draw attention to though is my new spicy shawarma dinner deal for $8.99”
Even more unclear? Kamran’s abilities. (Sharp light? Angular electric stalactites?) After almost killing most people around him, Kamala manages to talk him down and escape to the harbor, where Kareem has a ship waiting for him. (The Adventures of Kareem and Kamran? That’s a show I could get behind!) As for Kamala? Dad’s got some great advice for his little Miss Marvel (which rings better than Little Miss Sunshine), and Bruno’s got some last minute news that she’s got a mutation.
(Insert screeching brakes sound here) Alright, this has got to stop. Are her powers from being a Jinn? A mutant? From the bangle? Something Inhuman and Clandestine? WIth every new episode comes a new theory. Why throw so many things at us all at once?!? Pick a lane and stick to it, Fiege. Stop setting up the X-Men and using the word ‘fetch’: it’s not gonna happen.
And this wouldn’t be a Marvel show without a mid-credits sequence, right? The bangle erupts (so it’s a mcguffin now?) and zaps Kamala to who knows where, but in her place? Carol friggin’ Danvers herself! Holy Freaky Friday! WIth The Marvels not coming out until next July, we’ll just have to wait and see how this pans out.
“You mean I have to wait until AFTER the animated ‘I Am Groot’ show to find out what happens to me?”
As for the episode, it was tonally much more consistent with what we were first sold as a bill of goods in the first two episodes. The story was brought away from the sometimes dominating themes of generational and cultural identity and re-found its way back to the fun, splashy, and spunky low stakes that made the show special. Those themes and ideas were great, and they were handled with great care and intention, but they seemed like they were from another show. Showrunner Bisha K. Ali had a lot of insightful thoughts, but they didn’t all come together as seamlessly as they could. We ended on a high note, but some of the lasting damage had been done with all that heavy lifting (a lesson Paul needs to learn when trying to bench well above his weight class).
Which gets me to thinking about the episodic structure of the Marvel shows. The company seems to have that persistent problem, where they don’t know how to deliver consistent material on a weekly basis. They are viewing their shows as giant movies in six parts instead of finding creative beats in their stories that build week to week. WandaVision did it best for two reasons: a nine episode structure and a different TV decade each week. Creative.
So creative that the cast can’t stop smiling! No, seriously. They can’t. Can someone call 9-1-1?
Is the six act structure a death knell for quality? We may not find out for a bit since our next show She-Hulk, Attorney at Law is nine episodes, with each shorter than the 40 minutes we’ve been getting since Falcon. I’m not sure She-Hulk is the cure for what ails us, but it’ll be an interesting experiment nonetheless.
For Kamala and friends, it was a joy to watch when it was a joy, and when it wasn’t it was still filled with a love and appreciation for its source material and cultural traditions. At times Disney afternoonish with a sliding budget scale of special effects, but with enough local flavor that made this Jersey Boy long for his exit on the Garden State Parkway (138, btw), what it had in spades was heart and commitment. Deeply authentic with a respectful nod to Partition history, it was unique in the details if traditional and commonplace in the structure and beats. I’m still anxiously awaiting either a unique voice in show approach to enter the realm or for Phase 4 to come to a merciful end. Thankfully, no matter what, we now have Iman Vellani (and don’t forget her parents!) in the MCU, real life versions of these characters that made this Ms. Marvel comic fanboy rejoice for the Carol Danvers fangirl.
Star City Rating: 4 out of 5 for the episode, 3¾ for the show
Next Month: Lawyers will be getting more expensive and greener