Marvel Studies has debuted the first official trailer for Ms. Marvel, which will drop on Disney+ June 8, 2022, and the fan-favorite hero is so freakin’ adorable. Here’s the basic 411 you need to know about the teenage superhero before she officially joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Kamala Khan (a.k.a. Ms. Marvel) is one of the newer Marvel comics heroes
Well, she’s relatively new compared to some of the other characters we’ve seen on screen in the MCU. She first appeared in an issue of Captain Marvel in 2013, before getting a solo series in 2014. (To put that in perspective for Marvel Studios, that’s the same year that Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier were released in theaters.) The character immediately broke ground in Marvel comics because she’s a Muslim Pakistani-American superhero.
Kamala is canonically a fangirl
While she doesn’t go full Deadpool and break the fourth wall, there’s a meta aspect to Kamala Khan as a character. Kamala loves superheroes. She’s not just a fan, like how Kate Bishop in the Hawkeye series idolized Clint Barton, she’s a fan. Kamala’s one of us. She goes to conventions. She draws fan art and writes fanfiction—which, of course, in this context, would be RPF, real person fanfiction. The Avengers (and the X-Men, in the comics) are her One Direction. She especially loves Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel. Therefore, when she gets her own superpowers, she models herself off her #1 hero—who used to go by Ms. Marvel.
According to the official description of the series, fanfic is going to be a part of the character in the MCU. Personally, I can’t wait to find out who her OTPs are.
The Disney+ series appears to be her origin story
Based on what we’ve seen, Kamala will start the series as an ordinary girl in New Jersey. Then, it appears that she gets superpowers either through an accident or some kind of gauntlet/bracelet-type thing.
Her origin story is a little different in the comics. The character is originally of inhuman descent. That means she has alien DNA, and her superhuman abilities are activated by what’s called Terrigen Mist. The MCU has done an inhuman storyline on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the short-lived Inhumans series, but it doesn’t seem likely that they’ll bring this concept back. But we’ll see! There is something that looks like mist in the trailer. We don’t know what those gauntlets are made out of!
In addition, the powers Ms. Marvel has in the series look to be different from what she can do on the page. In Marvel comics, Kamala is stretchy—like Mr. Fantastic, or Elastigirl from The Incredibles, if you’re so inclined. Her official power is shapeshifting. So she can do things other than stretch, including making herself look like other people and objects, but she mostly stretches. The trailer shows that, in addition to the stretching, she has some kind of cosmic energy power in the MCU. Looks awesome!
She’s not like *other* Marvel heroes for a specific reason
With the exception of Spider-Man, and Hawkeye’s shady turn as Ronin, the heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe don’t really do secret identities. We see her, in the trailer, using her powers in public, but we can also see that she wears a mask. Kamala is young. She might want to at least hide who she is from her parents and teachers. From the trailer, the only person we know for sure knows is her bestie, Bruno Carrelli (Matt Lintz)—and in the comics, he’s the only one who knows the truth.
We will see Kamala again soon after Ms. Marvel
We already know that Iman Vellani will return as Kamala in The Marvels alongside Brie Larson as Carol Danvers and ‎Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau. She’s gonna totally geek out, and I can’t wait.
(featured image: Disney)
