KAMALA KHAN HAS ARRIVED! Ms. Marvel, the new Disney Plus series and the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is coming on June 8, and we now have a trailer to comb through and scream about. But what are these new powers Kamala’s sporting? Are they different than the powers she has in the comics?
First, let’s squeal over the trailer and the plot synopsis from by Disney Plus:
Marvel Studios’ “Ms. Marvel” is a new, original series that introduces Kamala Khan, a Muslim American teenager growing up in Jersey City. An avid gamer and a voracious fan-fiction scribe, Kamala is a Super Hero mega fan with an oversized imagination—particularly when it comes to Captain Marvel. Yet Kamala feels like she doesn’t fit in at school and sometimes even at home—that is, until she gets super powers like the heroes she’s always looked up to. Life gets better with super powers, right?
Iman Vellani stars as Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel. The cast also includes Aramis Knight, Saagar Shaikh, Rish Shah, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Matt Lintz, Yasmeen Fletcher, Laith Nakli, Azhar Usman, Travina Springer and Nimra Bucha.
A fanfiction-writing teenager who gets to join her idols as a superhero? That sounds like the Kamala we know and love from the comics, and I’m here for it! But Marvel has made a few adjustments in the transition from the page to the screen.
Kamala’s New Powers, Explained
In the comics, Kamala gains her powers when she’s exposed to the Terrigen Mist, a vapor created by Terrigen crystals. The mist gives Kamala powers because she’s descended from inhumans, a species of human with biology altered by the Kree back in prehistoric times. Terrigen Mist causes terrigenesis in inhumans, which is a sciencey way of saying that it turns them into superheroes.
When Kamala is exposed to the mist and her powers are activated, she gains the power to shapeshift. She can stretch, grow, heal herself, and perform myriad other feats with her body’s elasticity.
In the trailer for her Disney Plus series, though, we see something a bit different. Instead of being exposed to a mist, Kamala fastens some sort of bracelet to her arm (possibly the Nega-Bands or Quantum Bands from the comics, both of which, notably, have at least a tangential connection to Captain Marvel), and her eyes glow. After that, she gains the ability to use energy she describes as “cosmic” to enhance her strength, throw blasts, and run through thin air—in addition to a bit of shapeshifting.
Why the change? No one is really sure. Maybe Marvel has plans to introduce the ever-stretchy Reed Richards into the MCU at some point, and doesn’t want two unrelated characters with the same power. Or maybe they want to tie Kamala more closely to Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau, who both have similar cosmic energy powers, to make the three of them more of a unified trio in the upcoming The Marvels. Kamala is a big fan of Carol Danvers in the comics, so maybe some similarities in their powers will be tied in that way?
Or maybe Kamala’s shapeshifting just looked silly in screen tests and they want to use it sparingly? It’s hard to say! As long as Kamala finds some reason to say “EMBIGGEN!” though, I’ll be happy.
(featured image: Marvel Entertainment/Marvel Comics)
