This post contains spoilers for episodes 1 and 2 of Ms. Marvel.
Longtime Ms. Marvel fans were understandably dismayed when they found out, in the Ms. Marvel trailer that dropped a few months ago, that Kamala Khan’s powers had been changed. In the comics, Kamala has the power to stretch, grow, shrink, heal herself, and shapeshift. In the series, though, Kamala has the power to summon and shoot a glowing substance she calls “hard light.” But could the MCU’s Kamala still end up with her trademark ability to embiggen? A new fan theory suggests that she might!
Recently, Erik Voss of New Rockstars interviewed Adil El Arby and Bilall Fallah, directors of the first and last episodes of Ms. Marvel. During the interview, they gave the following tidbit about Kamala’s powers possibly evolving throughout the series:
You know, if you go further in the episodes, she’s going to get more and more control over her power, and then it’s going to evolve, and in the last episode, it’s the real deal, yo!
Does this mean that Kamala will gain more control over her hard light, or will her powers change in a more significant way? In the video, Voss theorizes that Kamala’s hard light may actually be a cocoon. Readers of the comics will remember that Kamala’s powers manifest when she’s hit by Terrigen Mist, which activates the latent Inhuman gene planted in certain humans by the Kree millennia ago. The mist creates a cocoon around anyone with Inhuman genes, and their superpowers manifest within that cocoon. In the Disney Plus series, Kamala’s powers are activated by a bangle (more on that in a minute), but according to Voss’s theory, the bangle is actually performing the same function as the Terrigen Mist by forming the cocoon.
If this theory is right, that means that Kamala—and, by extension, her whole family—could still be Inhumans in the MCU. Previously it was thought that the Inhumans wouldn’t be making an appearance in the MCU anytime soon, but ever since Black Bolt’s cameo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, all bets are off.
Voss also points out that MCU heroes’ powers are often shown in various stages of their evolution. For example, Wanda Maximoff spent several movies slowly developing her powers before finally emerging as the Scarlet Witch in WandaVision. It’s entirely possible that Kamala’s hard light could be just the first stage of her powers manifesting.
How Likely is This Theory?
It’s hard to say this early in the game, but seeing as the MCU is a very loose adaptation of the major storylines in the comics, the theory is certainly plausible. It’s established early on that Kamala’s bangle has been in her family for at least a couple of generations, and in episode 2, Kamala sees writing on it that she thinks could be Arabic or Urdu. A popular fan theory before the series premiered was that the bangle was one of the Nega-Bands, a superpowered Kree artifact used by the original Captain Marvel in the comics. There’s no reason the bangle couldn’t be both a family heirloom and a Nega-Band (or MCU homage to a Nega-Band), since the Kree Empire is pretty ancient. The Kree could have left one of the bands on Earth thousands of years ago, leaving it to pass through Kamala’s family line until it eventually reached her.
Plus, we already have ample evidence that the bangle is significant to Kamala’s family. In episode 1, her mother Muneeba immediately recognizes it and takes it away. In episode 2, we get some evidence that at least one member of Kamala’s family has used it, when Yusuf tells the story of how Muneeba’s mother followed “a trail of stars” to get on the last train out of the city during the Partition.
Plus, having a Kree wrist cuff activate the Inhuman gene instead of Terrigen Mist would still make sense within the Marvel universe. After all, both the Nega-Bands and the Inhuman gene are Kree inventions. Earlier in episode 2, Bruno remarks that Kamala’s powers aren’t coming from the bangle, but rather form inside of her. The bangle just seems to have, in Bruno’s words, “unlocked the superhuman part” of Kamala.
And let’s be honest—we’ve already seen some of Kamala’s classic powers manifesting. She embiggens when she stretched out her arm to save Zoe at AvengerCon, and she tells Bruno that she tried to shrink. It’s possible that her MCU powers will start to resemble her comic book powers more and more as the series progresses.
So is this theory correct? We’ll have to wait and see!
(image: Marvel)
