Warning! SPOILERS for Ms. Marvel episode 2 ahead.
Marvel Studio's newest Disney+ show Spider-Man movies missed out on. Adapted from the comic book series created by Sana Amanat, G. Willow Wilson, and Adrian Alphona, Ms. Marvel tells the story of superhero superfan Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) who discovers that she too has superpowers. As Kamala comes to with her new abilities, she also has to juggle her high school education and responsibilities to both her family and her mosque, alongside the standard teenage problems like smitten best friend Bruno (Matthew Lintz) and teen crush Kamran (Rish Shah.)
It's a superhero coming-of-age story that recalls the most famous teenage superhero in the Marvel canon, Peter Parker's Spider-Man. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962, Peter Parker became a relatable character for young comics readers who had previously seen teenagers relegated to wise-cracking sidekicks in other comic books. Like many kids in the complex world of America in the 60s and 70s, he was struggling to make his own way in a hostile world. Ms. Marvel similarly broke ground in creating Marvel's first Pakistani-American superhero, making great strides for diversity and visibility in comic books. Like Peter Parker before her, Kamala Khan is also learning that "with great power comes great responsibility" through juggling her superhero secret identity with her high school years.
The diversity and representation in the MCU.
In Ms. Marvel episode 2, "Crushed", Kamala and Bruno clamber up onto a rooftop in Jersey to test her new superpowers. As she tries and fails to sustain the crystalline platforms she can generate, Kamala recalls similar scenes from Sam Raimi's powers as Ms. Marvel, the MCU finally tells the superhero coming-of-age origin story that has been strangely absent from their output.
There's obviously a very good reason why the MCU avoided telling the story of Spider-Man's origins. By the time Spider-Man: Homecoming was released in 2017 there had been five other Spider-Man movies. Audiences had seen both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield get bitten by radioactive spiders, lose their Uncle Ben, and juggle their newfound superpowers with life as recently graduated high school students. Given the backlash against the repeated murderings of Bruce Wayne's parents in DC's Batman movies, it made sense that Marvel Studios were reluctant to tell the same story again.
In 2022, Ms. Marvel's Avengercon visit, cosplaying and vlogging have far more to offer an audience that has grown up with the MCU. Given that Kamala Khan's first appearance in Marvel comics took place in 2015, over five decades after Peter Parker's, she's a better character with which to tell this superhero origin story. The Peter Parker of the comics has long moved past his high school years, having gone from student to teacher, swapped brains with his nemesis Otto Octavius, and even became CEO of his own company. He's no longer the youthful identification figure envisioned by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
It's clear from Ms. Marvel episode 2 that social media is as big a part of Kamala's world as her worship of Captain Marvel. Popular girl Zoe goes viral when she shares TikToks about how she was saved by the superhero known as "Nightlight", while Kamala's very public rescue of the boy at the mosque is documented via social media posts and "ice cream pizza" memes. As timeless as those original Spider-Man stories of youthful responsibility are, they're still rooted in an era that doesn't speak to the younger audiences of today. Ms. Marvel, with its vibrant visual style that evokes Snapchat filters and Instagram posts, updates the Peter Parker archetype for the 2020s. Add to that Kamala's Pakistani heritage and Ms. Marvel is finally offering a Marvel origin story that appeals to a youthful and culturally diverse audience, securing the MCU's future beyond tried-and-tested legacy characters.
Ms. Marvel releases new episodes on Wednesdays on Disney+.
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