This first episode of Ms. Marvel, “Generation Why”, was incredibly relatable to most teens. The first episode introduced Kamala Khan, a 16-year-old Pakistani girl, who is obsessed with the superheroes that saved Earth, especially Carol Danvers. She lives a typical teenage life and has a loving- and hilarious-family. While her mother is very conservative and her father is a bit disconnected, they love her very much. Kamala has two best friends, Bruno and Nakia, and seems to spend most of her time at school (all the time really) with her head in the clouds, daydreaming about and doodling superheroes. Day to day, she lives a pretty ordinary life and goes mostly unnoticed.
That all begins to change quickly once Kamala finds this a bangle that her Grandma gifted her. Kamala and Bruno have been looking forward to AvengerCon and Kamala has spent a lot of effort on her Captain Marvel costume. She needs just one final piece of flair and the bangle is it! Unfortunately, while Kamala’s mother is fine with Kamala going to the Con, she has a problem with her costume: she thinks that it is too skimpy. Because of this, her mother refuses to let her go, so Kamala had to sneak off to the convention. During the convention, Kamala went on stage for a costume contest. As soon as she puts the bangle on, her powers start to show and she immediately has what’s maybe a vision (?) of what looks like hundreds of people walking in a crowd. On stage, her powers are totally unleashed and since she has no control of them, she accidentally puts one of the “cool kids” from her school in danger before saving her with a pretty cool “stretchy arm” that looks like her powers from the comics.
The big question is obviously why Kamala’s grandmother had a bangle that unlocked super powers just sitting around in a box of stuff. Does the bangle give Kamala the powers? Does the bangle activate powers Kamala already had? In the comics, Kamala was an Inhuman whose powers were activated accidentally. While she’s different in the show, it seems like that part could stay the same. It definitely feels like there’s some connection between the powers and Kamala’s heritage.
Arlyn’s Assumptions
The next episode will definitely see Kamala explore her powers a little more. I’m a teenage girl who loves Marvel movies and the heroes. If I suddenly had powers, I’d spend all kinds of time trying to figure out how they work and see what cool stuff I could do! I also think that she will be in quite some trouble for sneaking out to the convention.
Episode 2 of Ms. Marvel streams tomorrow on Disney Plus.
