Tag: Marvel

With Ms. Marvel’s Episode 5, entitled “Time and Again”, the series’ connection to Ms. Marvel comics continues to be present, even if sometimes in a more subtle way. In Episode 1, we looked at how the series adapted from the comics the moment Kamala’s powers were activated; for Episode 2 we delved into the comics’ and series’ introduction and handling so far of the character Kamran; in Episode 3 we looked at the interesting source material for the series’ villains, the Clandestines; and in Episode 4 we went into how Red Daggers were introduced and how they compare to the comics’ Red Dagger. As for episode 5, following our dive into Kamala’s ancestors during Partition, we now focus not so much on what happened in the show, but on what future comic events it might be hinting at.

Episode 5 of Marvel Studios’ Ms. Marvel ended on a somewhat weird note. If on one hand the Clandestines’ subplot was apparently swiftly resolved, the Damage Control threat somehow gained traction with the attack on Kamran and Bruno at the Circle Q. While there is no real perfect counterpart to this sequence in the comics, the aftermath could perhaps lead Bruno down an interesting, yet painful path, taken straight out of the comics.

Leading up to Secret Wars, Kamala finally met her hero Captain Marvel as New York was soon to be destroyed by an incursion. This later led to Carol making Kamala the leader of a group they named the Carol Cadets. The Cadets were created following the discovery of an Inhuman named Ulysses, who through the use of mathematics could basically predict the future. They were made to go after criminals who were yet to commit any sort of crimes but that Ulysses deemed likely to end up doing so. This was something that began not to sit right with Kamala’s friends, around the same time she also began to fight back against the idea behind the creation of the Cadets by questioning their methods.

This all led to Bruno trying to break into the Cadets’ facilities in order to set free who, in his eyes, happened to be detained there without a valid reason. Said break-in went wrong and Bruno had to deal with the consequences, being left bedridden with third-degree burns all over the left side of his body, losing the use of his left hand (his dominant one), and with serious doubts if he’d ever be able to walk again.

Once he finally regained conscience, and even though Kamala tried her best to stay by his side throughout his hospital stay, Bruno made it extremely clear that he held her responsible for the situation that left him in the state he found himself in. He considered she was focusing too much on her superhero life without regarding the consequences to the people around her who loved her, taking everyone for granted. He vowed to never want to see her ever again, and that his next step would be moving away to study at the Golden City Polytechnic Prep, in Wakanda.

Once there, he was involved in an attempted vibranium robbery, he met King T’Challa and eventually went back home when he realized that Kamala was who he wanted to be near. Unfortunately for him, Kareem, the Red Dagger, had by then stepped into the frame.

It’s hard to predict if the Circle Q explosion might end up serving as the catalyst to a similar journey for the MCU’s Bruno. If it does, it would certainly be something worth going into in the second season (?) of the show, with perhaps Black Panther: Wakanda Forever being a possible project in which to feature a Matt Lintz cameo in the meanwhile.

The first five episodes of Ms. Marvel are now streaming on Disney+.

With Ms. Marvel’s Episode 5, entitled “Time and Again”, the series’ connection to Ms. Marvel comics continues to be on full display. In Episode 1, we looked at how the series adapted from the comics the moment Kamala’s powers were activated; for Episode 2 we delved into the comics’ and series’ introduction and handling so far of the character Kamran; in Episode 3 we looked at the interesting source material for the series’ villains, the Clandestines; and in Episode 4 we went into how Red Daggers were introduced and how they compare to the comics’ Red Dagger. As for episode 5, we focus on the bulk of the flashback that we got in the first half of the episode.

One of the most interesting ways in which Ms. Marvel adapted the comics is by expanding upon the story of Kamala’s ancestors during Partition. Of course, it has been obvious since the second episode of the series that what happened with Kamala’s great-grandmother in 1947 was key to understanding Kamala’s powers and the bangle. In Episode 5, the thrust of the story was a flashback to Aisha and her husband, Hasan, in 1942-47, ending with Aisha’s death as Hasan and their daughter, Sana, made it on the last train to Karachi.

In Ms. Marvel #8 and #9 (2015), we get a small snippet of this same time period in Kamala’s family history. In fact, it begins with a pregnant Aisha hastily getting ready to flee India to Pakistan with many of her family members. She sees a shooting star, which gives her some hope in the dark time. Notably, the comics’ only mention of Aisha’s bangles is in this brief story. She sold her jewelry and hid the money inside her wedding bangles in case she and her husband were separated.

In the second half of the comics’ version of the flashback, we jump to Kamala’s mother in Karachi around the year 2000. She is living with her mother and family—Aamir is young and she is pregnant with Kamala. She had chosen to move to New Jersey for her family, but she had many doubts and worries about her children’s futures in a new country and culture. Kamala’s grandmother tells Kamala’s mother how strong Aisha was and tells her that they are a family of survivors.

Kamala’s grandmother then passes down Aisha’s wedding bangles to Kamala’s mother. The live-action version of this story is taken from the page yet altered significantly to meet the demands of the Ms. Marvel story. In the comics, the story was mostly to emphasize the struggles and journeys Kamala’s ancestors had to go through during Partition and beyond.

But it does also hint at the family’s Inhuman heritage, as it ends with Kamala’s grandmother saying she always felt there was some sort of secret and strength that the family carried. Ms. Marvel hits those same notes by tying the story to Kamala’s (and her ancestors’) powers and superhuman heritage.

The first five episodes of Ms. Marvel are now streaming on Disney+.

With Ms. Marvel’s Episode 4, entitled “Seeing Red,” the series’ connection to Ms. Marvel comics is on full display. In Episode 1, we looked at how the series adapted from the comics the moment Kamala’s powers were activated; for Episode 2 we delved into the comics’ and series’ introduction and handling so far of the character Kamran; and in Episode 3 we looked at the interesting source material for the series’ villains, the Clandestines. This week, we look at the Red Dagger(s) introduced and how they compare to Red Dagger in the comics.

In the show, Kamala meets the Red Dagger while in Karachi. When she is investigating the train station looking for answers about the train in her vision, she is attacked by the Red Dagger. He then reveals that he knew she was Djinn because he could sense the Noor energy she was using. When he found out she was related to Aisha, he took her to the base of the Red Daggers where she met fellow Red Dagger Waleed. He explained to her that Clandestines come from another dimension that exists all around ours, but with a veil of energy that separates the two. 

Red Dagger and Kamala bond in civilian mode as he introduces her to his friends at a bonfire. Ultimately, by the end of Episode 4, the Clandestines had tracked down Kamala and attacked the group, seemingly killing Waleed before Kamala is transported to what appears to be a 1947 Karachi train station.

What They Kept From the Comics

In Ms. Marvel, Kamala also meets Red Dagger while visiting Karachi. She does not know his true identity for quite some time, but his name is Kareem and he is a family friend. He acts as a vigilante in Karachi similar to how Ms. Marvel patrols Jersey City. 

His look and skillset are incredibly comic accurate, and his role in Kamala’s life may track that seen in the comics. The two were introduced in both iterations when Kamala visited Karachi in an attempt to figure out who she was. In the comics, Kareem gave her a new and optimistic perspective on her role as a superhero in Jersey City. Here, he may ultimately be a significant spark in Kamala fully embracing her hero identity.

Kareem is also a romantic interest for Kamala in the comics, and subtle hints of that can be picked up in Episode 4. Kareem is an instrumental figure in advancing Kamala and Bruno’s romantic storyline—Kareem ends up living in Jersey City for some time, creating a love triangle—which is certainly a dynamic Ms. Marvel seems like it could lean into. 

What They Changed

The most obvious difference between the live-action and the comics is that Ms. Marvel introduced the Red Daggers as a society with advanced technology working to protect people from things that cannot be seen. In Ms. Marvel comics, Red Dagger is simply Kareem, who is a solo vigilante-type hero. The dramatic expansion of Red Dagger in the live-action likely speaks to the need to aid and support Kamala’s mysterious and complex background/origin mystery. Introducing the Red Daggers certainly seems to have added to and advanced that aspect of the story, while still paying homage to the source material.

As to other differences, in Ms. Marvel, Kamala meets Kareem/Red Dagger extremely early on in her hero journey. She does not even have the Ms. Marvel mantle yet or donned a full costume. In the comics, she meets him as a well-established hero and Avenger struggling to come to terms with her self-identity and confidence as a hero.

In her meetings with Red Dagger, she learns humility when she botches a hero job in Karachi because she did not understand the workings of the area. In Jersey City, she struggled with feeling replaceable as Red Dagger immediately got the media’s attention after they stopped a runaway train. 

The character’s story will continue throughout the rest of Ms. Marvel at least, but there is every reason to believe Red Dagger can serve as a sort of reflection point for Kamala like he does in the comics, but with more emphasis on her beginnings and growth into a superhero in the first place. 

The first four episodes of Ms. Marvel are now streaming on Disney+.

As Marvel Studios’ series Ms. Marvel reaches its halfway point, it is clear that the show borrows quite a lot from Ms. Marvel comics. With Episode 1, we looked at how the series adapted from the comics the moment Kamala’s powers were activated; and for Episode 2 we delved into the comics’ and series’ introduction and handling so far of the character Kamran. This week, we take a different approach with Episode 3. While the episode incorporates many small references to the comics, arguably its most significant and intriguing inclusion lies far outside Ms. Marvel comics. Below, we look at how and why the Clandestines in Ms. Marvel were brought to life from ClanDestine comics.

Ms. Marvel’s Clandestines

The beginning of Episode 3, titled “Destined”, brought forth a lot of information supposedly explaining much of Kamala’s origin and background. Najma, Kamran’s mother and the woman Kamala had visions of, tells Kamala that she and Kamala’s great-grandmother Aishia were not human. Specifically, Najma claims that she and some others she appears to live with are actually Djinn, who were exiled from their home Noor dimension. She states that they are called many names, including Clandestines.

The explanation of who Djinn are that we get in Episode 3 of Ms. Marvel is pretty sparing. Kamala’s dad reads Bruno’s research, which says that Djinn are mythological beings of pre-Islamic folklore, sometimes referred to as genies. We also know from references throughout the series that Djinn seem to be viewed as demons to the superstitious, including Kamala.

There are still a lot of questions about the group, but they appear to be a patchwork group of loosely-related Djinn who live together. It is unclear if anyone is closely related other than Kamran and his mother, but there is a clear theme of family and belonging within the Clandestines which Najma uses to manipulate Kamala.

ClanDestine in the Comics

The Clandestines of Ms. Marvel are clearly influenced by the ClanDestine comics, although ClanDestine seems to provide minimal inspiration rather than being directly adapted into live-action. In the comics, ClanDestine is a large, kind of odd family comprised of the progeny of Adam Destine and a being named Elayath. All of their children inherited superhuman abilities of some kind. Adam himself is immortal and many of the children are decades or centuries apart in age.

The family primarily sought to operate in secret rather than identifying themselves as super-powered beings or superheroes, though certain members try to follow this path. ClanDestine stories in the comics are driven by family conflict, such as when Adam killed his son Victor because he believed he had become evil.

The clear connection that the makers of Ms. Marvel made to ClanDestine is that the matriarch, Elayath, is a Djinn. Adam freed her from a wizard that had trapped her in a jewel around 1200 A.D. In return, she granted him his immortality and invulnerability.

Why Would Ms. Marvel Adapt ClanDestine?

The comics’ ClanDestines and Ms. Marvel’s Clandestines seem extremely different in history, nature, and group members. The connection between the two seems to boil down simply to the name and the Djinn aspect. Even so, how the two groups incorporate Djinn is entirely different, as ClanDestine is a family descended from a single Djinn, whereas the Clandestines in the show appear to all be a type of being, known as Djinn, from another dimension.

Why would Marvel make this connection between an extremely obscure group from the comics and a very different group in live-action? It all likely comes down to the series attempting to give Kamala’s background and origin the same type of explanation as her Inhuman heritage in the comics. Everything in the series suggests that Marvel Studios wants to mimic Kamala’s comic story without invoking Inhumans. So, in Ms. Marvel, the Clandestines are a family-like group of super-powered, or at least mystical, beings that Kamala is related to in some way, similar to her relationship to Inhumans in the comics.

That connection is relatively obvious, but the series clearly wanted that familial theme to be tied to Kamala’s religious and cultural heritage. This leads, of course, to using beings of pre-Islamic folklore, Djinn, as an option to explain why Kamala is more than human. There is very little comic basis for this, but ClanDestine happens to already contain those essential elements of Kamala’s story in Ms. Marvel.

To be fair, Najma’s explanation of the Clandestines should be taken with a grain of salt given the fact that she is a clear villain and there is not much evidence yet to back up her claims. Still, Ms. Marvel certainly made a bold creative choice in adapting ClanDestine from the comics to build Kamala’s Khan’s story.

The first three episodes of Ms. Marvel are now streaming on Disney+.