Vibrant First Trailer For “Ms. Marvel” Offers A New Look At Kamala’s Altered Powers

I have long been sick and tired of those people on social media (you know the ones) who seem to have nothing better to do in their lives than trash adaptations they feel are “bad” or “unfaithful” (usually for racist reasons), only to immediately turn around and idolize Marvel Studios for always “respecting the fans” and “honoring the source material”, but today I want to talk about them. Because now Marvel has released the first trailer for Ms. Marvel, an original series coming to Disney+ this June, and those people…those people are real quiet all of a sudden.

Ms. Marvel
Kamala Khan | wusa9.com

And I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that a lot of them were never gonna watch Ms. Marvel in the first place, because the concept of a brown Pakistani-American Muslim girl saving the world is just a little bit too much for them to handle, but we all know in the end most of them will cave and watch – and don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they’ll complain about the show bitterly, but I’ll be very surprised if any of them call it out for being a “bad” adaptation even though, in this case, I think there’s a very convincing argument to be made for why this is, if not an bad adaptation (that word is strong, too strong for me to use in good faith before the show has aired a single episode), then at least a problematic one.

And it’s not like this is the first time Marvel has done this, either, but there’s always an excuse for why it’s okay in their case. To cite just one example out of many, Wanda Maximoff’s Romani and Jewish heritage, which is pretty integral to her character, was erased when she and her twin brother Pietro were introduced to the MCU in Age Of Ultron. The excuse at the time was that Marvel needed to give them both completely new backstories to avoid getting into trouble with 20th Century Fox, but Disney now owns Fox and has yet to fix or even address this problem. For some, it’s ceased to even be a problem, and that’s kinda sad.

With Ms. Marvel, the problem isn’t the casting of Kamala Khan. Newcomer Iman Vellani is instantly charismatic, leaning heavily into the side of Kamala that is colorful, quirky, and so wildly imaginative that, in the first half of this trailer at least, she’s surrounded by animated thought-bubbles and doodles like she’s in a comic-book herself. Obviously, that’s not the only side of Kamala’s character that this series ought to be exploring, but it’s the only one that this trailer really hones in on – and Vellani seems particularly well-cast as Kamala the fangirl, fan-artist, and fanfic-writer who desperately wants to be a superhero but is still shocked and slightly terrified when her wish comes true.

But here’s the problem. In the comics, it’s important – I’d argue crucial – to Kamala’s character arc that her superpowers, when they manifest, are neither pretty nor cool at first glance. She can’t fly, or glow, or shoot laser-beams from her eyes. Instead, by what seems like a cruel twist of fate, she discovers that she’s a polymorph with the ability to rearrange the molecules in her body, allowing her to stretch, shrink, grow, flatten, expand, and contort into various shapes. This is a big deal because when she realizes that she can use this power to look like different people, she initially chooses to take the form of her favorite superhero – Captain Marvel.

Kamala in the comics is deeply scared that unless she looks like the conventionally attractive white superheroes she’s grown up idolizing, people not only won’t see her as a superhero, but won’t even trust her to save them in a life-or-death situation. It’s really important to her character arc that her powers are something she could either choose to embrace or to be ashamed of, and that she chooses to embrace the parts of herself that might alienate other people – knowing full well that it means giving up her one shot to be what the media says a superhero “should” look like – because the “brown girls from Jersey City” deserve a superhero who looks like them.

Ms. Marvel
Ms. Marvel | ewwnews.com

But no, let’s give her a cute clip-on bracelet that glows and shoots sparkles instead.

I have no trouble understanding why this choice was made, so you can all save your prepared excuses. I’m obviously aware that elasticity is a weird superpower, one that tests how far audiences are willing to suspend their disbelief even when well-executed. Pixar’s The Incredibles proves that even back in 2004 it could be done in animation, but the live-action Fantastic Four movie that came out a year later conclusively proved that special effects technology had not yet caught up to the comics in regards to elasticity. Seventeen years and two more Fantastic Four movies later, that conclusion has yet to be refuted.

(Speaking of the Fantastic Four, I do not believe there is any truth to the theory that Kamala’s powers were altered so that Mr. Fantastic will stand out more when he makes his MCU debut, as this has never been a problem before. If there’s enough room for two archers named Hawkeye and at least eleven Eternals with slight variations on the same cosmic energy-based powers, I think Ms. Marvel and Mr. Fantastic could have peacefully co-existed in the same universe without anyone getting confused).

My issue, and the issue which many fans of Kamala Khan have with this change, is not that Kamala’s powers are different, but that changing them to be pretty and cool and “cosmic”, as Kamala excitedly whispers at one point in the trailer, fundamentally alters who she is. Her new powers, instead of causing her to question why she doesn’t look or feel like a superhero (and ultimately leading her to the realization that it’s the superhero media she consumes that put those doubts in her head), have the exact opposite effect – allowing her to live her dream-life as an easily merchandisable action figure on sale now at a Disney store near you!

And I’m sure that Ms. Marvel will have a sweet message about the importance of being yourself, but you can count on Disney to take a middle-of-the-road stance on pretty much everything, no matter how inoffensive it may seem. Be yourself…to a point. Don’t ever be so accepting of your differences that you accidentally step outside one of the studio’s target demographics – that would be radical.

Eh, maybe the cynic in me is just wary of all of Disney and Marvel’s attempts at representation following recent events. Trust me, I really want Ms. Marvel to surprise me, and I’d like nothing more than for there to be a twist near the end of the series where the magic bracelet is broken or lost or stolen by an antagonist, but it turns out that Kamala has actually had her comic-accurate polymorphic abilities the whole time and chooses to use those instead of the cool sparkly powers that her bracelet gave her. But at the end of the day, it’s easier to sell clip-on bracelets than Terrigen crystals that unlock latent Inhuman powers in humans, so I doubt any of that will pan out.

Unfortunately, the situation with Kamala’s powers isn’t the only controversy overshadowing the new series, though it might well be the most easily remediable in the long run. Amongst the supporting cast encircling Iman Vellani in Ms. Marvel we have Yasmeen Fletcher, a Christian actress significantly lighter-skinned than her character, Nakia Bahadir, who has been portrayed in the comics as a fairly unambiguously brown hijabi Muslim girl, and Zenobia Shroff, a non-Muslim Indian actress playing Kamala’s Pakistani Muslim mother. Several other casting announcements have additionally been criticized for perpetuating the trend of colorism in Hollywood.

Ms. Marvel
Ms. Marvel | ign.com

I won’t lie, seeing the Ms. Marvel (2014) #5 comic-book cover recreated so faithfully on the first poster for this series and then again in the trailer itself was exciting, but the similarities can’t end there. I mean, they can – Marvel can technically just give us a completely different version of this beloved character and expect us to be okay with that, but it’s disappointing that they can get away with it so easily and that a lot of fans will brush aside any criticism as illegitimate or mean-spirited, even when it comes predominantly from the Muslim fans and fans of SWANA (Southwest Asian & North African) descent whom this character was originally made to represent.

Trailer Rating: 7.5/10

Marvel Offers 1st Look At Eternals And Upcoming Film Slate

What will it take to get moviegoers back into theaters? Hollywood has been asking themselves that question a lot recently: things were looking up for a moment with the success of Godzilla Vs Kong, but Mortal Kombat‘s limited mainstream appeal made it a poor successor to the Monsterverse epic. All eyes are turning towards Marvel’s Black Widow to make or break the box-office, and just this morning Marvel has released a teaser of their upcoming film slate that’s supposed to work as a little…incentive, to get people hyped up about their theatrical releases after a few months of Disney+ series’ (and streaming in general) dominating the conversation.

Marvel Eternals
The Eternals | comicbook.com

Granted, at least one of these movies will be available to purchase on Disney+ while it plays in theaters, and that happens to be Black Widow, so…we’ll see whether this ends up revitalizing the box-office like it’s supposed to, but either way this teaser gave me all the feels, and a first fleeting look at the upcoming film Eternals, my most-anticipated Marvel feature and the one best positioned to be a serious contender at next year’s Academy Awards race.

When I say fleeting, I’m not kidding – we only get a mere thirteen seconds to admire Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao’s stunning cinematography, and a range of what will presumably be outstanding performances from an all-star cast including Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie. But thirteen seconds is all it takes to sell me on the film’s premise, and Zhao’s stunning vision for her first MCU project, one to which she has committed herself with the same clear passion as her critically-acclaimed A24 drama, Nomadland.

Spanning time and space, Eternals follows a group of celestial beings (not to be confused with the literal Celestials, who created the Eternals) who have roamed the earth since prehistoric times, subtly guiding the forward flow of human civilization. Thirteen seconds isn’t much, but it allows us to see the Eternals in their ancient guise as godlike superheroes defending the city of Babylon outside the famous Gate of Ishtar (once considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World)…before showing them in their modern forms, revisiting the site of the Mesopotamian city as archaeologists.

We see a little bit of how they’ve each adapted to life coexisting alongside the human race; with some of them, like Salma Hayek’s Ajak, distancing themselves from civilization (Hayek appears to be riding on horseback through what could be the American Southwest or even the Pampas of Argentina), while others, like Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo, have become celebrities among the humans (I love that he’s brought his own personal camera crew along with him to meet the other Eternals). Angelina Jolie’s Thena is the only character we see fighting in the clip (and I could be wrong, but I think she’s only sparring with her fellow Eternal, Gilgamesh), but the choreography looks good and her golden sword is both beautiful and cool.

Marvel Eternals
Angelina Jolie as Thena | indiewire.com

Perhaps my biggest fear was that the Eternals’ costumes wouldn’t look great in live-action, since up until now all we’ve really seen of them is some concept art…which, with all due respect to the artist, wasn’t quite as visually striking as some fans had been hoping. But this clip lets us see a few of the suits in action (not all, though, and not the ones that looked worst in the concept art), and they seem practical, well-made, and simply gorgeous – with Jolie’s Thena making a particularly strong impression, dressed from head to toe in white with gold accents. Her regal, even haughty, stride indicates that she’s not going to allow any opponent to get a speck of dirt or blood on her pristine outfit – and I respect that power move.

While the rest of the teaser does feature some new footage from Black Widow and Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, the two major talking points besides the never-before-seen Eternals footage were both title reveals – Black Panther 2 officially receiving the emotional subtitle Wakanda Forever (that movie is gonna make me cry: I just know it), and Captain Marvel 2 rather unusually being retitled and rebranded entirely as The Marvels.

I’m a bit conflicted on how I feel about the latter title: firstly, because when I got the notification on my phone about this announcement, I honestly thought The Marvels was going to be an MCU sitcom. Of course, the title is supposed to reference the film’s holy trinity of heroines – Brie Larson as Carol Danvers’ Captain Marvel, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau (who also goes by Captain Marvel in the comics), and Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel – but it’s a bit too much of a cheeky pun on the company’s name, and slightly undermines what I feel should be more of an epic and awe-inspiring moment. Some fans are upset that the Captain Marvel solo franchise is now dropping Captain Marvel’s name, and I get that – though I also understand and appreciate that the new title celebrates more inclusivity, and puts the three women on equal status, rather than elevating Carol above her costars.

The teaser is very focused on release dates, some of which we already knew, some of which are a bit of a surprise. Black Widow and Eternals are both set in stone and unlikely to shift around on the calendar – the former is comfortably anchored by a Disney+ simultaneous release, and the latter is being positioned for awards season. Shang-Chi will still release in September, between the two films, while Spider-Man: No Way Home will close out the year on a bang, by all accounts setting up a Multiverse saga that will escalate in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, arriving March 25th, 2022. Thor: Love And Thunder and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be the big summer event-movies of that year, and The Marvels will premiere on November 11th.

Captain Marvel 2
The Marvels | marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com

So far, only Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 are confirmed for 2023 (the former in February, the latter in May) but Mahershala Ali’s Blade will likely end up there too, along with Fantastic Four – the electric-blue logo for which pops up again in the final moments of this teaser, as if to remind us that we never know the full extent of Marvel’s plans for the future. Remember, these are just the upcoming movies.

But how do you feel about the studio’s slate of films, and which is your most anticipated? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

“Secret Invasion” Is Happening: Now Give Us MCU Quake.

If a Fantastic Four movie announcement hadn’t overshadowed everything else at the Marvel presentation during the Disney Investors Meeting, Secret Invasion definitely would have been the big headline coming out of the event. The Skrulls are literally about to invade the Marvel Cinematic Universe and don the skins and personalities of all your favorite MCU heroes; this is big news, people. Why it didn’t make more of an impression is a mystery to me – though, personally, I feel it has to do with how dreadfully ugly the logo for the new series turned out to be (yes, I know it’s a direct nod to the comics upon which this storyline is based; no, I don’t care, it’s still ugly).

Secret Invasion
Secret Invasion | marvel.com

The Secret Invasion will start out as a Disney+ series (though technically it was foreshadowed in the post-credits scene of Spider-Man: Far From Home, which revealed that Nick Fury and Maria Hill were both being impersonated by shapeshifting Skrull aliens), but it will likely expand across the entire slate of MCU movies and series. If it’s going to play out at all like the comics, it has to be on an epic scale: otherwise, they might as well call it Secret Skirmish. The Ms. Marvel series will likely include some Skrull action, thanks to its new connection to Captain Marvel 2: which will almost certainly be where the Secret Invasion reaches its full extent – unless the Secret Invasion series gets renewed for multiple seasons, and becomes Agents Of S.W.O.R.D. (more on that in a moment).

Samuel L. Jackson will return to reprise the role of Nick Fury, and star in the new series – which means that yes, this is the Nick Fury show we heard rumors about just a few months ago. Not a prequel exploring his backstory, thank goodness, but something actually relevant (I swear that’s not a jab at the long-delayed Black Widow movie). Fury will have a key role in the Secret Invasion, heading up the S.W.O.R.D. team from his headquarters in space. On earth, his Skrull ally Talos is probably still impersonating him, so there’s ways for Jackson to appear even when Fury technically isn’t onscreen.

Ben Mendelsohn will be co-starring alongside Jackson, as Talos: suggesting that he will spend more time as himself than as Fury or other characters, which is great, because Mendelsohn is an incredibly charismatic and underrated actor. Talos will be in a tricky position in Secret Invasion, having to battle misguided friends (and perhaps even members of his own family). With the Skrulls currently being depicted as good guys in the MCU, it’ll take something drastic for even a few to turn against Fury and Talos and infiltrate the ranks of Earth’s mightiest heroes: something that drastic could easily divide Talos’ own loyalties, causing him to question his allegiances to Fury – and perhaps even betray him. I expect his character to have plenty to do.

Secret Invasion
Talos | marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com

But…the show still needs a female lead. There are some great candidates: Maria Rambeau is presumably still out there, and I’ve long hoped she’ll be a prominent member of the S.W.O.R.D. organization by this point in the MCU timeline; Monica Rambeau, her daughter, could rise through the ranks during the events of WandaVision; and Abigail Brand, S.W.O.R.D.’s leader in the comics, might show up to fill this role. Personally, I hope all three feature heavily in this series. But I also want another woman to appear in Secret Invasion, and that woman is – you guessed it – Quake. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s Daisy Johnson, seismic Inhuman superheroine and the most well-written character in the Marvel Universe (you heard me), appearing via Multiverse shenanigans or just plain and simple S.H.I.E.L.D. canonization. It appears I can’t write a single post about the MCU without mentioning Quake, but that’s because the entire MCU seems to be leading up to a place where her inclusion is not only beneficial but necessary.

Oh, and, uh, in case this wasn’t clear already: just bring back Chloe Bennet as Quake. She is the character. She’s lived and breathed Quake for the past seven years, and she’s made it abundantly clear she’s not ready to call it quits. And the series finale this year left Daisy wandering on an emissary mission through space, headed for some sort of weird-looking space anomaly. That could easily have been a portal to another reality, and if Marvel wants, they can just leave Daniel Sousa and Kora out of the equation. Say they’re off somewhere else, or don’t say anything at all. I don’t care. I only need Quake in the MCU, and I need her because she’s far too good a character to waste, or to throw aside just because she comes from Marvel TV. Reminder: Charlie Cox’s Daredevil is also a Marvel TV character, and yet is strongly suspected to be appearing in Spider-Man 3.

Quake is a crucial character in the Secret Invasion storyline in the comics, personally assigned by Nick Fury with the task of assembling a Secret Warriors team to combat the Skrulls that made it down to Earth and were wreaking havoc while in disguise. As one of Marvel’s only widely-known Inhuman characters besides Ms. Marvel and maybe Black Bolt (if we’re pushing it), she’s also a great character to help introduce that complicated concept in the MCU. And besides all that, she’s resonated with viewers because of her courage, resilience, and complexity. She’s also Marvel’s first (and to date only) Asian-American lead character, Marvel’s first female lead in live-action, and one of their first superpowered heroines.

Secret Invasion
Quake | cinemablend.com

Now that I’ve derailed this post completely, it’s time to wrap up with a cheery reminder that Secret Invasion doesn’t yet have a director attached, or a release date. So it’s still a long way off, and there’s still plenty of time for Marvel to see the light and cast Chloe Bennet as Quake.

What do you think? Are you excited for Secret Invasion? Do you also want to see Quake in the MCU? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

“Ms. Marvel” Debuts New Footage, Will Costar In Captain Marvel 2!

Despite the Ms. Marvel Disney+ series only just beginning filming in Atlanta over the past few weeks, a sizzle reel compiled from behind-the-scenes interviews with the series’ creators and clips of new footage from the show was already completed in time for the Disney Investors Meeting on Thursday night, and gave us our first official look at newcomer Iman Vellani as the MCU’s first Muslim superhero, Pakistani-American teenager Kamala Khan. It’s not much, but it’s worth a shoutout because of the representation showcased in the sizzle reel itself, and the promise made by Marvel President Kevin Feige that Kamala Khan (a.k.a. Ms Marvel) will go on to costar in future Marvel films.

Ms. Marvel
Ms. Marvel | gamesradar.com

The brief video spotlights each of the four main directors working on Ms. Marvel, including Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah, Meera Menon, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. All are experienced filmmakers, and El Arbi and Fallah directed one of the highest-grossing films of this year, Bad Boys For Life: a gritty, action-packed adventure. Kamala Khan is a superheroine with a very distinctive superpower – the ability to redistribute the atoms in her body at will, to change her shape and size, create giant fists, or grow to incredible heights – so I hope all four directors will be able to carry that over from page to screen in a cool way, while keeping it wonderfully weird. Kamala Khan’s creator, G. Willow Wilson, has said she fears Khan will look “really creepy” in live-action because of her powers, but I have faith in Marvel to do her justice.

While the diversity behind the camera (where it matters most, arguably) is excellent, there’s been some recent controversy around the diversity onscreen…or rather, the lack thereof. A few days, #FixMsMarvel trended on Twitter, after it was discovered that two actresses cast in the series as Muslim women of color, Zenobia Shroff and Yasmeen Fletcher, are not Muslim (and Fletcher is half-white and Christian); that actor Matt Lintz, cast as Kamala Khan’s best friend Bruno, is possibly a Trump supporter (although he claimed later he is not political, which itself is a questionable stance, especially during these times); and that a sexual offender was reportedly cast in another supporting role. That last claim is certainly severe, but the actor in question is not confirmed to have joined the cast, unlike Shroff, Fletcher, and Lintz, all of whose names can currently be found on the Marvel website. For a series that is so laser-focused on improving representation of a traditionally marginalized demographic, these castings do represent missteps – and the MCU’s casting director, Sarah Halley Finn, is no stranger to casting controversy, having previously received criticism for picking a Mexican actress, Xochitl Gomez, as the (arguably) Afro-Latina Puerto Rican heroine America Chavez; and (allegedly) Oscar Isaac, a born-and-raised Evangelical Christian, as Jewish hero Matt Spector.

Ms. Marvel
Ms. Marvel | murphysmultiverse.com

How you choose to digest this information and proceed is your own choice, and reactions to the news will vary. It’s especially disappointing, however, because of how perfectly cast Iman Vellani appears as Kamala Khan: and how excited I think we all are for her to succeed. Vellani doesn’t appear in her Ms. Marvel costume in the new footage, but she’s still channeling her in-universe role model, Captain Marvel – as we can see her purchasing the Captain Marvel costume she wore in behind-the-scenes photos (where I thought she was being played by a child actor: my apologies to Vellani); wearing a T-shirt that seems to hint at a Captain Marvel/Valkyrie romantic pairing (which, if that’s the case, I wholeheartedly support); and staring wistfully at the Captain Marvel posters and memorabilia that adorn her bedroom wall. Heartwarming footage was also shown of Vellani’s freak-out reaction to her casting.

I can understand freaking out, because Marvel president Kevin Feige made it very clear that Ms. Marvel isn’t a one-and-done character: she will soon join Brie Larson and Teyonah Parris in a lead role in Captain Marvel 2, fulfilling her fangirl dreams and allowing her a chance to punch bad guys with her supersized fists on the big screen where she belongs. Much was made out of Vellani’s two-star review for the first Captain Marvel review on her alleged Letterboxd account (which, she clarified, was not because of Brie Larson, whom she “would die for”) – hopefully, her appearance in the Nia DaCosta-directed sequel will make it even better than the first. Meanwhile, Ms. Marvel may also help introduce the Inhumans royal family to the MCU, as a possible reference to Maximus the Mad hidden in the new footage hints that they’re on their way.

Ms. Marvel
Maximus | mcuexchange.com

The Inhumans were the subject of a short-lived ABC TV series, but they haven’t ever really caught on with audiences, except on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., which was helped by exceptional writing and great character work. For the Inhumans’ MCU debut, I think Marvel would be foolish not to borrow from the best and transfer popular Inhuman S.H.I.E.L.D. characters like Daisy Johnson and Yo-Yo Rodriguez over to the Disney+ series, with actresses Chloe Bennet and Natalia Cordova-Buckley reprising their roles. We already have confirmation that another Inhuman from the comics, the bioluminescent Kamran, will appear and be played by Rish Shah: the stage is set for more to follow.

So what do you think? How do you feel about Ms. Marvel, and how would you deal with the controversies around casting? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!