Ms. Marvel – Destined Review

Three episodes in and Marvel finally lets us in on just what is going on with Kamala and her bangle – but not without also giving us another wholly delightful, well-written, and smartly acted episode of television around that particular piece of exposition. This is how you tell a limited story, folks.

We learned a bit more about Aisha and her fellow Clandestines (more on them and their place in the larger Marvel universe at the end of this review). Back in 1947, during the Partition, Aisha, Najma, and their fellow interdimensional refugees found the mysterious bangle in a looted temple. There were, naturally, supposed to be two, but the gang was only able to snag one before things fell apart. Aisha was separated from the group – whether that was an intentional choice on her part or simply situational is still up for debate (Najma certainly seems to think it was on purpose, especially due to her quick jump to believing that Kamala is intending on betraying them like her great-grandmother before her) – and the bangle was then passed down in her part-Djinn family for three generations. So, we know just how that bangle came into Aisha’s possession and what it means to the show’s supervillains. But we still don’t quite know exactly how it can help punch that hole into the other dimension – or just what the Clandestines did to get themselves exiled in the first place (should they really be allowed back?).

All of this while the DODC is still sniffing around the mosque (with clear xenophobic tendencies to boot), Nakia is only just now finding out that Kamala is Night Light (and yeah, that’s an awful super name), and the Khans are starting to genuinely worry that Kamala is keeping some dark secrets from them (which, yeah, she definitely is). That last item is likely to resolve itself pretty fast in the next episode – with grandma all but demanding Kamala and her mother return to Karachi and face the family past – but still, some seriously relatable things there for anyone who was ever a young person dealing with personal issues they don’t think their parents could have any idea of how to solve (I know I’ve been in that boat, albeit not one that involves interdimensional travelers and super powers, but still). Growing up is hard enough without all of that baggage.

So, the next stage of the series is pretty clear: Kamala needs to get to Karachi, where she will likely get Aisha’s side of the story. And, of course, the Clandestines will show up for one final battle between Kamala and her adversaries. Oh, and I’m sure we’ll find out just where that bangle and its powers came from (my guess is either Kree or Skrull, keeping with the Captain Marvel theming, and making it easier to slot Kamala into The Marvels film next year), and perhaps just where its other half lives. Considering how well Kamala held her own in her first real battle this week (just clumsy enough to be realistic as a kid fighting for the first time, but still confident enough in letting the bangle do the work to keep things under control until the real help arrived), that was a pretty cool fight sequence. And it showed that as small-time villains (not Thanos or Gorr the God Butcher level), they were a pretty effective fighting force – even if Najma is really the only one we need to concern ourselves with for the purposes of the series. I have to say, I’m excited to see where things go as we get into the final three episodes of this series.

Marvel-isms

–Ok, so the Clandestines or ClanDestine, in Marvel lore, were a lower-level group of villains who, like the ones in Ms. Marvel, got their superhuman abilities from the Djinn. The patriarch of the family was named Adam (in the series, one of the Clandestines was named Aadam, presumably as an homage to the source material), but that’s about where the similarities end. They aren’t from another dimension and banished here. There’s no Noor Dimension in Marvel (one assumes that’s some mystical plane of existence – likely the one Kamala sees when she’s using the bangle (and probably similar to the other mystical afterlife planes we’ve seen in Black Panther and Moon Knight). So, while the series cribbed the name of this villainous group from Marvel, it didn’t really do much else. This gang appears to be far more original than at first glance – which is cool, as original villains can be even more fun than those pulled from the pages of a comic book.