Ms. Marvel wraps up its first season with exhilarating, heart-warming finale

One of the most memorable moments of the Ms Marvel finale (now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar) had nothing to do with combat, VFX or Avengers-lore — although the series in general has plenty of all of those things. It was Kamala Khan chilling on the roof of her home with her dad Yusuf (Mohan Kapur), long after the bullets had stopped flying and the day was saved. Yusuf explains to Kamala how she had always been a miracle to him and Muneeba (Kamala’s mother, played by the Indian-American actress Zenobia Shroff), calling her “Our little Ms. Marvel”, thereby giving Kamala her superhero name.

This was a well-written, superbly performed scene that will go down as one of the definitive moments of Marvel’s ongoing Phase Four. It checked all the classic Marvel boxes — origin story, parental approval, an unselfish idea of heroism, a glimpse at what the future of the MCU is going to look like. On the whole, ‘No Normal’, the sixth and final episode of Ms. Marvel’s inaugural season, was a triumphant conclusion for one of the most endearing shows of 2022 so far.

The episode began on a comedic note, as Kamala awkwardly admits to her brother (Aamir) and father that she’s the superhero the TV channels are calling “Night Light”, only for Aamir and Yusuf to sheepishly admit to knowing already. “The Khan family gossip train”, as Aamir puts it. And since the makers had disposed of Nazma (Nimra Bucha) in the previous episode, the show decides to make the DDC (Department of Damage Control) this episode’s Big Bad. These all-American soldiers are led by Agent Sadie Deever (Alysia Reiner), whose character receives limited screentime but is very interesting nevertheless.

There are not-so-vague hints dropped throughout Ms Marvel that the show is happening under a Democrat president. At the DDC, Agent Deever is told by her superiors to “tread lightly” even as she planned to search all the mosques in Jersey City. “We already have them under surveillance,” she is told, with “them” referring to the city’s Muslim population. Deever, then, represents the hawkishness that even Democrats have when it comes to Islam in America. “Is it a red alert because you’re looking for an enhanced individual or is it a red alert because you’re looking for them inside a mosque”, a character asks Agent Deever in one of the previous episodes, a question that she cannot answer with a straight face.

The character Nakia (Yasmeen Fletcher) is another case in point—like Fletcher herself, Nakia is Lebanese-American, someone who has spent her entire childhood being told that she’s too white or she’s too brown. Her choice to wear the hijab was explained beautifully, in a scene that rightly won Ms Marvel much acclaim from fans and critics alike. Later, she also becomes a member of the local Mosque Board. To have a young, head-scarf wearing Muslim woman as the show’s second lead, almost, was a big step for the MCU and Ms. Marvel’s adroit handling of this character made sure there were no hiccups along the way.

Among other things, Ms. Marvel is a story about fan culture, and so it was fitting that the climactic battle of the episode is also resolved by harnessing the power of fandom. Zoe, who has a zillion followers on Instagram is trapped along with Kamala, Kamran, Nakia and Bruno even as the DDC agents have them pinned from all sides. Kamala asks Zoe to go live on Instagram and tell the world that the DDC was targeting literal teenagers including her Muslim friends. This serves only to piss Agent Deever off, in the end, but it leads to some very amusing theatrics indeed.

I admire the way Zoe’s redemption arc is handled in the series—from being the vaguely racist white Queen Bee of the high school, she becomes an avowed ally by the end of this episode, shooting adorable little clips of herself and Nakia bonding.

I also loved Yusuf Khan as a character and Mohan Kapur was simply outstanding as this sweetest of desi Dads — cringe on some days, preternaturally wise on others and just a total sweetheart throughout. Zenobia Shroff also did brilliantly in a challenging role: Muneeba is the quintessentially strict Pakistani mum towards the beginning, but the way her character expands laterally, incorporating the Indo-Pak Partition and her difficult relationship with her own mother Sana… it was absolutely brilliant, I have to say.

On the whole I loved Ms Marvel, perhaps more so than any other Marvel show so far—only WandaVision comes close for me, and that only because of its hyper-literacy when it comes to the history of American television.  Kamala is all set to be one of the leads of the upcoming film The Marvels, led by Brie Larson (Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel) and I can’t wait to see what happens when Ms. Marvel meets her idol.

Aditya Mani Jha is a Delhi-based independent writer and journalist, currently working on a book of essays on Indian comics and graphic novels.

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