Is It Enough that Ms. Marvel Is South Asian?

A character needs a character; Superman still needs to be a man. And the relationships between characters needs to be relatable. These are, I believe, some of the main rules that a story should follow – both in film and writing, regardless of the genres. Not following these rules is one of the main problems with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The franchise’s new series, “Ms. Marvel,” has not fixed this problem, but it did try – and it did better than the average MCU production.

First, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is not alone This detachment of characters from real people is a recurrent problem with a lot of action movies (not just superhero movies). In this regard, Marvel has not made any new mistakes – it is just repeating common ones. Moreover, I believe, the MCU is getting more flak recently because it has been topping the charts, and hence drawing more attention.

Second, a disclaimer. I am writing this as a disappointed Marvel fan. I have seen nearly everything the MCU has churned out, and I always knew the franchise was going to be about escapist entertainment, not philosophical debates on the purpose of life. Yet, even while knowing this, I really feel the quality of MCU’s work is decreasing. I found some of the recent productions really bad – two of the newest movies, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “Thor: Love and Thunder,” were so messy that there is no point discussing their potential to represent real characters when they even managed to destroy the charm of superhero characters. Thus, I am aware I am writing this text with a bias – I am more prone to criticize MCU more than before, but I will at least try to keep my judgment on the franchise’s new series, “Ms. Marvel,” in balance.

There is a “positive bias” to my attitude as well – Ms. Marvel is the cinematic franchise’s first woman hero of South Asian origin. The first male hero of South Asian origin was Kingo in the film “Eternals,” who was not so central to the plot (since he was squeezed in with a whole new team of heroes), and whose origins did not play an important role in the story. Thus, Ms. Marvel really is MCU’s first superhero of outspokenly South Asian origin.

Given my interest in the region, this was a reason enough to watch. Otherwise, the series did not excel when it came to the plot. The premise was promising, but it seems that the directors did not know how to push the story forward into new waters – or, frankly speaking, in any direction. The initial freshness of the first episodes ended up turning to Marvel’s all-too-familiar and avoidable tropes. One of them is a stubborn conviction that the hero must face their mirror image – a person with same powers, but someone who either cannot fully control these powers or uses them in evil ways. Nevertheless, “Ms. Marvel” still represents a step forward when it comes to endorsing and depicting cultural diversity – a step forward for the MCU of course, not in comparison to other movies.

The protagonist, Kamala Khan, is a teenage American girl of Pakistani origin growing up in New Jersey. The tension between her need for freedom (paired with her liberal worldview) and the (slightly) conservative approach of her parents is promisingly signaled in the first episodes. Kamala does notice that her brother is given much more liberty than her, and this observation results in a cleverly executed scene when she makes her brother stand in front of her parents to ask for exactly the same thing she had asked for (and was refused). Kamala does not frequently visit the mosque, and when she finally does, she is bold enough to question the imam during the prayers, asking him why the women are forced to sit separately, and why their section is less taken care of. Certain cultural undertones of the series are really played well – for instance, when the Pakistani-origin teenagers appearing in the story discuss movies, these happen to be Bollywood ones (i.e. Indian films in Hindi).

Thus, at least this time cultural diversity in a Marvel production is something more than a token representation – a bit more than just making a hero wear different clothes. “Black Panther” was ground-breaking (once again, by MCU standards) by outspokenly focusing on a non-White, non-American hero rooted in his African culture. But while in “Black Panther” that culture was presented as a source of pride and identity, it was not admitted that culture can also be a source of tension – that traditions may be (and should be) discussed, both in real life and in movies.

For instance, the fictional state of Wakanda where the story of “Black Panther” takes place follows a custom of allowing contenders to challenge a king’s legitimate heir to a fight; the winner becomes the ruler. While this turns out really badly for the hero (and the whole kingdom), the custom is still being taken for granted – no one even suggests that this tradition needs to be reformed. “Shang-Chi” can be summarized similarly.

“Ms. Marvel” at least makes a passing reference to the fact that in Islamic traditions women are not treated as equal to men and suggests change.

Moreover, culture in “Black Panther” was still a “generic” African culture – Wakanda is a fictional state that does not represent a particular African country. This is always an easier choice, lest a community or a nation feel offended by something in the movie. “Ms. Marvel” is bolder by being specific – it is the first MCU movie to show us that culture and identity are not set in stone. We know that the Khan family are from a community of muhajirs, even though the name is never uttered. Her story takes us all the way back to the time of Partition. We learn that her great-grandparents were Indian Muslims who chose to migrate to Pakistan when it was being created, and that her parents were Pakistanis who in turn chose to migrate to the United States The identity problems arising from those generational movements are rather well-marked in the show: Kamala’s grandmother, while based in Karachi, still feels a part of her belongs to India; her parents still feel a connection to Pakistan, but U.S.-born Kamala seems uncertain about her identity.

Another strong part of the story, maybe the strongest of all, is the relation between the three generations of women in the family. The pressure to live up to a mother’s expectations, and the mother’s capacity to point out the smallest flaw in her child, is a recurrent theme in the series, followed by a later reminder that an adult daughter can do the same to her aging mother. This is, I believe, a common challenge that occurs over national and cultural divides, though it is stronger in certain cultures. Once again, this may be also be the first time for the MCU to take this subject up (while I believe one could easily make a whole superhero movie about a person who achieves supernatural powers just to live up to their parents’ exorbitant expectations).

All of this is exactly what makes Ms. Marvel a character with a character, and a superwoman who is still a woman – her problems are real-life problems and her culture and her family are not just wallposters or token additions; they are sources of both her strength and her emotional woes.

Yet, the series lost this potential somewhere along the way. I am aware that an action show is, well, about action, and the pace should pick up in later episodes to keep the viewers engaged. I know that there is little space to discuss the issue of women’s rights among Pakistani-origin Americans when an episode should be packed with fights and chases. But the problem is that the series seemed to promise us just that.

For instance, the initial episodes devote a considerable time to the story of Khan’s high school friend Nakia, who decides to contest elections to a local mosque’s management board in order to take up various issues, including those connected to women. It is initially signaled that men may be against Nakia’s candidacy, but suddenly the show brushes this whole subject aside. Nakia wins, not a single conservative Muslim man appears on the screen to oppose her, and she immediately seems to take over the mosque’s secular and legal affairs, reducing the imam to the protagonists’ bland cheerleader. Surely this was still more culture-related content than in other MCU movies, but once the issue of women in Islam was taken up, one could hope for a less abrupt and awkward ending to this plot. Old traditions are not changed the way villains are defeated by superheroes – with one punch in the face.

The MCU actually has the potential to make culture a part of the plot, rather than just its background. For instance – gods are real beings in Marvel’s word, and the fantastic beasts and magical weapons from various mythologies exist too. More recent films and shows suggest that one’s afterlife may depend on one’s beliefs. After your death, your soul will go to a realm depicted by your religion (“Moon Knight” and “Thor: Love and Thunder” hinted at this). There is so much to be utilized here, and sometimes Marvel really makes good use of this mythological material – for instance, by turning the Norse god of mischief, Loki, into a morally ambiguous MCU character with a cunning mind and a power of illusion, which can turn the plot around at any moment.

But the same was not done in “Ms. Marvel.” There was certainly additional risk in basing the story on a contemporary community – Pakistani-origin Americans – rather than an extinct one, and referring to a live religion, Islam. Furious Vikings cannot sit in their long ships to set on a journey toward Marvel’s studio if they feel their faith was misrepresented. Still, “Ms. Marvel” did promise to make use of certain “magical,” and perhaps not that controversial, parts of Islamic lore – a magical artifact from India is central to the plot, as are beings taken from Arabic mythology, the djinns. But the Indian origins of this item have not been explored at all, and rather than pondering what capabilities the djinns had in Arabic beliefs, and how this could be used for the sake of the plot (as MCU did with Loki), these beings end up being nondescript “bad guys” who display no other power than considerable physical strength.

All in all, the makers of “Ms. Marvel” were still bolder in addressing culture and religion than the creators of all earlier MCU films but eventually they seemed to not know how to keep these subjects as a crucial part of the plot or they shied away from doing so.

As a postscript: If you are looking for a movie that really takes the issue of women in Pakistani-origin communities in the West head on, I suggest the 2007 Pakistani movie “Khuda Kay Liye.”