Ms. Marvel, series premiere - June 8

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so here is a shout-out to Mr. Nicklaus Brendborg: this learned worthy, while writing – and publishing – his treatise on old age, aging, and immortality, talked about – well, mentioned, really – the naked mole rat. That is fair enough, but he implied that the ‘ordinary’ rats and mice used in labs are its’ relatives. Yeah, no – the terms ‘rat’ and ‘mouse’ are very broad; the term ‘mouse’, for example, includes not only the various rodents, but also the so-called marsupial mice – distant cousins of the kangaroos and the koala, and close cousins of the quolls, the numbat, and the extinct Thylacine. By contrast, the term ‘rat’ includes several genera, including, obviously, the naked mole rat, as well as several of its relatives from the parvorder (or infraorder) Phiomorpha, but the ‘true’ rats aren’t closely related to them; this parvorder actually includes the Old World porcupines, (not the ones found in North America, but the ones found in Africa, Asia, and sometimes even in southern Europe); proportionally, the naked mole rat is a much further relative to the lab rats (derived from the black and Norway rat stocks, mainly), and lab mice, (variant house mouse, primarily), than we are to the apes. For Mr. Brendborg, a man of science and philosophy, to make such a mistake slash generalization is just rude and wrong – so let us end this rant for now, and turn onto ‘Ms. Marvel’, the series’ premiere.

So, what have we here? Last time, when we have talked about the ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ series, we talked about how Disney was playing it safe with SW now, producing new content that is only fan-approved. Whether that is a good long-term strategy is another matter, but this is what Disney does with SW. And what about MCU?

First, in ‘Ms. Marvel’, Disney is playing it safe, again. The series’ opener, ‘Generation Why’, is an introductory chapter through and through; in it we meet Kamala Khan, a modern young woman with a strong personality and personal values, whose relationship with the rest of her family is loving, of course, but there’re some pesky personal issues that initiate the rise of a conflict between them – a generational gap or whatever the modern term is… Wait a second…

…In ‘Encanto’, we have Mirabel Madrigal, who is a teen/young adult, who is a good person, (some character flaws notwithstanding), who loves her family and vice versa, but due to some pesky personal issues she and the rest of her family end up fighting…before making up.

…In ‘Turning Red’, we have Mei-Mei, who is a teen, who is a good person, (some character flaws notwithstanding), who loves her family and vice versa, but due to some pesky personal issues she and the rest of her family end up fighting…before making up.

…And in ‘Ms. Marvel’, (the TV 2022 series), we have Kamala Khan, who is a teen, who is a good person, (some character flaws notwithstanding), who loves her family and vice versa, but due to some pesky personal issues she and the rest of her family end up fighting…before making up – wait, what?

…Without a doubt, there are some differences between our three protagonists; i.e., Mirabel is the only one without powers in a power-ful family, (pun intended, sorry), while in Kamala’s case it is more of a reverse, (so far), and Mei-Mei and her mother both have powers to turn into giant red pandas now. Conversely, though…

In ‘Encanto’, the Madrigals are depicted – each of them is depicted – in a unique and a standout way, to a point where Julietta and Pepa’s families don’t appear to be very closely related at all, from a physical P.O.V.

In ‘Turning Red’, the citizens of Toronto – for example, Mei-Mei and her friends – are depicted in all of their multicultural glory, where each and every one of them is unique, in a standout way.

And in ‘Ms. Marvel’, we are about to meet the citizens of New Jersey, all of whom are depicted in a way that promotes America’s multicultural glory, with its’ characters depicted in a unique, standout way, each and every one of them…

Again, there are differences – ‘Turning Red’ and ‘Ms. Marvel’ don’t display the same high level of individualism as ‘Encanto’ has, but their levels are high enough…and then we come to the religious issues. ‘Encanto’ takes place in Colombia, (late 19^th century-first half of 20^th century, most likely), so the odds are that it is a Catholic, rather than a Protestant or Orthodox, community, though that is only a minor element in the movie. ‘Turning Red’… yeah, this one is a bit fudgey, but there are religious-cultural elements as well. And in ‘Ms. Marvel’, we learned from the trailers and the teasers, that Islam will be playing a BIG role in the TV series. Ergo-?

Ergo, while being something of a variation on the theme of a politically correct progressive young woman main character, ‘Ms. Marvel’ is also a propaganda piece, (unlike ‘Encanto’ & ‘Turning Red’, presumably): it aims to show ‘the life and times’ of a Muslim family in the U.S., how it lives, (as a unit), and how it functions, (as a unit), how it is both same and different from the WASP American families, and so on. So-?

So nothing. This week’s episode – ‘Generation Why’ – was pretty much just that: an introduction to yet another politically correct progressive young woman character, and another introduction to a politically correct and properly presented Islamic-American family. People, who like this sort of thing, will like ‘Ms. Marvel’; those who do not, will call it ‘Woke’, and will not. Such ‘soft power’ may be better than the ‘hard power’ that Putin’s Russia is trying to execute in Ukraine, but it has its’ own flaws – but that is a discussion for a different time. Is this it?

…Wait! There is more! There is the Avengers-con! And the magical bracelet from one of Kamala’s grandparents! (A person has two parents, but four grandparents – and we are talking a standard nuclear family here, anything more derived, and we get much more confusing numbers). And Bruno! But we do not talk about Bruno- wait, sorry, wrong Bruno. In ‘Encanto’, Bruno is a seer, (with a strong moon symbolism, but we will not get into it here). In ‘Ms. Marvel’, Bruno is just a teen/young man, who got friendzoned by Kamala so hard, that even the crappy Avenger-con feels sorry for him. No, seriously, there is a feeling that Disney/MCU is poking fun at itself – first there was the Avengers musical in ‘Hawkeye’, which was nothing more than window dressing in that series, and an unnecessary one at that, and now we get the Avengers-con, which was the weakest part of the episode, and as for the ‘magical bracelet’… well, we already talked about it: between AoS and ‘InHumans’, the InHumans became especially toxic and anathema to Disney/MCU, so Kamala will get to be something else other than an InHuman. Good for her!

…For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!