M.s Marvel is the ideal heir of Mei Lee’s Red: like the delightful Pixar movie, the Marvel series (from today 8 June on Disney +) is a Bildungsroman with another girl at the center, this time American but still belonging to an ethnic minority, nerd and with nerdy friends. Which suddenly turns out super.
And that always like Mei has an uncompromising mother attached to the traditions of her country, for which every skirt is too short, every makeup too vulgarany playful activity that is too inconvenient.
Mother than to the poor Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), Muslim teenager of Pakistani originhides the detail of superpowers with a long family tradition (still as Red). The little girl eventually discovers them, and in managing them she gives birth to a daring succession of funny and embarrassing situations.
Ms Marvel is a teen drama conceived and structured for a young audience, but clearly winks at the parents, those who scratch their heads every time their children exhibit their own inscrutable nerdy side. Telling them that they will help them understand.
Ms Marvelwho is Kamala Khan
Kamala is a 16-year-old from New Jersey daughter of Pakistani traditionalist parents, with a brother, Amir, much older than her, very religious, and about to get married. Under my mother Kamala’s control she is sober in her dress and manner and diligent, she regularly attends the mosque and listen patiently to the ancestors’ tales of the painful Partitionthe separation of the Indian people between Hindus and Muslims, that punctually “cheer up” family dinners.
She is also a huge fan of the Avengers – Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and the other superheroes who have saved the planet countless times from alien threats. In particular of Captain Marvel, aka Carol Denvers. Her supergeek dream is to participate in the cosplay contest of the first convention dedicated to the Avengers disguised as the blonde and indestructible heroine.
Kamala, however, is willing to do anything to participate to the event that for the mother is the stuff of the depravedalso to elaborate diabolical escape plans with the help of his friend Bruno, an electronics genius enrolled at Caltech (the scientific university where Sheldon and the other protagonists of The Big Bang Theory).
But it happens that an ancient relic that for the girl is only an accessory suddenly awakens hitherto unknown powers, transforming the teenager into the very object of her dreams, one superheroine.
Iman Vellani as “Ms Marvel”. (Disney +)
Iman Vellani, a whole new star
Twenty-year-old Canadian daughter of Pakistani immigrants, in her first real experience as an actress, Iman gets off to a great start with a protagonist in a series produced Marvel and Disney, two giants of animation and comics.
In his Kamala there is all the freshness of the newcomerand the vitality that distinguishes the personality of adolescents – and we also put into it some adults who remained young inside – crossed by the irrepressible passion for the nerdy pleasure of comicssuperheroes, science fiction, fantasy and so on. Basically the audience of Disney + and Marvel. And it was time for a tribute to those who earn the most in terms of merchandise, showing how one of them can aspire to be part of that world they dream of.
Iman Vellani as “Ms Marvel”. (Disney +)
The series has a mix that works
For parent teachers the concern about Kamala /Ms Marvel it is not about physical healthmental well-being, the development of a healthy and responsible identity, or even the professional future. But his disproportionate imagination.
Living in a world of dreams is unhealthy as well Kamala’s mother is peremptory in ostracizing every fantastic drift of her daughterunaware of being the object of derision of the authors of the series and producers – starting with Kevin Feige, CEO of Marvel Studios -, who on that longing for fantasy they founded a monstrously lucrative empire.
The Marvel boss produced the show without going through Marvel TV, the branch that normally deals with making the Avengers television spin-offs, and it shows: Ms. Marvel is visually at the cinematic levels of the Avengers cinecomics: chock full of colorful and evocative special effects, studded with alluring jokes to the Marvel universe, and imbued with enthusiasm.
Iman Vellani at the premiere of “Ms. Marvel “. (Getty Images)
The series works by virtue of the kind of spectacular entertainment to which the American public – and not only – is now addicted. It works even more as a teaching tool: born only in 2013, from comics, Kamala is the first Muslim superhero star. The first to open the doors of Allah’s mosque and Pakistani tradition to American society tending to be increasingly suspicious and xenophobic. Which is shown a community who prays while taking off her shoes, who is crazy about Bollywood movies and who uses words like Beta (son in Urdu) in everyday language.
The first episodes of Ms Marvel – of 6 – manage to keep all these elements together, and that’s no small feat.
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