Despite competition from Stranger Things and the new Thor movie, people are pleased with the latest Marvel show on Disney Plus, Ms. Marvel. A Muslim girl from Jersey City gets the unlikely chance to be a super-hero and save the world. She battles some bad guys from another dimension and a bunch of federal agents.

The season finale showed why Iman Vellani is Marvel’s next big thing. Her arc as Kamala Khan is wonderful and believable as someone who suddenly has powers and slowly masters them.
If only the show had a better finale. It chose the wrong bad guys.

SPOILERS BELOW

The first three episodes look at how Kamala got her powers, were stunned by them, and tried to master them. Although she saves her friend Zoe and almost stops a falling guy from being injured, she’s a target of Damage Control. It’s decided she’s a threat and must be contained. The show should have had a couple of people thinking that maybe she isn’t, maybe learning while on the job. That would have added a lot.

Then she goes to Karachi, Pakistan, where she learns from her grandmother Sana that she is part-Djinn, or rather from a group called the Clandestine from the Noor dimension. They’d like to go home, even if it means destroying ours. They’re led by Najma , who has a son named Kamran who is content to our world. She thinks otherwise, thinking the only home is Noor. This is based on decades of being mistreated in our world, and she uses Kamala to get home.
There’s also the Red Daggers, led by Kareem (Aramis Knight), who protects people from the unseen. He and Kamran aren’t exactly friends but circumstances hopefully will get them to try (especially if they continue this in the near future).
Episode five was the key episode because it showed how Aisha (Sana’s mom) met her husband Hasan, and how Partition (split of India and Pakistan) divided their family. It was also where Najma kills Aisha because she doesn’t want to go back to the Noor dimension. Sana almost lost her dad until a “trail of stars” guided her. That trail came from Kamala in a time travel  quirk.
That was followed by Najma trying to get home when a portal showed up. It killed her, but her powers were transferred to Kamran, who was under custody of Damage Control.

That is a big mistake.

It should have been done a week later, or attempted again by the other Clandestines in Jersey City in front of Damage Control. Once it figures out it can’t stop the Clandestines, it could have politely asked Kamala to show she is the hero after all. Then she does, all apologies.

Instead, Damage Control’s overreaction towards Kamala and Kamran (Rish Shah) ruins the episode. It causes more damage than the teens do. The head of the group, Agent Deever (Alysia Reiner), claims Kamala’s a threat because she’s a kid. Then she forgets again to take her shoes off at a mosque. This is a big fat hint about Najma’s belief they’ll never be accepted. The episode should have explained Deever’s attitude, like maybe she was blipped or affected by the Battle of New York.
So, Damage Control causes way too much chaos, but is also defeated by weapons that would have impressed. Kevin McAllister.

Because of the position Kamala and Kamran are in, they can’t help but fight back. They cause a lot of damage with their hard light, but so do the feds. This leads to the classic scene where Kamala develops her famous big hands to bash a Jeep, then apologize for the damage.

They also get help from Zoe’s (Lauren Marsden) TikTok, which informs people what’s happening. Damage Control pulls out the big guns and Keever insists that “enhanced teens” must be killed, but Kamala’s neighborhood won’t have it.  They can relate to what is happening to the teens, and waste no time defending them. Kamran is still upset over what the feds are doing, but she says “there is no normal” but it’s important to use what they’ve been given in the best way. So, they use their powers to leave, and the crowd pushes back Damage Control (plus a phone call from the boss who finally realizes they’ve gone too far).
In the end, Kamala and Kamran are the heroes, becoming more viral than the Avengers (not that they mind).

So, Kamala’s family and friends are OK with a super-hero in the family, and hope for the best. Kamran is back in Pakistan, but that doesn’t mean the Noor saga is done. According to the producers, Kamran will be a good guy in the end.

Soon we find out from her dad that Kamala is an Urdu word that means “marvel” since she was the second child he tried to have. Maybe an idea for a nickname?
Bruno (Matt Lintz) also tells her that her DNA suggests she has a mutation, and she wonders if that’s going to be another label.
Since some notes from the 1997 X-Men animated series are suddenly heard, she’ll be getting a very valuable label indeed.

A lot of fans consider that interesting (or upsetting) because Kamala’s an “Inhuman” in the comics, but could be an X-Man member (even if the “mutation” is from the Noor side of her) in the MCU. It seems more people want the X-Men at last, and news may be coming this month.
Personally, she can be her, just a Marvel. If Inhumans and X-Men want her to help out, let her. Avengers, too.
And Damage Control can get new management. Anyone hear from Alfonso MacKenzie lately?

Then there’s the post-credit scene:
Kamala’s bangle starts glowing, then she disappears in the closet.
Then she shows up…

She’s worried she just sent someone to deep space, where she just was.
Then again, she doesn’t know Kamala except she’s a big fan.
To be continued in The Marvels in about 54 weeks.

For now, a new kind of lawyer is coming next month who has an Avenger in her family.