Entertainment Weekly predictably gushes over Marvel's worst propaganda production to debut since the time Axel Alonso was their EIC, and the TV show based upon it:
As portrayed by Iman Vellani, the personality and aesthetic that has already made Kamala an icon to so many fans remains intact with the Ms. Marvel show. She is still an avid superhero fan who makes her own Avengers fan-fiction, she's still the child of Pakistani immigrants who live in Jersey City, and she still pursues her own superhero responsibilities with exuberance once her powers manifest. But every adaptation necessarily brings about changes to fit a new format, and a very noticeable one is that Kamala's powers work very differently on screen than they do in Marvel comics.
In the Ms. Marvel show, Kamala manipulates energy into physical constructs like stepping discs or a giant fist. We're only two episodes in, so the full mechanics and potential of her powers have yet to be revealed, but so far they bear a striking resemblance to the Green Lantern ring from DC Comics — especially since Kamala's ever-present wrist bangle seems to play a key role in her powers. Lots of thought went into this change, as Amanat explained to EW in a Summer Preview interview last month. Since Vellani is set to star alongside Brie Larson's Carol Danvers and Teyonah Parris' Monica Rambeau in the upcoming film The Marvels, MCU architects clearly wanted Kamala's capabilities to line up more visibly with those energy-based heroes.
Considering how paltry sales of the comic were (little more than 20,000 copies or less, and they never actually gave clear figures for digital sales), one can only wonder what they believe they're accomplishing by lecturing everyone that the character seriously has fans despite the ideological components souring the milk. The Capt. Marvel movie from 3 years ago was so overrated and pretentious that to cast a character developed as Khan was with politicized components does nothing to improve perceptions of what Marvel studios set out to do at the time. All this news does is make me glad I'm staying away from the Marvel-based movies.
Kamala Khan is defined by many things — her religion, her ethnicity, her hometown — but most of all, she's an incredible teen hero. In addition to fighting supervillains, she also faces struggles relatable to any modern young person: Drowning in extracurricular activities, finding a balance between work and personal life, trying to do right by both her family and friends.
The best thing about her original, physical powers is that they fit right into these teen problems. What young person hasn't woken up one day to find some part of their body suddenly mismatched with the rest?
This is meaningless if the
whole story builds on divisive politics and whitewashes
what the Religion of Peace is built on, which unsurprisingly, the magazine has no issues with. Not to mention it's laughable how they base the gushing here on the character proper, rather than the writing/artwork. EW is decidedly irrelevant as a showbiz magazine, and this is further confirmation of that.
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