The Marvels Is a Marvelous New Direction for the MCU
Something my eldest told me after watching The Marvels made me realize something about the MCU: it’s no longer made for me. I’m a 50-year-old man who grew up reading about alcoholic Tony Stark and a Thanos who had the hots for literal Death — in the comics, the entire Infinity Gauntlet affair was actually just a stunt to impress her — and seeing the MCU unfold all the way to Endgame was a childhood dream come true. That chapter came to a close when Iron-Man needlessly snapped himself to death (I mean, hello, Captain Marvel was there) and Captain America turned into Joe Biden. After The Marvels, my son told me, “Dad, I’m most excited for the Young Avengers!”
Ever since we watched Hawkeye and Ms. Marvel on Disney+, two terrific shows that, if you haven’t seen them, would be great preludes to The Marvels, we’ve been excited for this new phase of the MCU which has the Young Avengers on its slate. Ms. Marvel is a delightful series that is so completely different from most superhero series that it sets the tone for the new chapter of MCU storytelling. Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) is a second-generation Pakistani immigrant who juggles the responsibilities of high school, being Muslim, and being the bearer of a cosmic power band that gives her the power to turn light into solid objects. Just another day in the life of a super-powered Jersey teen.
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Her family is in on her secret, which is a paradigm shift from decades of superheroes keeping their alter egos secret from even those closest to them. Heroes like Black Panther, Blue Beetle, and Ms. Marvel represent a generation of heroes who have a familial support system to help carry the burden of having superpowers and saving the world on the weekends. It’s a healthier arrangement, with a focus on family and friends that moves away from the lone wolf image of superheroes like Batman or even the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man who can’t even tell the only family he has his biggest secret.
In a way, this defines the change of Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) herself, who has lived alone in the furthest reaches of the cosmos, being the hero to countless worlds that don’t have their own Avengers. Carol Danvers spends most of her time processing her trauma from being kidnapped by the Kree all by herself and staying away from the only family she has left, her late best friend Maria Rambeau’s daughter, Monica (Teyonah Parris). In the time Captain Marvel was away, Monica cameo’d in Wandavision on Disney+ and got superpowers. She doesn’t have family, either, and has her own baggage from being left by her aunt who promised her that she’d be, “back before you know it.”
But before you know it, 30 years has passed because being the only superhero saving the rest of the universe is a full-time job. It’s a long time to be away, and even Carol’s only friend Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has lost a little spring in his step and filled out into a dad bod. It takes the long game machinations of a Kree revolutionary named Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), who at the beginning of the film finds a mystical artifact that suspiciously looks identical to the one Kamala wears, to bring everyone together because tearing holes in the fabric of space-time tends to attract attention. When Carol and Kamala investigate separate wormholes, their powers along with Kamala’s become entangled, loosely borrowing the term from quantum physics, which causes them to physically swap places whenever any of them use their powers at the same time.
It’s a cute little plot device that paves the way to a lot of hijinks and a little slapstick, but underutilized as an on-the-nose metaphor for being in another person’s shoes. The quantum entanglement gimmick feels like a missed opportunity for sharing intergenerational perspective, with Carol belonging to Generation X, Monica a Millennial, and Kamala representing Gen Z. But make no mistake, Kamala is the heart of The Marvels, and when the film opens with a visual language borrowed from Disney+’s Ms. Marvel, it’s abundantly clear that the film is a gift to a new generation of Marvel fans. Throw in the cameo of Korean heartthrob Park Seo-joon as the musical planet Aladna’s Prince Yan as well as an abundance of cute kittens and you have a film tailor-made for the TikTok generation.
If 2019’s Captain Marvel was all about female empowerment and freedom from the shackles of the patriarchy and internalized misogyny, The Marvels expands to sisterhood and family. Popular media has long been complicit in shaping harmful patriarchal archetypes, the man who stands alone, burdened with purpose — from Spider-Man to Batman to John Wick, comics and films have used and abused tragedy as a driving force for heroes.
Kamala Khan is the anti-John Wick, a well-adjusted, happy girl with a loving family who guides her with strictness and compassion. Ms. Marvel’s hilarious fangirling over her hero Captain Marvel is eminently relatable. She is us. Or, in my case, she is my kids. Kamala exudes the bright hopefulness and determination to effect change that seems to drive their generation. It’s fresh and it’s inspiring.
Captain Marvel may be the MCU’s most powerful superhero, but Ms. Marvel is the film’s star. But even if Kamala steals the show with her indelible charisma, director Nia DaCosta does an excellent job balancing the focus among her three leads. Even Monica gets her heroic turn in saving the universe, and it’s well-earned. Kamala teaches Carol and Monica to connect and heal because Ms. Marvel’s greatest power isn’t being able to make solid light, it’s knowing when someone needs a hug.
The one person who desperately needs a hug is the embittered Dar-Benn, who tries to solve her problems like, well, a man. She swings around Ronan the Accuser’s hammer from Guardians of the Galaxy and destroys worlds that she feels have wronged her somewhat. Dar-Benn’s people, the Kree, have an ongoing conflict with the Skrulls, the green-skinned shapeshifting race from the first film and Disney+’s Secret Invasion. When Dar-Benn unleashes her wrath on the Skrull’s refugee settlement, it’s painfully reminiscent of real-world conflicts where an entire people are evicted from their land. Thankfully, The Marvels avoids diving deeper into the Kree-Skrull war and sidesteps uncomfortable comparisons that would detract from enjoyment of the film.
The Marvels is light but solid, paced fast enough to speed through expository plot points but slows down for tender moments like a family hug or kittens slowly floating in zero gravity. It’s woven from a completely different fabric than the first phases of the MCU, including Captain Marvel. The Marvels is infused with an uncommon joy and its humor doesn’t come from one-liners, sight gags, or slapstick that has been the hallmark of past MCU movies. It’s funny because it’s familiar, relatable, and when Kamala’s mom (Zenobia Shroff) makes a disapproving face, we laugh because we’ve seen that face before. And when it softens to tell Kamala how much she cares, we smile because we’ve seen that, too.
The Marvels is the bright new dawn of the MCU, the beginning of the next chapter that’s written for a new and better generation.
