If you're a fan of Ms. Marvel, then you'll know that she's a huge fan of Captain Marvel. With The Marvels on the horizon, we expect that to be the case in the MCU as well, and Kamala Khan's co-creator, and Ms. Marvel producer, Sana Amanat has talked more about this dynamic during a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, promising it's a fandom that's "very, very similar to the comics."
"Obviously, in the Marvel comics, the story was different. [Carol] was Ms. Marvel in the Marvel comics, and she's been around for much longer. But in this case, what's unique is Captain Marvel is one of the few really well-known, big-time female Avengers, if you will," she explains.
"She had a pretty significant save in the battle against Thanos, and I think if someone who was young and looking out at the world, and she sees this really powerful, badass woman almost take down Thanos, what does that do to you? How do you internalize that?" Amanat continues. "I think that is a really important story to tell, not only about who your heroes are, but who are your heroes when you're a young person of color? What does that do to your sense of self?"
As excited as we are to see that play out, the minor change in Kamala's relationship with Carol Danvers won't be the only alteration made to the comic books. On the page, Kamala Khan has embiggening powers granted to her by the Inhuman Terrigen Mists. That came at a time when Marvel Comics was looking to shift focus from the X-Men to Inhumans, a failed endeavour that was hampered by a bad TV series.
With that in mind, we're not surprised the origins of this character's powers will be different in the Ms. Marvel series coming to Disney+ next month. However, many fans are disappointed that Kamala's embiggening abilities (which look similar to Mister Fantastic's powers) have been swapped out for Green Lantern-style energy constructs for her upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe debut.
Amanat elaborated on the change, promising fans that there's a good reason behind it here. "Obviously, so much of the show is an adaptation, and we thought it was important to make sure that her powers are linking to larger stories in the Marvel universe. We wanted to make sure there is a little bit more story to tell after this series. Obviously, she goes into The Marvels."
"The powers do look different, which is very controversial. I know people are like, 'How dare you change the powers!' I know people are upset about it, but as someone who's probably one of the closest people to this character from the inception, and having spoken to Willow about this as well, I think Willow and I have always felt that this made sense," the producer and comic book writer continued. "This was the right move because there are bigger stories to tell."
These comments echo what Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently said, and we expect Ms. Marvel's powers to be tied to Kree Nega-Bands. Ultimately, that does make more sense than heading down the Inhuman route, though you'd think she could have still been granted more comic accurate powers. We're guessing this didn't happen in order to avoid comparisons to Reed Richards.
Ms. Marvel arrives on Disney+ on June 8.