Ms. Marvel Episode 1, "Generation Why" (2022) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Wednesday. So I was supposed to be writing about The Goldbergs today, but then I decided to watch the first episode of Ms. Marvel, which dropped today, so I'm pushing my post on The Goldbergs to tomorrow or Friday since season 3 of Love, Victor starts next week. Which means you might get two blog posts from me tomorrow or Friday. We'll see though. Right now, let's dive in and talk about episode 1 of Ms. Marvel, "Generation Why". Let's get into it.

I'm not a big fan of Marvel Comics. As a result, I'm not overly familiar with the character of Kamala Khan. I know of her obviously being she hit headlines almost immediately when she debuted back in 2013, as Marvel's first Muslim character to be the lead in her own comic book series. But I've never read her series before, nor have I read anything she's been in in the last nine years. Part of the reason I haven't is because I don't gravitate to Marvel books the way I do DC and Archie comics, so I just never really thought to pick up an issue of her book before. The other reason is the thing that turns me off of alot of shows, movies, comics, and novels. Internet hype, because of how toxic internet fandom is these days. So I just let the character pass me by, as I have Miles Morales and the Young Avengers. And I am really sorry I've done so, because Kamala, at least her TV show counterpart, played by Iman Vellani, is fantastic.

I apologize if I said a version of this in my Turning Red review, but despite being a 35 year old white man, I could partially relate to Kamala. When I was a kid, particularly in high school, I was heavily steeped in my fandoms...I mean I'm still steeped in my fandoms, look at what I do now as an adult...and it sometimes got me into trouble at school and at home, but most especially at school. High school sucked for me because I was the only disabled person in the entire school and the school wasn't really set up for people like me. So I found solace in comic books, TV shows like Star Trek, Disney movies, Star Wars, and book series like Animorphs and The Hardy Boys. And sometimes that representation is just as important as racial, sexual, and disabled representation is. So I'm glad it's there in this show, alongside the representation of Pakistani living in America. 

I suppose the show is a bit derivative given the writers took inspiration from John Hughes movies and films like Booksmart (2019) and Eighth Grade (2018), but I don't actually care. Because it's done so well. Adding in the comic book and illustration elements throughout the show was fun too. It reminds me of the "Bang, Boom, Crash" elements that Batman (1966-1968) and Batman: The Movie (1966) had, without making it feel too cheesy.

As I said earlier, I love Kamala so much. Iman Vellani does such a good job playing her. I don't want to spoil anything for you so I just want to say that Kamala is great. I love her best friend, Bruno, who is to Kamala what Ned is to Peter in the MCU Spider-Man movies, and her friend Nakia. I'm pretty sure both Bruno and Nakia are from the comics, though I suspect that Nakia appears a bit more often in the comics than she did in this episode. But since I've never read the comics, I have no idea if anything I just typed is true. I hope we learn more about her in the next five episodes.

I also like Kamala's family. They remind me a little bit of Victor's family from Love, Victor, but if the show was actually from Pilar's point of view rather than Victor's. On the other hand they also act like the stereotypical wacky family that we see in just about every modern teen comedy, be it TV show or movie, including The Goldbergs. I'm not complaining about that though, because it's done so well. 

I only have two concerns about this show. The first is that it's only six episodes and the Marvel shows, particularly the mini-series/limited series, have had a really difficult time in wrapping their stories up because they all tried to do too much within the small episode count. Hopefully these writers don't try to go as big with this series, but I doubt it because of what it's being used for. Which leads me into my second concern.

The second concern I have is that this show is setting Kamala and her supporting cast up for the upcoming sequel to Captain Marvel (2019), The Marvels (2023), but it should be it's own thing. In other words, let a show be a show for once and forget about setting up movies and other shows. The MCU is so big and that's one of the problems that I personally have with it. It feels to much like Star Wars in that regard as with the Star Wars Universe, all of the movies, TV shows, novels and comics currently being produced, all count and the majority of the shows have set up other shows, with the exception of Obi-Wan Kenobi. With the MCU it is much harder to watch the current movies and shows if you haven't seen all of the other movies and TV shows.

Ms. Marvel should be a multi-season series. We could get so much with Kamala that six episodes and a movie won't be enough. I just feel like Marvel Studios isn't taking the full advantage of television storytelling the way they should be given how, with the exception of Loki and What If...?, all of their shows have been limited series or mini-series and some of these characters, like Kamala Khan and Kate Bishop, deserve to be seen for more than just six to ten episodes. But that's just me.

Overall this was an amazing start to what is going to be an amazing mini-series. I am really excited to see how the season unfolds. If you haven't watched the first episode yet, either because you're not interested, or aren't sure about it, definitely watch it. 

That's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for my post on The Goldbergs and maybe another post, depending on how things go. So until then have a wonderful afternoon and I will talk to you all later. Take care.