Ms. Marvel is the Disney series of the year

Last week on Disney + ended without much fanfare (or at least with less hype than hoped) the best Marvel series of the year. Ms. Marvel – as per the tradition of Marvel cinematic universe (MCU) – obviously has a scene in the middle of the credits, which hints at a future connection with the rest of the franchise. At the end of the season, the superheroine protagonist of the series saves her community and shares a moment of tenderness with her family. The classic happy ending, in short.

In many ways, Ms. Marvel is theorigin story comics par excellence: a girl who lives in New York or around the city (in the specific case in Jersey City) acquires incredible powers and must follow her vocation, while trying to survive adolescence. Kamala Khan’s story, however, is much more original. The protagonist of the series is also one Muslim girl originally from South Asia, and as such he lives in a world where the authorities guard his mosque. In a sense, then, her story as a superhero begins in 1947, the year in which India gained independence from British rule and the historical event known as Partition divided the region into two territories, Pakistan – with a Muslim majority – and India – with a Hindu prevalence – giving way to one of the largest migrations ever.

The historical element

Marvel has always incorporated real events into its superman stories. But while Steve Rogers was turned into Captain America to fight in World War II ed Eternals contained references (actually a little clumsy) to the atrocities committed by humanity, in the case of Kamala Khan the narrative leads the link with the past on a more basic level. The protagonist’s grandmother lives in Karachi, Pakistan, and, as shown in episodes 4 and 5 of the series, she was a child when her family fled to the country (as Kamala’s mother Muneeba points out, “every family has a story about the Partition, and none of them are beautiful“). Kamala’s superpowers, in a sense, turn out to be closely tied to her family history during the Partition. This historical perspective confers on Ms. Marvel an element that in the Marvel series on Disney + was missing for some time, if there ever was: a sense of realism.

The representation of the Partition in the series, it also brings one to the screen story that Hollywood has told very seldom, explains Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the documentary maker and Oscar winner who directed the fourth and fifth episodes 4 and 5 of the season, in which Kamala travels to Karachi, and then back in time, to discover the history of her family. Obaid-Chinoy, which defines itself as a “fanatic of history“She reports that she received messages from people in South Asia who told her how in their families the series first sparked conversations about the facts from the time.”People have lost grandparents, great-grandparents; there are those who have broken up conversations with their best friend – explains Obaid-Chinoy -. Representing the Partition was a great responsibility, since so many lives were connected [all’evento, ndr]. When you think about bringing a superhero into that world, which is associated with pain and trauma, you have to do it in a worthy way.“.

The human aspect

As it becomes larger, more galactic, and more multiverse-centric, the MCU is moving away from humanity both literally and figuratively. During Ms. Marvelwe find that Kamala is in part djinn and it is suggested that it is also a mutant. Especially thanks to Iman Vellani, the nineteen-year-old actress who plays Kamala, the protagonist of the series is a three-dimensional character, unlike the transposition of many superheroes on the screen. The strong point is that its origin story is that it is intertwined within the series, not artificially inserted to give a touch of solemnity.

When it first came out in 2014, the Ms. Marvel – created by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona – was hailed as an unreleased product, the first monthly Marvel series featuring a Muslim woman. The site Comics Alliance scrisse that it was perhaps the “most important cartoon“published that year. The publication has then won a Hugo award becoming a bestseller, not because it was the first of its kind, but because it told a good story well. Similarly, Vellani’s Kamala is the first muslim girl star of a Marvel series on Disney +. At the moment Ms. Marvel à the series of the MCU most critically acclaimed, also thanks to a compelling and expertly crafted story. Once again, Kamala Khan made history.

This article originally appeared on Wired US.