The first two episodes are truly bad. The actress who plays Kamala Khan seems likable but….isn’t? Due to poor writing she has to be charming while acting like an ass. This is a consistent problem with Disney princess arcs. They’re born perfect and the only impediment to the character is that no one realizes their perfection. It’s self involved. I think Kamala’s parents are right to worry about her being out late at night in New Jersey. Nope, they’re too controlling. I think her friend is right to feel snubbed when she cancels her training without telling him. Nope, he’s just jealous. I think it’s a terrible way to write heroes that little girls could look up to.
Pre Endgame every Marvel hero was on a journey of embracing self sacrifice - that’s a traditionally “boy hero trait” (Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Thor, etc.). There is no reason girl characters should be any different but that arc can’t happen when you’re just so obnoxiously awesome right off the bat. Give us a Wanda, not this trite nonsense.
The lack of any interesting development is back filled with the standard empowering (pandering) story beats. We will have a period discussion, why? Is that empowering? How? Peter Parker doesn’t discuss the web fluids he gains in puberty. Then there has to be a girl power moment at the mosque. Why? Who thinks a teenager is the best leader for a community organizations? Pretty much no one, because teenagers still need to grow up. The scene where a family friend is pressured to vote for her because of woman’s suffrage. Come on, really? Suffrage is not about teen girls being entitled to everything they decided they wanted yesterday. And for gods sake, correcting someone for saying your name wrong is not empowering. I have an uncommon name. If you say it wrong, and IF I even care, I’ll correct you. Then you can say it right next time. No one intentionally says your name wrong. Doesn’t happen. 99.% of the world doesn’t want to offend others and do their best not to. If you’re easily offended by things like people mispronouncing a name they don’t have much exposure to then you’re the impatient self absorbed one.
Disney is not actually teaching girls to be good women, just how awesome they already are. What do you get out of that? Where do you grow? See Captain Marvels “arc” for the answer. Nowhere.
Just to touch a little more on the topic of religion, man is it unnecessary and half baked here. Disney wants religious diversity to show how noble they are. I can only think of Jesus being mentioned once in the entire MCU - as a Starlord joke. Was Iron Man Muslim / Christian / other? Does anyone care? How is mentioning only Islam at length diverse? And then to do it in this wannabe feminist way because Disney can’t really ignore that Islam, historically, hasn’t treated women great. How to maneuver this minefield? How about don’t. No one wants religion and religious activism in the MCU. No one. Seriously, Feige, poll your fans as they leave the theatre, you’re allowed. No one prefers the forced diversity of the new heroes. Ask them.
Anyways, we have another day 1 hero and we get our cringe filled post heroics swagger scenes as she walks into the high school. This is a hard underline of why the post Endgame MCU sucks. Think how different it is from Peter Parker refusing to show off his powers because it feels self serving and dumb. It is, and it makes Kamala unlikable and shallow when that’s her attitude. What even is the actual Marvel story here? Girls got bracelets from box, has training montage. All this ugly, pedantic, PC window dressing around that stupidly simple progression is pointless.
Kevin Feige, give us good heroes! You did it for a decade, how can you not know how all of a sudden? You’re becoming the new Lucas. I honestly don’t understand how you guys (Yourself, Spielberg, Lucas, The Wachowskis, etc. ) can’t see where you left the track. You had it! We all thought you understood, you don’t.
