Kamala comes back to Jersey City to fight Damage Control and gets some help from her friends, her brother and an unlikely ally in the finale of the Disney+ and Marvel Original Series, “Ms. Marvel.” Meanwhile, Kamran has also developed powers after his mother gave up her life to save him, and he’s having an internal struggle as he wants to be with the Clandestine but also wants to be with Kamala. In the end, Kamran and Kamala work together to fight off Damage Control before Kamala officially becomes Ms. Marvel and Kamran goes to meet the Red Dagger.

It’s a solid final battle when you consider the hero, and most of her friends, are supposed to be in high school. The only person who is older than a high school student is Kamala’s brother and it’s not like he has superpowers. He’s just a well-meaning man who intends to help his sister. It’s not as climactic as ones we’ve seen in “WandaVision” and “Moon Knight.” It’s more on par with the final battle of “Hawkeye” and that helps this series. It was too soon for Ms. Marvel to be battling world ending threats, so something as simple as a government agency makes more sense. It feels more on par for a young superhero and her friends to struggle with an agency of competent adults than it would an adult with superpowers. I think it was the right call.

While I’ve enjoyed the Pakistani elements of this show, this episode still felt a little meh to me. I barely cared about Bruno, Kamran and Aamir heading into it. I really didn’t care about her other friend or the brief interaction she had with Zoey. They played their parts well but losing them wouldn’t have been a gut punch to add stakes to the episode. These can be great building blocks for a potential second season, or another Ms. Marvel or Captain Marvel related show, but they did little for me here.

We have to address that little teaser that Bruno gives Kamala before he leaves Jersey City. The mention of a mutation and the chords from the old, animated “X-Men” series. That’s a nice little Easter egg for those who grew up on the cartoon and those who have been wondering when the X-Men would be incorporated into the MCU proper. I don’t know if this is going to connect through a movie, a live action show or the upcoming “X-Men 97” animated show that has already been announced, but I’m excited. Some may be disappointed that it’s being suggested that Kamala is a mutant rather than an inhuman, but after the awful experience of the “Inhumans” show, I’m okay with it. I’d rather see more mutants than inhumans now anyway, even though we did get both in “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”

This is my least favorite of the live action Marvel shows that have gone straight to Disney+, and it’s still really good, overall. Its good parts are really good. But its bad parts are really bad. I think it tried too much, at times, to reach levels like “Loki,” “WandaVision,” and “Moon Knight.” The parts where it stayed street level like “Hawkeye” worked better for it. The cultural aspect was fun, but the villains were hit and miss. I know I’m not the target demographic, but if I were still a teenager, I would probably like this a lot more, which means it did its job. It’s a good show, it’s just not a great one.

Ranking: 3.5 stars

What did you think of “Ms. Marvel?”

Jeremy Brown

Jeremy has been a big Disney fan since he was a kid growing up during the Disney Renaissance. One day he hopes to go to every Disney Park in the world.

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