‘Ms. Marvel’ “Seeing Red” – Something Clever and Witty
This week’s episode of Ms. Marvel introduces a new hero to the MCU and ties her cosmic powers to her family’s history.
Last week, we saw the djinn, also known as Clandestines, attack Kamala Khan at her brother’s wedding in order to get her bangle. This week, Ms. Marvel‘s “Seeing Red” brings Kamala to visit her grandmother in Karachi, Pakistan. There, she meets a new group of masked heroes – and a new love interest. But this episode ends with a real blast from the past.
There are spoilers for ‘Ms. Marvel’ past this point!
A Trip to Kurachi
Kamala and Muneeba travel to Karachi, where we meet some of Kamala’s cousins and her Grandmother. Kamala’s Nani explains that being a djinn is just a matter of genetics. She tells Kamala that she’s not sure what having the bangle means for her, but she needed to be in Pakistan to find the answer. Their conversation also serves to further connect what’s happening with Kamala to the day Aisha disappeared at the train station.
The episode, as well as the show, has an underlying theme of resolving conflicts between mothers and daughters. Muneeba’s own struggles with her mother’s wild theories, presumably about Aisha, come up, and will hopefully be elaborated on later.
Who is the Red Dagger?
With some spare time to explore the city on her hands, Kamala decides to check out the train station where Aisha disappeared. When she sneaks off to look for clues, she meets a red-scarfed crime fighter, and the two play a short game of chase.
In the comics, Kareem is a local crime fighter. In the show, it looks like he’s one of a band of crime fighters known as Red Daggers. He introduces Kamala to Waleed, who appears to be a leader in the organization.
Waleed isn’t long for this world, sadly, but he does provide some helpful information. He posits that if Thor had landed in the right time and place, he would have been considered a djinn. It suggests that maybe Kamala’s powers are just a matter of perspective. He also confirms that opening up the Noor dimension would be Very Bad™ because it would basically consume ours. At the moment, we’re not sure if this qualifies as the MCU phenomenon called an incursion or some other kind of dimensional catastrophe.
Oh, In Case You Forgot About the Fuzz
We see a little more of the Department of Damage Control, which is starting to look much more like a superhuman monitoring and penal system, I think. But they’re clearly not great at it because the Clandestines escape pretty easily, but they leave Kamran behind as punishment for helping Kamala. Meanwhile, in Karachi, Kamala and Kareem are vibing fire-side to the tune of an acoustic guitar.
Other Easter Eggs
This week’s biggest comic book callback was big, fuzzy, and adorable. That’s right, the giant sloth pillow on the plane and Kamala’s nickname “Sloth Baby” is a reference to the character’s YouTube channel in the comics.
I also appreciated another moment where Kamala seems to explain what it’s like to live with ADHD in the context of this story. She tells her grandmother that she feels like she’s “trying to piece together a hundred different things” and “breaking more than I fix”. Which sounds a lot like the frustration of living with executive dysfunction and trying to solve a problem with traditional thinking.
Did we miss any Easter Eggs in this week’s episode of ‘Ms. Marvel’? Are you team Bruno, team Kareem, or team Kamran?
