This post contains spoilers for Ms. Marvel. If you’re looking to stay spoiler free, check out our Ms. Marvel premiere review.
Ms. Marvel is finally here, and our favorite fangirl Kamala Khan is ready to take the world by storm. That is, after she’s done with her homework. Kamala is a normal teen girl with normal teen problems — she is loved but misunderstood by her family, she’s got her head in the clouds, and she’s expected to know what she wants to do with her whole life while she’s in junior year of high school. Of course, those problems get a little bit more complicated after she dons her grandmother’s bracelet for a Captain Marvel costume contest and finds herself with cosmic powers all of the sudden.
While the attendees of Avengers Con seem relatively unphased by the fact that superpowers wreaked havoc on the convention’s stages and photo ops, Kamala’s newfound powers do manage to draw the attention of a currently faceless government agency after the video of the convention events reach them. Let’s talk about that Ms. Marvel mid-credits scene.
Meet P. Cleary (Arian Moayed). You probably recognize him from Spider-Man: No Way Home, where he was one of the few souls silly enough to try and sass Aunt May (Marisa Tomei).
Given that he tried to accuse Aunt May of child endangerment, and did his best to trick MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) — ok he kind of succeeded with Ned — we already know that he sucks a little bit. His colleague Sadie Deever (Alysia Reiner) is making her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut here in Ms. Marvel, but we don’t expect she’ll be much more pleasant to deal with.
The partners are both agents at the United States Department of Damage Control (also known as simply “Damage Control” or the DODC).
Damage Control kicked things off as a subsidiary of S.H.I.E.L.D. (someone’s gotta clean up after those Avengers). After the Chitauri invaded, Damage Control shifted from S.H.I.E.L.D. to report under the executive branch of the United States government. They’ve also partnered with Stark Industries in the past, working to collect powerful alien tech. Oh yeah, and that partnership with Stark Industries lost Adrian Toomes his job, meaning they’re basically responsible for the Vulture’s origin. Now though? Now they’re a federal agency focused on arresting “enhanced” individuals and the seizure of alien artifacts.
You’ve seen them at multiple points throughout MCU history, starting with Iron Man (they cleaned up the Iron Monger mess off camera while Coulson and Pepper prep Tony for his press conference), all throughout Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and in the aforementioned Spider-Man: No Way Home confrontation.
Given what we know about the series so far, it seems unlikely that Damage Control will act as Ms. Marvel’s major foil throughout the series. The federal agency will no doubt cause a whole host of trouble for Kamala, but it’s a weird choice for “big bad.”
As for who Ms. Marvel’s true villain will end up being, there are a lot of options! The most obvious choices are The Inventor, Ms. Marvel’s first villain in the comics and a human-bird hybrid (it’s complicated), or Kamran, Kamala’s first crush who ends up having secret Inhuman abilities. We don’t see her swooning over anyone just yet, but given the slower pacing of the series and the number of cast members without specified roles just yet, there’s still plenty of time. Kamala also happens to be one of the few Marvel characters without any kind of arch nemesis, so there’s a chance that this is less of a sweeping series villain kind of scenario and we will see something a little bit closer to flavor of the week type baddies.
Still, Damage Control doesn’t seem like they’re going to be a fun part of Ms. Marvel’s life at any point throughout this series. The MCU version of the character may not be Inhuman, but her grandmother’s bracelet sure seems to fit the “alien artifact” part of Damage Control’s job description.
Amelia is the Streaming Editor here at IGN. She's also a film and television critic who spends too much time talking about dinosaurs, superheroes, and folk horror. You can usually find her with her dog, Rogers. There may be cheeseburgers involved.
Continue reading...
Ms. Marvel is finally here, and our favorite fangirl Kamala Khan is ready to take the world by storm. That is, after she’s done with her homework. Kamala is a normal teen girl with normal teen problems — she is loved but misunderstood by her family, she’s got her head in the clouds, and she’s expected to know what she wants to do with her whole life while she’s in junior year of high school. Of course, those problems get a little bit more complicated after she dons her grandmother’s bracelet for a Captain Marvel costume contest and finds herself with cosmic powers all of the sudden.
While the attendees of Avengers Con seem relatively unphased by the fact that superpowers wreaked havoc on the convention’s stages and photo ops, Kamala’s newfound powers do manage to draw the attention of a currently faceless government agency after the video of the convention events reach them. Let’s talk about that Ms. Marvel mid-credits scene.
Who Was That In The Mid-Credits Scene?
Meet P. Cleary (Arian Moayed). You probably recognize him from Spider-Man: No Way Home, where he was one of the few souls silly enough to try and sass Aunt May (Marisa Tomei).
Given that he tried to accuse Aunt May of child endangerment, and did his best to trick MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) — ok he kind of succeeded with Ned — we already know that he sucks a little bit. His colleague Sadie Deever (Alysia Reiner) is making her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut here in Ms. Marvel, but we don’t expect she’ll be much more pleasant to deal with.
The partners are both agents at the United States Department of Damage Control (also known as simply “Damage Control” or the DODC).
What is Damage Control?
Damage Control kicked things off as a subsidiary of S.H.I.E.L.D. (someone’s gotta clean up after those Avengers). After the Chitauri invaded, Damage Control shifted from S.H.I.E.L.D. to report under the executive branch of the United States government. They’ve also partnered with Stark Industries in the past, working to collect powerful alien tech. Oh yeah, and that partnership with Stark Industries lost Adrian Toomes his job, meaning they’re basically responsible for the Vulture’s origin. Now though? Now they’re a federal agency focused on arresting “enhanced” individuals and the seizure of alien artifacts.
You’ve seen them at multiple points throughout MCU history, starting with Iron Man (they cleaned up the Iron Monger mess off camera while Coulson and Pepper prep Tony for his press conference), all throughout Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and in the aforementioned Spider-Man: No Way Home confrontation.
Who Is the Villain in Ms. Marvel?
Given what we know about the series so far, it seems unlikely that Damage Control will act as Ms. Marvel’s major foil throughout the series. The federal agency will no doubt cause a whole host of trouble for Kamala, but it’s a weird choice for “big bad.”
As for who Ms. Marvel’s true villain will end up being, there are a lot of options! The most obvious choices are The Inventor, Ms. Marvel’s first villain in the comics and a human-bird hybrid (it’s complicated), or Kamran, Kamala’s first crush who ends up having secret Inhuman abilities. We don’t see her swooning over anyone just yet, but given the slower pacing of the series and the number of cast members without specified roles just yet, there’s still plenty of time. Kamala also happens to be one of the few Marvel characters without any kind of arch nemesis, so there’s a chance that this is less of a sweeping series villain kind of scenario and we will see something a little bit closer to flavor of the week type baddies.
Still, Damage Control doesn’t seem like they’re going to be a fun part of Ms. Marvel’s life at any point throughout this series. The MCU version of the character may not be Inhuman, but her grandmother’s bracelet sure seems to fit the “alien artifact” part of Damage Control’s job description.
Amelia is the Streaming Editor here at IGN. She's also a film and television critic who spends too much time talking about dinosaurs, superheroes, and folk horror. You can usually find her with her dog, Rogers. There may be cheeseburgers involved.
Continue reading...