Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has recently explained why the powers of Ms. Marvel in her highly-anticipated television series are not quite accurate to the original comic book version. The ending of the beloved series Moon Knight, along with the recent release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, left a natural opening for another Marvel Studios project to take center stage.
Ms. Marvel is set to be the next installment and addition to Marvel Studios' shared universe and multimedia franchises. The upcoming Disney Plus series stars Iman Vellani as the titular character of Ms. Marvel, a Pakistani-American Jersey City high school student also known as Kamala Khan. The young heroine made her first introduction to the comic book world when she appeared in an issue of Captain Marvel back in 2013. That same year, Khan garnered so much love and attention that she began to headline her very own comic book series. Khan receiving her very own comic books series where she is featured as the lead marked the beginning of a new era for South Asian representation within the MCU. Kamala Khan is the very first Muslim character in Marvel Comics history to ever have this opportunity - to tell her story, to be seen and celebrated.
However, recent Ms. Marvel trailers have featured Kamala Khan using a completely different set of superpowers, abandoning her shape-shifting capabilities from the comics. In a new interview with Empire, Feige confirmed that the MCU version of Ms. Marvel will have a new set of powers that are completely different from the original comic book version of the character that fans are accustomed to. He admitted that due to the sensitive timing of the character’s inclusion into the MCU, Kamala's powers had to be changed accordingly. “We adapt the comics. It’s not an exact translation. Kamala came about in a very specific time within the comic-book continuity. She is now coming into a very specific time within the MCU continuity, and those two things didn’t match," Feige explained. "What we will learn about where those powers come from, and how they come about, is specific to the MCU. You will see great comic splash panels in some of our action sequences. If you want big, giant hands and arms, well they’re here in spirit, if not in stretchy, plastic-type ways.”
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In the original source material, Kamala falls victim to the Terrigen Bomb, which unleashes a mist that unlocks the dormant powers hidden inside people who carry Inhuman DNA. As a result, Kamala is suddenly able to shape-shift automatically into inanimate objects and other beings, giving her the ability to simultaneously alter her size and greatly increase her mass. Although Inhumans have already been well introduced into the MCU thanks to Agents of SHIELD, the specific circumstances that lead to Kamala receiving her magic have yet to take place. Therefore, it would only make sense to change Kamala Khan's powers, especially given how elaborate and specific the web of time is within the MCU.
The latest Ms. Marvel promotional materials to drop for the series tease and hint that Kamala may be granted her powers through bangles that were infused with cosmic energy and passed down throughout her family line for generations. Fortunately, fans don’t have to wait too much longer to see the reveal of Kamala's full transformation.
Ms. Marvel premieres on Disney Plus on June 8th, 2022.
Source: Empire