Ms. Marvel was never going to be able to keep up the same pace. The opening episode flew out the gates and never let up, thanks mainly to Kamala Khan having a clearly defined goal: breaking freeও from her mother’s grasp and g𒉰oing to AvengersCon. The follow-up, ‘Crushed’, unfortunately, lacks the same clear directive. 

Kamala’s dealing with the fallout of discovering that her ancestorial band unleashes an inner power. Along with her side-kick Bruno, she starts testing her abilities in scenes reminiscent of Spider-Man’s own training. It’s lighthearted fun, but we’ve seen this before. The narrative thrust instead comes from Kamala investigating her own origins, hoping to discover a family secret that may reveal the tru𒅌th about where these light shards are coming from – there’s one particular hint pointing towards this being the reintroduction of the Inhumans into the MCU, which would follow Kamala’s comic book story a little more closely. Whatever the case, the writers are building to something bigger than Kamala being “part-Asgardian”, and her family is key to understanding just why she’s so special.

Seeing Kamala try and get information from her own mother, played excellently by Zenobia Shroff, and the Illumin-Aunties is charming. Kamala’s a wonderful addition to the Marvel franchise and Iman Vellani continues to capture the spirit of the character perfectly – and when she’s on all-out detective mode, she’s at her very best. She also benef♛its from the Ms. Marvel showrunners’ decision to root Kamala in her culture, making her background all the more specific, yet, at the same time, offering universal themes we can all relate to.

The issues come when we follow different characters – there’s a distinct lack of zing. Matt Lintz’ Bruno has his The 🥂Devil Wears Prada moment, a teacher even calling Bruno the “lead character” of this story, yet the scene lacks energy. Similarly, seeing Yasmeen Fletcher’s Nakia trying to become an elected leader at her Mosque leads t🦩o some fun moments – one where she convinces Kamala’s father to vote for her is particularly great – but, again, it’s a subplot to bulk out future episodes, rather than having momentum right now.