The Problem with Ms. Marvel
Ms. Marvel took over headlines in 2019 as the first-ever Marvel series to feature a Muslim superhero in a bid to create more diverse characters. However, Disney’s constant misrepresentation of Muslims in film and television could make the series more harmful than helpful for the Muslim community.
Growing up a Muslim individual who loved comics, I never felt that I had someone to share my voice in the comics I read. Therefore, I started to develop my own superheroes who looked less like Superman and Captain America and more like me. Kids who grew up a little later had it much easier as the comic industry started to expand into a more inclusive community. Soon enough there were characters from different genders, races, body types, and religions. In 2013, Ms. Marvel, a 16-year-old Pakistani-American superhero became the first Muslim superhero to headline a comic book. In 2019, it was announced that, in Marvel’s attempt to create a more diverse universe, a Ms. Marvel television show would be released in 2022. Though not a big Ms. Marvel fan, I was content to see someone similar to me being represented on one of the largest stages in the world. However, as more details came to light surrounding the series, including the miscasting of characters and change in superpowers, I became more and more dismayed with the choices that Marvel, and their owners, Disney, made with the television show, to the point where I feel that this series will be more harmful then helpful for the Muslim community.
The first point which I would like to mention is the change in Ms. Marvel’s superpowers. Originally, Ms. Marvel had the ability to shapeshift, enlarging and shrinking different parts of her body to defeat villains. However, Marvel decided to switch Ms. Marvel’s powers to something more mystical. According to Kevin Feige, Ms. Marvel’s new powers now include creating enlarged fists and other objects through an energy field. The trailer for Ms. Marvel included a wristband, where the magical energy powers would transmit from. This is vastly different from her comic book origins and can be seen as problematic. Many of the comics focus on the everyday life of Ms. Marvel, where she learns to deal with her body’s ability to shapeshift. One of the primary arcs in Ms. Marvel’s comic run had to do with her seeing herself as a monster when she first discovered her shapeshifting powers. This arc is quite important to Ms. Marvel as well as many young readers as it has to do with a minority superhero dealing with racism, misogyny, and body issues. However, Marvels rebranding of her powers will take this away from her character. Another problematic part about her new powers is that magic is haram or forbidden in Islam. For the first Muslim superhero’s superpower to be haram is extremely ironic and counterintuitive.
The other point which I would like to make is the miscasting of characters. It is quite ironic that a show that was created to promote more diversity in the comic community, lacks diversity. The most controversial casting of all has to be Yasmeen Fletcher as Nakia Bahadir, Ms. Marvel’s best friend. In place of a fully Turkish character who dons a hijab, Marvel decided to cast a half-white Christian girl. Now, I have nothing against Yasmeen Fletcher. I have never heard of her before the show. I do have a problem, however, with Marvel and their parent company, Disney. Instead of hiring a Muslim actress who wears a hijab, Marvel would much rather hire a half-white Christian. This to me serves as an example of how backwards the film industry still is towards Muslims, particularly Muslim women who don a hijab. This compares to me, an Indo-African Muslim wearing a yarmulke for a part as a Jewish character. That would make no sense, right? Hollywood loves diversity in movies but not too much diversity. Think of any movie with a diverse cast. There are individuals in the movie who are of the ethnicity of the characters they are to play, but more times than not these movies tend to favour individuals who are of mixed race or simply white. Think of the live action movie, Aladdin, where the character of Jasmine was played by a half-Indian, half-white actress, Naomi Scott, when the character herself was a fully Arab character. The movie also included white characters in an era in which white characters would not be tolerated. In this circumstance it is ok for a white man to be present, but when movies where there is no ethnic diversity such as The Northman, it is justified by saying that it is historically correct. For Fletcher to play a character with a hijab, it is a costume; for millions of Muslim girls, it is a lifestyle.
Then, there is the issue of Aramis Knight who plays the role of Kareem in the television show. Knight is also a non-Muslim, half-white, American born actor, contrary to Kareem in the comics who is a superhero from Pakistan. Therefore, Knight, if he were to remain comic accurate, will probably have to speak in a Pakistani accent in the series. This would be much easier if Marvel had simply casted a Pakistani actor. After all, Pakistan is one of the most populous countries in the world, and yet they could not find a suitable actor to play Kareem. Make it make sense. In the comics, Kareem is fully Pakistani; Nakia is fully Turkish; and Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) is fully Pakistani. In the television show, only Iman Vellani, who plays the titular character is the correct ethnicity. Colourism also clearly played a large role in the casting of characters, as well as a focus on Eurocentric features. All three of the aforementioned characters are lighter skinned than they are in the comics, in order to further perpetuate Western ideology that light is good, and dark is evil. Moreover, both of Ms. Marvel’s parents in the show are played by non-Pakistani and non-Muslim actors. Again, Pakistan is the fifth most populous country in the entire world and yet they couldn’t find a single Pakistani-Muslim lead actor besides Vellani for the television series.
Marvel chose to take on Ms. Marvel in order to further their goal of diversity within the comic community. However, the mishandling of a diverse program is something that we, Muslims, have seen a thousand times before. We get happy about a new series that promises to share our voice, and then we get disappointed when we realize what was always there: that there is no one in Hollywood who knows how to share our voice.