The magnificent Ms Marvel is finally here, and fans have already fallen in love with the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s newest superhero. At the time of writing, Ms Marvel’s TV series has a 97% critic score and a 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is not bad for a hero created less than a decade ago.
In our Ms Marvel review, we wrote that it was the best MCU series to date and everything about the show – from the acting to the production design – was near perfect. Adapted from the comic series of the same name, the show tells the story of Kamala Khan ( Iman Vellani), a young Pakistani-American girl whose dreams come true when she gets superpowers like her hero Captain Marvel.
But what are Kamala Khan’s new powers? Well, that’s a controversial question. The cast and crew of Ms Marvel were very open that they were making changes to the character’s power set to better suit the medium of television. Here’s everything you need to know about Kamala’s abilities in the MCU and how they differ from her comic book counterpart.
How does Ms Marvel get her powers in the MCU?
In the MCU, Ms Marvel gets her powers after putting on a seemingly magical bangle. The bangle comes from the Djinn home dimension and awakened Kamala’s latent Djinn genes, gifting her superpowers.
The bangle came into Kamala’s possession after her grandmother sent her mother a box of curiosities from Pakistan. Not wanting her daughter playing with a family heirloom Muneeba had the bracelet locked in the attic. Kamala, however, stole the bangle to wear with her Captain Marvel cosplay.
What are Ms Marvel’s powers in the MCU?
In the MCU, Kamala’s powers radically differ from her comic book incarnation’s abilities. The TV version of Kamala can create different purple energy constructs using light from the Djinn dimension.
While the Djinn are normally unable to channel the energy while on Earth, Kamala as a Djinn-human hybrid doesn’t share this limitation.
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So far, we’ve seen Kamala generate powerful blasts of cosmic energy, create a giant hand that was capable of supporting the weight of Zoe Zimmer, and small platforms that Kamala can use to hop from rooftop to rooftop.
Kamala has also used her powers to give herself a type of pseudo invulnerability, generating a forcefield to protect herself when she sees an incoming attack.
How are Ms Marvel’s powers different from the comic books?
In the comic books, Ms Marvel is a shapeshifter capable of stretching and growing her body at will. While she’s probably best known for her ‘stretchy’ powers, she’d actually give Giant-Man a run for his money when it comes to growing and is capable of enlarging herself to the size of a building.
What you might not know is Ms Marvel has other less well-known powers. She has a powerful healing factor that allows her to recover from severe injuries and can take on other people’s appearance using her shapeshifting abilities.
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In the comics, Kamala doesn’t get her abilities from a magical bracelet. Instead, she gained her powers when she was exposed to the mutagenic mists that the Inhumans use to gain superpowers. While Kamala isn’t strictly speaking an Inhuman, she had dormant Inhuman DNA that was awakened by her exposure to the mist.
If you can’t wait to see what happens next in the MCU, check out our guide on the Thor: Love and Thunder release date.