Some of my old posts on this thing are cringe-inducing. (I'd gotten into the habit of calling my mother "momster" because for some reason or other it amused me at the time? I want to go back and smack myself.)

Anyhow, slept a good portion of the day, because I didn't get to sleep until 1 am last night, and woke up at 7 am. So I was tired. Partly from the work week, etc. And partly from lack of sleep the night before. As a result, I passed out in my arm chair while attempting to archive around 10:30 am and woke up around 1PM. I did have banana chestnut flour pancakes in there - which is probably why I crashed. Pancakes also put me to sleep for some reason or other. I only have them on the weekends, and only once.

My brother is insanely healthy - he had granola, fruit and yogurt for breakfast and that was big enough that he skipped lunch. Also he worked out - lifting clothing bags, and gardening. No wonder he's 6'5 and 175 pounds.

Church tried to call me regarding Dad (I know because their names popped up on my television set - I didn't want to talk to them, so ignored the calls). Actually it may have been to get a pledge. Either way, I didn't want to deal with them. Did talk to mother and Wales, though.

Binge watched Ms Marvel which I'd given up on, but was told that there was a great spoiler in the finale. So, I decided to give it another chance. I'm glad I did, unlike Moon Knight and Loki - it actually improves with latter episodes. Moon Knight kind of fell apart at the end of the series - when it jumped into "Legion" psycho-babble territory. (That trope got old after Legion, and only worked in Legion S1). Loki had the same problem - it kind of got defused towards the end, and convoluted. Ms. Marvel for the most part doesn't fall into those traps.

Also, it surprised me. I've seen a lot of these things, and honestly thought it was going down the whole annoyingly repetitive Spiderman/Flash/Naomi/Stargirl/Supergirl route. But it didn't. Instead, it veered completely away from the "superhero" vs. "supervillain" crap, and delved into Pakistani and Persian history and mythos. It also has a great line by Nakiti: "Five weeks on the Greeks, and only five minutes on Persia. The Oppressors always get all the time. Typical."

Agreed. It was my difficulty with history and how it's taught in the American School System in the US. The focus is on European history, and the emphasis on how great the Europeans were - they weren't, they were assholes and pretty much deserved all the blow-back they've received in the 20th and 21st Centuries as a result of their collective actions in the 18th and 19th centuries. Asian cultures or Eastern Cultures, along with African get short shrift. Why? The Europeans are writing the history books at the moment.

The main focus of Ms. Marvel is on the Pakistani heritage, and her family and friends, the super-powers are kind of secondary, which is a nice change of pace. It was kind of like that in the comics as well, although being comics, there was a bit more focus on the super-powers.

I'm on the fence on how the super-powers were relayed in the series. Although I think it worked better - than what they did in the comics, which was a bit too similar to Mr. Fantastic, also may not have been conveyed as well in live action. This was a cheaper F/X treatment than what the comics would have demanded.

My only quibbles with the series are:

* The plot doesn't quite work. In the series Ms. Marvel is thought to get her powers from being part "Jinn" or from a Jinn bracelet that she can access because she's descended from Jinn. She finds this out when she is approached by a family of Jinn through their hot 17 year old son, Kamran. The Jinn are from another dimension and desperate to get home. They've been hiding out for about 100 years or so, and here pops up Ms. Marvel aka Kamala, who has the magical amulet that can open up the interdimensional portal. But it could be dangerous. At this point, we don't know why it is dangerous or what it could do. Do the Jinn wait around for Kamala to figure out how to open the portal? Or better yet, gently persuade her to help them immediately? Or take the time to discuss it with her?

Of course not. And I got lost.

I didn't understand the Jinn's motivation for attacking Ms. Marvel initially. She agreed to help them get home. And was looking into how. Why the sudden need to grab her and force her to do it? Wouldn't it have made more sense to gently persuade her? Instead they drew attention to themselves and made everything worse. Seemed like a dumb plan of action for a hundred year old magical beings. I was a bit confused by that. Did they just get bored of hanging about for 100 years and decided to jump on the opportunity?

I think this was a simple enough fix - all the writers had to do was have Kamala find out earlier that it would destroy her world if she did it, so she would tell them no - and they'd try to force her. Easy. But instead, we don't find that out until she's in Pakistan and from a group that helps her fight off the Jinn, who are chasing her. The plotting of this show was a bit on the sloppy side.

* The parents are a wee bit too overbearing in the first two episodes, I get why - but it's a touch over-the-top, and doesn't quite work, considering they were progressive in other ways.

* Zoe kind of disappears from the show and reappears, her character gets no development, and when she re-appeared, I had to remind myself who the heck she was. She'd not been seen since episode 1. Also, it's not clear what her relationship was to everyone. They needed to have shown her more in the other episodes or not brought her back at all. I know why she's necessary - for thematic reasons. But it fell flat because the viewer forgets about her.

* The romantic entanglements don't quite work either - for the same reasons that Zoe doesn't. There's a kind of romantic love triangle going on that doesn't quite go anywhere. And Ms. Marvel has better chemistry with the kid in Pakistan, wearing the red scarf.


What I liked was pretty much everything else. The back story into Ishtar, and how Ms. Marvel manages to save the life of her grandmother, and meets both great grandparents was rather moving. I also liked her relationships with her mother, grandmother, father, and friend Nakiti. Those worked. I wanted a bit more with Bruno, who felt a little too much like the cliche geeky fanboy best friend with a crush on the hero. He does however serve a purpose to the plot, and was a bit more than a plot device, also they make him wickedly smart, which helps.

The final two scenes - the one before the fun credits, and the one directly behind them are worth the wait.



1. Bruno (the geeky smart side-kick going to Cal Tech (all expenses paid) - seriously not MIT? Who feels like a powerless Spiderman with no Aunt May): I double-checked your genetic makeup and we were wrong. The reason you could access the power of the amulet and do what you do - is not because you're Jinn, there was something else, something that distinguished you from your family...a kind of ...well, I'd say, it was a mutation.

Ms. Marvel: It's just another label that I don't need.

Me: Oh, we're introducing the Mutants and the X-men with Ms. Marvel? Interesting.

Ms. Marvel was an Inhuman in the comics. But unfortunately, she was the only interesting Inhuman and the only one who worked. No one else did. That storyline bombed in a big way. So Marvel back-pedaled and ret-conned all of it, and did not bring it back into the MCU, they let it die a nice and quiet death with Marvel Agents of Shield. It was those toxic idiots, Whedon, Loeb, et al who came up with the whole idea. Fiege hated it, along with all of the fans, and got rid of it, along with the Inhumans. They've brought the Eternals in to take the place of the Inhumans as the foes of the Mutants in the comics.

Anyhow, now Ms. Marvel is being made a mutant - which she should have been in the first place. It works better. And in the comics, she interacted with both Cyclops and Wolverine of the X-men. Also with Carol Danvers.

2. Ms Marvel disappears and Captain Marvel appears in her place, confused, and bewildered - leading us into the upcoming "Marvels" film.

---

They kind of need to bring in the mutants at some point. The X-men is the core franchise. It's basically the Game of Thrones of the comic verse. Marvel's best selling franchises are not The Avengers, but rather Spiderman, Fantastic Four, and The X-men. But they stupidly gave the film rights to Fantastic Four and the X-men to Fox, and Spiderman to Sony. Now with Disney's acquisition of Fox's properties, Marvel owns the X-men film rights again. This means they now have rights to over 100 characters with super powers, and characters who are LGBTA, Asian, Black, POC, etc. The X-men are partly popular because they have such a diverse cast - and diverse power set. Also, some of the coolest, most complex, and creative villains in the world of comics. Villains that kind of make the ones seen previously look boring and tame by comparison. Loki has nothing on Magneto or Mystique.

The X-men also can bring in political themes, and robotics and AI - expanding on the Ultron themes that the Avengers dealt with.

Plus, we have gay and bisexual characters among the X-men. They've rebooted them in the books to get them to the screen in an interesting and powerful way. They've also opened up the Multi-verse with the Thanos event - which could easily bring in both the Fantastic 4 and the X-men either from another verse or create them in the current one.

The fact that they mention Ms. Marvel is a mutant - means it is being considered finally and may well happen within the next two-three years.



Overall, a good series.

**

Off to bed or something.