# The Marvelous Ms. Marvel **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, disney-hulu\ **Created:** [March 15, 2022, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116 "2022-03-15T15:05:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/241 "2022-07-14T16:10:25Z")
I enjoyed it overall, but the show kinda lost me in Pakistan, and I think the finale didn’t really hang together very well, either. (Spoilering because I’m not sure about the policy in this thread, but really, it’s just pointless gripes:) Kamala’s mother turned from overprotective to ‘I’ll make you a costume to go out, fight crime and possible get killed in’ on a dime—but then, that seems to be the way ‘character development’ happens on this show, for mothers at least. Although I do applaud them for not doing the classic thing where the hero gets all angsty having to hide their powers and worrying about endangering the ones they love. But then ruined it by doing the just as played out are-they-kissing-or-fighting (even complete with the kiss being forestalled by the sudden appearance of the comic relief sidekick!). The whole ‘let’s go to the school’-plan didn’t seem very well motivated, and then of course they’re found immediately because the plot needed for there to be a standoff type of situation. Then Damage Control just waits until they had time to Home Alone some makeshift defenses. (Also, for ‘nonlethal weapons’ they seem to be able to take out quite sizeable chunks of masonry…) The timescale was also a bit weird—they start their flight in one scene in the daytime, and then it suddenly is pitch dark after they seemingly turned a corner. Then bam, Zoe ex machina—that seemed totally random, if there was any indication that the character would have a role to play at some point, I must’ve missed it. And yeah, Kamala saved her life—but wasn’t it also her powers manifesting that endangered it in the first place…? All in all, I thought this felt somewhat similar to the final Game of Thrones-season, plot-wise: we need those characters at this point at that moment, so they’ll just turn up without worrying too much about how they got there, not just location-wise, but also regarding character development. Like the whole thing was just reconstructed from a hurried exposition of the main story beats. Still, I think this had potential. I liked pretty much all the main characters—only nerdy comic relief sidekick slash spurned love interest needs to be fleshed out to seem more like a person than a plot device to pop up randomly and speed things along. I liked the brother’s enthusiasm about things, and the father’s kindness. And I liked the look—lots of color, a welcome departure from the grey-in-darker-grey school of superhero filmmaking; I’ll even forgive the occasional inexplicably bad CGI during Kamala’s parkour antics. With a bit more connective tissue to the story, I think this could’ve been great; as it is, to me, it’s just on the good side of watchable. But it’s got me looking forward to future outings! ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/242 "2022-07-14T20:02:01Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Oh, and there is a mid-credits scene, where she gets a visit from Chuck Cunningham. I… don’t get it. Nor do I understand what you mean by the “e” word. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/243 "2022-07-14T22:23:26Z")
Chuck Cunningham was a call-back to post #17 in this thread (though apparently it was a location swap with Carol Danvers and not just Kamala suddenly looking like her). The “e” word is “embiggen”. > **[Ms. Marvel's Embiggen catchphrase delights fans in Disney series finale](https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/07/13/what-does-embiggen-mean-ms-marvels-catchphrase-explained/)** > > The Ms. Marvel finale debuted Kamala Khan in her superhero suit and we explain the comic-accurate catchphrase, "embiggen". ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/244 "2022-07-14T22:31:21Z")
> **[Ms. Marvel's "Embiggen" Has Officially Been Added To The Dictionary](https://screenrant.com/ms-marvel-embiggen-dictionary-marvel-comics/)** > > It's time to embiggen your vocabulary! ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/245 "2022-07-15T08:30:29Z")
[“The Simpsons”](https://mashable.com/article/embiggen-merriam-webster-entry) did it first. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/246 "2022-07-15T08:37:25Z")
It’s a perfectly cromulent word. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/247 "2022-07-15T11:04:47Z")
Way to break out the extremely obscure information that surely nobody here already knew about, and definitely isn’t explicitly discussed in one of the linked articles anyway! ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/248 "2022-07-15T11:18:29Z")
Also, from this quote: “Amusingly, Wilson has previously admitted she didn’t get the _ **Simpsons** _ reference when she began using the word “Embiggen.” In fact, she thought this was a computer term she’d encountered in relation to image manipulation, specifically the “embiggening” of JPEGS.” Wilson quite possibly encountered it from astronomer (and former Doper) Phil Plait, who has been using the term that way for many years. Here’s an instance from 2008: > **[Caption this photo](https://slate.com/technology/2008/09/caption-this-photo.html)** > > This picture (click to embiggen) is a still from the video of my presentation at TAM 6 in las Vegas in June. I was pretty excited during my talk -- I... (Different article) > **[Ms. Marvel and The Simpsons put ‘embiggen’ in the dictionary](https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/5/17081892/embiggen-meaning-simpsons-webster-dictionary-ms-marvel)** > > It’s an embiggened world after all ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/249 "2022-07-15T13:32:04Z")
The “it’s just another label” line felt a little too cute, though. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/250 "2022-07-15T13:46:27Z")
I was pretending I was Batman. The whole reason he had Robin as a sidekick was to explain the plot to the slower readers. There may have been _someone_ who wasn’t aware of it. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/251 "2022-07-15T14:09:19Z")
I’ll admit that I have been slightly amused by all the “Yay! She said her beloved catchphrase–which is not at all original or unique to her!” reactions. Dan Greaney must be quietly crying in a corner somewhere. I’d put this series about in the middle of the Marvel series. It was enjoyable, and as I said above, Iman Vellani is a likeable and appealing performer who is a lot of fun to watch. But its storyline seemed a bit disjointed, and I wouldn’t put it in the top tier of series alongside things like _Loki_ or _Falcon & The Winter Soldier_. However, I liked it enough that I will look forward to seeing the character again. I kind of understand why they changed her powers, as the comic book powers could easily look silly in live action. I have to say, even with the change, her “embiggened” form did look a little awkward. More significant to me than the word “embiggen” was the word “mutation.” Between this and the new _Dr. Strange_ movie, they definitely seem to bringing mutants into the MCU. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/252 "2022-07-15T14:09:34Z")
They really overloaded the origins of her powers. She has a magic bangle, and she’s part djinn, which lets her use the magic bangle. But, also, she’s a mutant, so they can justify why her mom and brother aren’t also superheroes. That’s three different weird things in her background that had to happen for her to be a superhero, which is two weird things too many. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/253 "2022-07-15T19:47:46Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > I was pretending I was Batman. I realized afterwards it could have also been a _South Park_ reference… ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/254 "2022-07-15T19:54:40Z")
Yeah, in the comics her jewelry is—jewelry. Important to her as family heirlooms and cultural symbols, but nothing more. I thought it was weird that they made it a plot point, like saying that Superman really got his powers from his cape all along. As for her powers, maybe one of her parents and her brother might have developed powers, too, _if_ they had been exposed to the Mcguffin Mists, but they never were. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/255 "2022-07-15T20:04:08Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > She has a magic bangle, and she’s part djinn, which lets her use the magic bangle. But, also, she’s a mutant, so they can justify why her mom and brother aren’t also superheroes. That’s three different weird things in her background that had to happen for her to be a superhero, which is two weird things too many Reminded me of a bit from “What’s New With Phil and Dixie” in which the superhero is subjected to so many origins at once that nothing is left but a pile of ash > [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Kamala’s mother turned from overprotective to ‘I’ll make you a costume to go out, fight crime and possible get killed in’ on a dime To be fair, her mom had been in “my flaky daughter reminds me of my really flaky mother, whose crazy beliefs have caused me social embarrassment all my life” mode. The switch to “my daughter has superpowers, I’ve been wrongly accusing her of ruining her brother’s wedding, and my mom was right all along in all her weird beliefs” is bound to cause some serious swings in behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/256 "2022-07-16T01:55:23Z")
I just finished the series. The start was slow, but I liked that they developed the characters. The show is obviously from the point of view of Kamala. As she matures, her perceptions of the other characters changes. The whole vibe of the show is not serious. I like they didn’t over-explain things. They tell the important parts of the story and skip stuff that didn’t matter. Favorite joke: the halal and haram hats on the appropriate heads. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2022, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/257 "2022-07-16T11:18:38Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Favorite joke: the halal and haram hats on the appropriate heads. I wonder if those would be big sellers? I think Kamran’s mom is influencing him through whatever energy she sent him when she died or ascended to that other dimension. He was a pretty good actor-I wouldn’t hate to see him again. His powers in general seemed the same as Ms. Marvel’s, though, so where does the mutation come in? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2022, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/258 "2022-07-18T10:30:57Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Favorite joke: the halal and haram hats on the appropriate heads. Oh god, that was hilarious. I’m like “WHY WOULD YOU EVEN HAVE THOSE” but it was a good joke nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2022, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/259 "2022-07-18T11:25:31Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I’m like “WHY WOULD YOU EVEN HAVE THOSE” but it was a good joke nonetheless. I thought the same thing, but then insta-fan-wanked, “They’re probably for some educational skit for little kids. Hi, I’m Haram and you should run away from me! I’m Halal and I’m your friend.” ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116/260 "2022-07-19T00:34:37Z")
Or some strange version of Duck, Duck, Goose [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-marvelous-ms-marvel/961116.md?page=14)