Ms. Marvel: Season 1

In my opinion, pretty much every Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series that has dropped on Disney+ over the past couple of years has been fairly inconsequential to the wider development of the live-action universe. I will say that this is generally a theme that is shared among all projects that have arrived since Avengers: Endgame, as Marvel projects struggle to seemingly have an end goal in mind at the moment. That doesn't change the fact that Marvel productions are still very high quality and usually are entertaining to some degree, which is precisely what Ms. Marvel wound up being when looking at the full season that recently wrapped up.

This show introduces fans to yet another young superhero, leading many to assume that Marvel is eyeing up a Young Avengers storyline, especially when considering Kate Bishop from Hawkeye, Wanda Maximoff's children, America Chavez from the latest Doctor Strange, and an individual from Thor: Love and Thunder (who I will refrain from naming as the movie is still rather fresh). Stacking all of these up with Iman Vellani's Ms. Marvel and the still young in lore Peter Parker portrayed by Tom Holland, and it really does seem like Young Avengers is on the cards. But again, this is the point, we don't have any idea what all of these movies and shows are leading to, and even though Ms. Marvel teases the upcoming The Marvels and even mutants - which were mentioned again in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - we lack a big baddie to fear, and even an end goal to keep in mind.

And the reason I'm bringing this up is because Ms. Marvel once again feels rather inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Sure, this is a series that is produced to an incredibly high quality, with a charismatic cast that do well to bring their respective characters to life. Vellani suits the role of Ms. Marvel, even if I don't believe she is quite as captivating to watch as the brilliant Hailee Steinfeld who excelled as Kate Bishop. But, Vellani is still wonderful in the role, and so are her supporting cast members. I even appreciate the style of the show, which creatively shows New York City off in a new light, sort of in the same vein as Spider-Man: Homecoming, which drew our eyes away from Manhattan's soaring skyscrapers and instead revolved around the communities and suburbs of the surrounding boroughs. To that extent, Ms. Marvel excelled.

But the show faces another one of the same issues that most Marvel series have tackled, which is that with a lack of an engaging adversary, the leading heroes never really feel in danger or at risk. And what I mean by this is that at no point do you feel any concern for Ms. Marvel during this season. The villains, the Clan Destines are incredibly disappointing and fail to bring any gravity to the show, and this is because they are never really the main villain, rather its Damage Control, a sort of governing body that aims to keep tabs and deal with emerging super-powered beings. But the catch is, this group also fails to be threatening, leaving no real challenge for Ms. Marvel to have to overcome and rise above - which is basically the bread and butter for a superhero origin story.

Yes, Ms. Marvel is a gorgeously filmed production that once again nails costume design, set design, and so forth, even if the actual stretchy and light-based superpower effects lack at times. But all of this doesn't really feel all too important if the storyline itself holds no weight and doesn't really do anything other than introduce some new characters. I'm starting to think Marvel needs to resort back to its old method of introducing characters, for example how it brought Spider-Man in as a surprise addition to the Captain America: Civil War crew, instead of creating an abundance of lengthy and almost meaningless series as it at the moment.

I feel as though I should mention again that Ms. Marvel isn't an inherently bad show to watch. It's still a Marvel Studios production and with that comes the promise of an incredibly high quality product. Just don't expect to be blown away by it, because that is something this series does not do.