‘We are on the same side, there is no enmity’: India’s only Muslim superhero on Ms Marvel

Falah Faisal

There has been a lot of furore about Marvel’s latest offering Ms. Marvel, with its very first Muslim Superhero in the Marvel Cinamatic Universe. A lot of the talk has centered around representation of South Asian cultures for a mainstream American audience, with its lead Kamala Khan being a teenage Pakistani girl from New Jersey.

So we thought who better to talk to about it other than Musalman, India’s only Muslim Superhero. “I actually wanted to watch the entire show, before I comment on it,” says Musalman. “Now that I have seen the finale I must say I’m pleasantly surprised. I felt they handled the family drama angle very well,” he adds. The show does have its shortcomings though, Musalman points out the problems with shows pacing, “What Marvel doesn’t understand in South Asian TV shows are on-going sagas that span years and can’t be contrived into just six episodes. There were some plot points that felt rushed. When they were dealing with Kamala’s family life, it felt like a nice indie film but when they shifted to the superhero action and fighting it felt very much like a Disney Channel kids show.”

“I also felt that they completely wasted Farhan Akhtar by introducing him as the head of the Red Daggers and killing him off in the same episode, a wasted opportunity,” adds Musalman. “I feel Marvel is great at making TV shows, I have really enjoyed the last few. They should stick to it and leave movies alone as most of their movies are formulaic and boring fare,” he says, noting that their 30+ movies in the MCU are just one long TV show.

But does he think this is true representation or mere tokenism, a criticism levied against Black Panther?

“Black Panther was a character created by Stan Lee, a white man wanting to capitalize on the black market, whereas Ms. Marvel or at least her current avatar, was co-created by Sana Amanat by G. Willow Wilson to give young brown girls a voice, so it gets a lot of the aspects of representation right,” says Musalman, adding that people must check out Ramy on Hulu which deals with many of the same themes in a non-superhero way.

Musalman claims that he has offered to buy the rights for Ms. Marvel from Disney, something to which they haven’t yet responded since they plan to give her a movie debut in The Marvels next year