Ms. Marvel’s most significant MCU connections
By Josh Baggins
The latest Disney Plus series, Ms. Marvel, is full of Marvel Cinematic Universe references and easter eggs.
Ms. Marvel is the second Marvel Cinematic Universe show this year. Both Disney Plus series have presented audiences with the live-action debuts of their respective superheroes, however Ms. Marvel revels in its MCU association, while Moon Knight was much more distanced. With Kamala being Captain Marvel’s biggest fangirl, there are loads of nods to that cosmic hero and she even goes into detail about Carol Danvers flying to the rescue during the Endgame battle.
Kamala discloses in the opener how she (and the rest of the world) knows every detail of the Avengers fight against Thanos – Scott Lang has been spilling the beans on his podcast. As much as Kamala reveres Captain Marvel, she also relates to Ant-Man, perhaps because of her superhero novice status. In the sophomore episode Kamala mentions that her powers are like Ant-Man’s and she even admires street art of the tiny Avenger in Pakistan. There is a detectable juxtaposition of that shot against Peter Parker lamenting over a spray-painted image of Iron Man in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
With the public not knowing who Ms. Marvel is (and Kamala not knowing what to call herself), she is initially dubbed “Night Light”, which is a witty callback to Spider-Man’s “Night Monkey” nickname when he travels to Europe and dons a black suit in Far From Home.
The Ms. Marvel premiere hosts a myriad of Easter Eggs as Kamala draws and dreams Avengers. She depicts the various costumes that Captain Marvel has had in the comic books and also imagines her icon as a zombie, which of course alludes to the What If… Zombies?! portion of the Marvel animated series. From a past MCU show to an upcoming one – Kamala’s parents put together matching Daddy and Me Hulk costumes with their “big Hulk, little Hulk” theme anticipating some real big Hulk, little Hulk action in Disney Plus’ next live-action series, She-Hulk.
When Kamala attends AvengerCon, it takes place at Camp Lehigh. This is the New Jersey military grounds where Steve Rogers trained to be a soldier. “The Star-Spangled Man” plays in the background at AvengerCon; the same song Captain America performed to during his USO days in the 1940s set Captain America: The First Avenger. In the 1970s, Camp Lehigh was a SHIELD facility, which Hydra secretly infiltrated, becoming the origin of Arnim Zola’s Project Insight.
Rogers returned to the site with Black Widow during Captain America: The Winter Soldier, only for Hydra to blow it up, leaving the land flattened enough for developers to identify it as a good place to assemble conventions. Captain America is not directly named, even when Kamala is transported to 1942 in the penultimate episode. That was the time period when Captain Rogers gained global notoriety as a war hero.
The first episode’s post-credits scene features Agent Cleary from Damage Control learning about our newly powered person. This is the Spider-Man: No Way Home agent that investigated Peter Parker’s involvement in the European catastrophes, and specifically the death of Mysterio.
Fans are already accustomed to some of the weapons that Damage Control use to pursue Ms. Marvel. The organization confiscated Peter’s EDITH glasses in No Way Home. The glasses were passed down to Spidey after Iron Man’s death and control Stark’s drones, as seen in Far From Home. Now Damage Control has possession of them and sends them in to deal with enhanced individuals.
The fifth chapter ends with one of these drones locking onto Kamran and firing a missile at the store under Bruno’s apartment. The Jersey City convenience store is blown up in a similar fashion as the business Peter Parker frequented in Queens in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
When Damage control aims to take down Ms. Marvel and Kamran in the climactic clash, they fire the same sonic blasting devices that Thunderbolt Ross’ Hulkbuster unit employs to stop the big green guy in The Incredible Hulk. This emphasizes how powerful Ms. Marvel’s abilities are perceived to be. In both cases, the heroes overcome the aural assault.
The second episode directly names a few MCU heroes. When Bruno figures out that the bracelet did not give her powers, rather unlocked latent abilities inside of her, she wonders if she is Asgardian and related to Thor. Then, Kamala and Kamran bond over their adoration for Bollywood films and recognize Kingo has one of their favorite actors. Kingo is the Eternals member who became a Bollywood star. Kamala even compares Kingo to Kingo Jr., which is his cover for living forever. Since Kingo doesn’t age, he creates a new identity as his son, and his fans clearly don’t question the façade.
The most significant reveal in Ms. Marvel’s tertiary chapter is that Clandestines hail from another dimension. The multiverse has been an expanding element in the MCU’s post-Endgame era, especially in the Disney Plus series What If…? and Loki, as well as recent theatrical releases Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Ms. Marvel’s bangle not only grants Kamala abilities to physically protect herself, but it apparently can open doors to other dimensions, similar to Miss America in the Doctor Strange sequel.
When studying interdimensional travel, Bruno references Dr. Erik Selvig, who is of course the scientist who befriended Thor. Stellan Skarsgard portrayed Selvig in five MCU movies – recently checking in on Jane Foster in Thor: Love and Thunder.
The Ten Rings symbol is imprinted in the temple where the Clandestines found the bracelet in the 1940s, connecting Wenwu’s historical presence to these powerful artifacts. Yet the wrist that the bangle was taken from is blue, signifying that the Kree had come into the possession of it before Kamala’s great grandmother. It is not a coincidence that Kamala’s idol, Captain Marvel, knows the Kree very intimately.
The Red Daggers explain that they have been preparing for the Clandestines for a long time and even show a map of the Noor Dimension sitting over their world. This clarifies that the dimension where the Clandestines hail from is not an alternate reality of Earth 616, but more like a different realm, similar to the Dark Dimension from Doctor Strange. Ultimately, this gateway to the Noor Dimension proves supremely dangerous – when it is opened, the powers unleashed destroy the Clandestines.
After all adversaries are out of the way, Bruno explains to Kamala that he did some deeper DNA digging into the foundation of what makes her unique and reveals that her genes possess a mutation. The word mutation cues up a short instrumental reverberation of the 1990s X-Men cartoon theme song. This is the same music that can be heard when Professor-X rolls into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The MCU is obviously setting the stage for mutants to make their mark, however Kamala is notably an Inhuman in the comic books, and the king of the Inhumans, Black Bolt, stood alongside Xavier among the Illuminati in the Doctor Strange sequel.
In the end, the first season’s credits scene features Kamala’s bangle activating and swapping Ms. Marvel for Captain Marvel. This is Brie Larson’s only appearance in Ms. Marvel, which has the infinitely powerful hero to thank for its title. As far as we know, The Marvels‘ theatrical release, in July 2023, will be the next time we see both marvelous heroines.
dark. Next. What is the next Marvel series after Ms. Marvel?
What did you think of Ms. Marvel? Are you looking forward to seeing more of Ms. Marvel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Let us know in the comments below.