Ms. Marvel, the MCU’s newest Disney Plus show, manages to walk this line quite masterfully. It never feels jarring when things switch from a lighter moment to a more intense one because the show managed to establish its tone early on. It succeeds in having both lighter and darker elements because it treats both with equal importance, and puts the focus on the characters and their relationships with each other above everything else.
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Ms. Marvel has an overall light tone, with a lot of goofiness in the humor style. Kamala Khan is an awkward teenage girl, and she responds to situations exactly like any teenage girl would, which is part of the charm of the show. In lighter moments, she responds with a joke, especially to cut some of the tension in the way that a nervous teenager might. On the other side of things, the serious moments come off as even more serious because of her reactions, because the audience is very aware of the fact that Kamala is still a kid, and so when she’s scared or upset, it’s much more impactful.
The show is focused on its characters, which is always a really smart writing choice. Rather than getting bogged down in complicated plot details, Ms. Marvel cares more about developing the relationships between characters. This also helps to balance the tone because exploring character dynamics can lead to all different kinds of situations and can be impactful whether it’s a lighter moment or a heavier one. Putting the focus on Kamala’s family can lead to moments like the one where her parents come into the room with a plan for AvengerCon that includes her father being comically excited about wearing a Hulk costume, only for the tone to shift to something more serious when Kamala hurts her father’s feelings. The shift doesn’t feel forced, and in fact feels like the natural progression of the situation.
The show also has a general air of sincerity about it, which means that both the comical moments and the serious moments feel heartfelt. A lot of this also revolves around the cultural elements that the show focuses on, as the audience gets a peek into Kamala’s family heritage and religion. It’s clear that this show is made by and for people who share in Muslim and Pakistani culture, because all of the scenes that utilize those elements always feel so genuine and real. There’s a tangible joy to the wedding dance scene, for example, though it doesn’t move the plot forward necessarily, it allows for a fun and light moment with the characters before things get intense again. It gives a window into the lives of these characters, and the viewer feels that happiness and levity along with them.
A lot of Marvel movies and shows fall into the trap of writing the characters to be too “quippy”, to the point where they don’t even feel like real people anymore because they make a snarky comment every five seconds and are unable to just sit in a moment. Obviously, since these characters aren’t actually real, they’ll never fully feel like real people, but it’s something that a lot of Marvel viewers have pointed out and become frustrated with. It’s hard to relate to the characters when they’re all written as witty jokesters who can’t have a serious moment, or else when they do have one, it feels awkward and unnatural, and like a sharp pivot away from the tone of the previous scene.
Ms. Marvel manages to avoid this by making its characters and world feel somewhat realistic and lived-in, as much as they can in a piece of superhero media. When the viewer becomes this invested in Kamala and her journey, it’s easy to ride the highs and lows with her. The tone of the show mirrors the experience of teenage life, which is like having one moment where everything is funny and the next where something dramatic or intense has happened and the mood swings down. The more serious moments in Ms. Marvel also aren’t incredible downers, so it’s less jarring when mixed with those comedic elements. As long as the show can continue to carry this tone balance going forward, it’s on track to be one of the Marvel projects with the best tone management in a very long time.
NEXT: Ms. Marvel Episode 3 Review
