Image via Disney
1.
Ms. Marvelhas concluded its six-episode Disney+ run at an uncertain time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Despite the MCU’s continued, unprecedented commercial success, there is a growing critical backlash—a sentiment that this multi-billion dollar experiment in narrative storytelling has peaked and lost its way.
And while it’s true that the MCU is in a rebuilding phase—and shouldn’t be expected to reach the heights of Infinity War or Endgame—there is a definite sprawl with the current crop of television shows and movies. There are a lot of character introductions without follow-ups and many mysterious objects and loose ends without any resolution.
We need to get some answers, and soon. And that’s why it’s unfortunate that Ms. Marvel has not gotten the levels of hype and public attention that WandaVision, Hawkeye, or even Loki received. Because more than any of those, Ms. Marvel charts a clear path forward. It connects the Phase 4 movies together, and it gives us a good inkling of where this all is headed. Ms. Marvel shows us that there is a plan, even if it is a circuitous one.
And now that people know how important Ms. Marvel is to the bigger picture, let’s hope more people watch it. It’s a fantastic, fun show with a big heart. And Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), the MCU’s teenaged American Muslim superhero, is a fully realized character who forges an emotional connection with the audience—so much so, that you can’t help but smile when she finally takes to the streets of Jersey City dressed in her full superhero gear.
Here are 30 of the best Easter eggs and references we found in Ms. Marvel. And spoiler alert: We break down the big reveal in the season finale that turns everything on its head. You’ve been warned.
2.New Marvel Logo
They updated the opening Marvel logo again, this time to include Moon Knight. You can see a shot of him in the “M” at the very end.
3.YouTube Star?
If you pause on the opening montage where Kamala is working on her YouTube channel, you get a very clear idea of how “normal” she is. Her videos have only two or five views, and her only commenter is Bruno. It juxtaposes with her friends having more success on social media, as well as her later notoriety as Ms. Marvel.
4.Sloth Baby Productions
Comics Kamala Khan and MCU Kamala Khan both share a love of sloths. More specifically, winged, flying sloths are an ongoing visual motif in the comics.
5.Ant-Man Podcast
How does the general public know so much about what happened in Infinity War and Endgame? Possibly, it’s because Scott Lang (aka Ant-Man) has a podcast and isn’t shy about telling stories and spilling the beans. Kamala is one of the podcast’s many fans.
6.Ms Marvel's Creators
The names on the plaque outside of Coles Academic High School are the people responsible for creating Kamala Khan and Ms. Marvel—the Marvel editor at the time, the writer, and the artists responsible for her design and initial run.
7.Upside Down TV
After she gets home from school, Kamala likes to watch Felicity, a romantic drama that ran from 1998-2002 and starred Keri Russell in the title role.
8.Camp Lehigh
Avenger-Con is being held at the site of Camp Lehigh, which was once the first headquarters for S.H.I.E.LD., and is where Steve Rogers became Captain America. Tony Stark and Steve Rogers traveled back in time to Camp Lehigh to retrieve the Space Stone during Avengers: Endgame, where Tony ran into his dad and Steve caught a glimpse of Peggy Carter.
9.America's Ass
The fan art of Captain America at Avenger-Con is a reference to Ant-Man complimenting Captain America’s ass in Avengers: Endgame. It’s also a sly dig at the male gaze in superhero movies; about 10 years ago, comic artists had a few laughs by drawing male superheroes in female superhero poses.
10.I Can Do This All Day
Apparently, everyone in the MCU knows about Captain America’s mid-battle, desperation catchphrase, because it’s on a poster board at Avenger-Con. Who, exactly, is telling the general public about this? Red Skull? The Winter Soldier?
11.Asgard Pride
There are rainbow-colored, LGBTQ+ Asgard shirts at Avenger-Con. Since Asgard’s current, reigning king is an openly bisexual woman, that tracks.
12.Stark Cheerleader Cosplay
At the Stark Expo in Iron Man 2, Tony surrounds himself with a sexy cheerleading squad, with repulsors on their hands and arc reactors on their chests. These three girls at Avenger-Con appear to be cosplaying as those cheerleaders.
13.Black Widow and Iron Man Memorial
There’s a memorial at Avenger-Con that’s dedicated to Black Widow and Iron Man. Natasha Romanoff sacrificed her life to retrieve the Soul Stone in Avengers: Endgame. Tony Stark “Snapped” while holding the Infinity Stones, which defeated Thanos but cost Stark his life.
We learned in Spider-Man: Far From Home that the general public knows Vision is dead and believes Steve Rogers to be dead as well. Where are their memorials?
14.Department of Damage Control (DODC)
The Department of Damage Control debuted in Spider-Man: Homecoming. After the Battle of New York, the DODC took over the Chitauri salvaging process from Adrian Toomes; this action indirectly led Toomes down a path of evil. He began weapons dealing and was turned into the supervillain Vulture before Spider-Man stopped him.
The DODC made another appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home, where they hauled Peter Parker and his friends into an interrogation room and confiscated EDITH.
Based on these multiple appearances, in both movies and television, the DODC will likely be a major villain moving forward—especially if there’s a government agency in charge of hunting down and identifying mutants. More on that later.
15.Kingo 'Eternals' Reference
During their quasi-date, Kamala and Kamran discuss Bollywood star Kingo, and Kamran mentions how his mother is a fan of Kingo, Sr., who was also a Bollywood star. Little do they know that Kingo and Kingo, Sr. are actually the same person, because Kingo is an Eternal who does not age. We first meet Kingo in The Eternals, where he’s played by Kumail Nanjiani.
16.Superhero Pose
Kamala strikes a superhero pose after saving a child. It’s both cool-looking and wildly impractical, and it’s a recurring joke in Black Widow, where Yelena calls Natasha a “total poser.”
17.Stark Drone
If the DODC drones look and feel somewhat familiar, it might be because we’ve seen drones like this one before. In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Tony Stark’s EDITH gave Peter Parker (and later Mysterio) control over a massive drone fleet. After the DODC confiscated EDITH during Spider-Man: No Way Home, did they reappropriate the drone technology to do their surveillance and bidding? The implications are ominous.
18.Ten Rings Logo
When the Clandestines find the bangle in a flashback, there’s a Ten Rings logo on the floor of where they’re searching. The Ten Rings is an ancient criminal organization that was prominently featured in both Iron Man and Shang Chi—they were the ones responsible for kidnapping Tony Stark in Afghanistan. Shang Chi’s father Wenwu is the shadow leader of the Ten Rings.
This logo implies that the Ten Rings relic from Shang Chi and the bangle are connected and possibly come from the same source.
19.Kree Hand?
The Clandestines remove the bangle from a blue hand and wrist. This implies that the bangle is of alien origin. The Kree from Captain Marvel are a blue-skinned race and would have use for a relic such as this one.
In the mid-credits scene for Shang Chi, Captain Marvel speculates that the Ten Rings might be of alien origin, furthering the implication that the bangle and the rings are connected.
20.Dr. Erik Selvig Reference
When Kamala asks Bruno to research portals, Bruno mentions the work of Dr. Erik Selvig. Dr. Selvig is a recurring character in the MCU and made his debut in Thor, where he was a colleague and friend to Jane Foster. He later worked on the Tesseract for Nick Fury and was possessed by Loki prior to the Chitauri invasion of New York.
21.Preliminary Costume
You’ll notice that prior to Kamala wearing the full Ms. Marvel costume, she’s already wearing her eventual color scheme, and she’s adopting little parts of the eventual costume along the way. It symbolizes how Kamala is slowly evolving into a more mature, responsible person that’s worthy of the Ms. Marvel mantle.
22.Chitauri Weapons Tech
We see some pretty advanced weapons during the scene where the Clandestines escape imprisonment, and we see them again in the season finale, when the DODC raid the school in search of Kamala and Kamran. They’re very reminiscent of the Chitauri weapons that Vulture made in Spider-Man: Homecoming. And since the DODC took over those salvage operations after the Battle of New York, it begs the question: did the DODC adapt the alien technology into their own weaponry? It certainly looks that way.
23.A Real QR Code
If you scan the QR code in this scene, you’ll get a free Captain Marvel comic. Give it a try! And keep your eyes peeled in the other Ms. Marvel episodes (and in Moon Knight) for other QR codes as well.
24.Costume Designer
In the comics, Kamala and Bruno make her final suit, and Bruno rigs it so that it can stretch and change shape along with Kamala, In the MCU, Muneeba gifts the suit to Kamala, which underlines the familial connection and the lineage of the bangle. It’s also a figurative way of showing that Kamala has her family and community’s support.
25.Full Costume Reveal
Kamala’s final look is a modified burkina that incorporates all of the gifts that she’s collected over the course of the season. The mask was a gift from Bruno. The red dress came from from the wedding fitting for her brother’s wedding. The blue vest was a gift from Waleed. The red scarf was a gift from Kareem. And the Converse sneakers are her own.
26.The Haram and Halal hats
The words “halal” and “Haram” are Arabic, and roughly translate to “permissible” and “forbidden” in English.
27.Embiggen
In the season finale, Kamala finally uses her signature “Embiggen” power from the comics, where she and her fists grow to multiple times their original size.
It’s been well-documented, and somewhat controversial, that the creators made the decision to change MCU Kamala’s powers—from one where she stretched, grew, and shrank herself—to one where cosmic energy extended around and from her. Kamala’s final MCU appears to be a decent compromise, which uses her cosmic abilities to give her an approximation of her original abilities.
28.Arabic Name
Kamala wears a necklace that shows her name in Arabic. After it breaks, it resembles a lightning bolt, which Muneeba emblazons on the front of her costume.
Kamala’s dad tells her that in Urdu, the name Kamala translates to “marvel” or “wonder,” which explains why Kamala adopts Ms. Marvel as her superhero moniker.
In the same speech, he also quotes the Quran 5:32, which reads in full: “That is why We decreed for the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul, without [its being guilty of] manslaughter or corruption on the earth, is as though he had killed all mankind, and whoever saves a life is as though he had saved all mankind.”
29.Iconic Lamppost Shot
The show ends with an iconic shot lifted directly from the comics, of Kamala sitting on a lamppost across the river from Manhattan. It was originally the cover of Ms. Marvel #5, released in 2014.
30.Is Kamala Khan a mutant?
The big reveal at the end of the series is that Kamala is so much more than her bangle and her lineage. She may be part Clandestine, and the bangle may have awakened her abilities. But those abilities, Bruno reveals, are the result of a genetic mutation. And at the moment he reveals this, we hear the notes of the classic 90’s X-Men animated theme on the soundtrack.
For the longest time, the X-Men were off limits, since Fox owned the film rights. But the rights reverted to Disney after a $71.3 billion merger between the company and 21st Century Fox.
So in short: The X-Men are coming to the MCU. If the powers-that-be are smart, they’ll proceed carefully. They can slowly have teenage mutants discover their powers over the next couple of years and Phases, and then a man named Charles Xavier can decide to build a school dedicated to teaching them. Meanwhile, they can continue to develop the DODC as the new Big Bad. The Stark drones can eventually become the Sentinels, dedicated to tracking down and capturing the mutants. And the public can slowly turn against super-powered individuals, to the point that they’re no longer celebrities and no longer trusted.
This could be the beginning of a new, exciting era. Let’s hope they don’t blow it.
31.
The mid-credits scene sets up The Marvels (coming on July 28, 2023). We see Kamala’s bangle glow right before she disappears and is replaced by Captain Marvel (Brie Larson, playing Carol Danvers). Danvers looks around Kamala’s room, concerned and muttering “Oh no no no,” before walking out of the frame.
Assuming the MCU is using the comics for inspiration, this reveals that the bangle is actually a Nega-Band, an ancient Kree artifact that can manifest thoughts into physical energy. In the comics, one can also use the Nega-Bands to swap positions with another character. So wherever Captain Marvel used to be? That’s where Ms. Marvel is now.
So where is Kamala? The comics would say she’s in the Negative Zone, an anti-matter continuum. But she could also be in the Noor Dimension, which was discussed and established during the show, and would prevent the MCU from having to explain yet another plot point.
We’ll find out soon enough. But for now, there’s a lot to look forward to. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens on November 11, 2022, with more hints, clues, and breadcrumbs to come. We’ll be there to cover them all.