'Mrs. Davis' uneven; 'Marvels' heroine safe in the MCU

Ms. Marvel should be just fine in the long run

Kirk Boxleitner | May 25, 20230

Courtesy photo count

The heroic seekers of "Mrs. Davis" ride off into the sunset on Peacock.

'Mrs. Davis' on Peacock

I promised I would offer a final verdict on Peacock's "Mrs. Davis" streaming series once it had aired all eight of its episodes. As of May 18, its entire run is now online, but I still find myself left with mixed reactions to the whole affair.

First off, credit to series co-creator Damon Lindelof for not choking in the clutch on "Mrs. Davis" in the same way he did on "Lost," because it wrapped up with all its plot threads tied up so neatly that, in retrospect, it becomes clear how each of those resolutions had their groundwork laid by the preceding episodes.

Then again, the number of obfuscating plot twists and double-negative, self-canceling reversals of ostensibly expectation-defying revelations ultimately results in a conclusion whose biggest surprises are how unsurprising, and unambitious, it proves to be.

In its last three episodes, "Mrs. Davis" descends to the level of an exhaustively overdone yet unintended parody of M. Night Shyamalan at his worst, focusing so much energy on trying to trick viewers, after having already trained them to be suspicious of everything they think they've seen so far, that it risks making its own story seem pointless.

In particular, the long-delayed disclosure of the "Mrs. Davis" algorithm's secret origins was such a mockingly "gotcha" punchline that I almost threw my remote across the room, and even though the finale improved from that point, the self-impressed "cleverness" of that conceit considerably lowered my opinion of the entire series.

Being convoluted does not equate to being profound, although again, I will give credit to Lindelof and series co-creator Tara Hernandez for coming up with a mildly novel reinterpretation of Christian theology that's certainly not going to thrill traditionalists, and will probably seem a bit hokey or hipster-ish to more jaundiced agnostics, but which I found refreshingly non-nihilistic and respectful of the validity of religious faith itself.

Also, given the recent spate of news warning about the threats posed by artificial intelligence "gone wrong," I was not expecting "Mrs. Davis" to offer a no-less-relevant warning about how badly humanity could be harmed by AI "gone right."

Given that Peacock, like all streaming services, is owned by a global multimedia corporation (Peacock's parent is NBCUniversal), it practically qualifies as a statement against its own interests for a Peacock show like "Mrs. Davis" to assert that "customer satisfaction" is in no way the same thing as actually solving underlying societal problems.

And as I noted in my previous review, "Mrs. Davis" benefits from many effortlessly watchable actors. I already complimented the deft performance of series lead Betty Gilpin, and the comic chops of absurdly macho Chris Diamantopoulos, but also deserving of mention are the always-welcome Margo Martindale as a wryly benevolent nun, and Shohreh Aghdashloo suddenly appearing in a pitch-perfect role I won't spoil.

If you were already halfway through this series' run as of my last writing, I suppose it's worth completing your binge-viewing, but if I'd been spoiled about specific developments from the outset, I'm not sure I would have bothered to start watching "Mrs. Davis" in the first place.

Ms. Marvel in Marvel Comics and the MCU

As a nerd who grew up on the comic books that have formed the foundations for the DC and Marvel superhero movies and TV shows of the past decade and a half, I have mostly avoided the temptation to delve too deeply into the source materials for the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the DC Extended Universe in my reviews, except as those comics relate to their onscreen adaptations.

Unfortunately, Marvel Comics does not share my sense of propriety, because on May 16, it confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that "Amazing Spider-Man" (Vol. 6) No. 26, which is set to hit the stands May 31, will feature the death of the otherwise unrelated superheroine Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel.

MCU fans will recall that Iman Vellani has not only played Kamala Khan in the "Ms. Marvel" streaming series on Disney+ in 2022, but has also appeared in recent trailers promoting "The Marvels," in which she co-stars with Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, and Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, whose character last appeared in 2021's "WandaVision."

With the character of Kamala Khan set to appear in the MCU's next big-screen blockbuster, scheduled to premiere Nov. 10, casual fans might wonder why Marvel Comics would choose to kill her off now.

Because Marvel Comics has chosen to promote this story to audiences who aren't necessarily familiar with how superhero comics work, I feel the need to reassure you that Kamala Khan is perfectly safe, and probably will not die (or if she does, not permanently) in "The Marvels."

Although the "Ms. Marvel" streaming series wonderfully captured the winning personality that makes Kamala Khan easily one of the best superheroes created in the past decade, it also heavily revised the origins and nature of her superpowers.

And with her TV show's hints that she might be a mutant in the MCU, the online nerd rumor mill is thick with predictions that Kamala, who has been established as a human with some Inhuman heritage in the comics, will be resurrected as a mutant in roughly enough time to cross-promote "The Marvels" in theaters later this year.

I question the wisdom of having Ms. Marvel's death occur in the pages of "Amazing Spider-Man," as the conclusion to an already controversial and problematic story arc that has no other substantive connections to who Kamala Khan is, or what she's about.

But for the majority of my readers, who are not comics nerds, that has nothing to do with your lives, so you're honestly better off not caring about that part of it.

All that being said, while I'm sure Marvel Comics are anticipating sales numbers that will justify this stunt, I'm sad to see the marginalization of Ms. Marvel as a character in the meantime, however momentarily.

Ms. Marvel is for today's little girls and women of color who Spider-Man was for dorky white guys like me when I was a kid. Kamala Khan is an aspirational figure, "the hero who could be you," as Stan Lee described Peter Parker in "Amazing Spider-Man" (Vol. 1) No. 9 in 1964, and she deserves better than to be reduced to an excuse for white characters to wallow in man-pain.

But as I said, for any MCU fans who might have read this news in Entertainment Weekly, do not cry for her, Argentina, because in the long run, Ms. Marvel should be just fine.