Editor’s note: The below article contains spoilers for Episode 3 of Ms. Marvel.After weeks of speculation, Episode 3 of Ms. Marvel finally dives deeper into the family and folklore surrounding Kamala (Iman Vellani) and gives us some concrete information about the bangle Ms. Marvel is wearing. After Episode 2 officially kicks off her research into her family history, Episode 3, “Destined,” gives us a lot more to ponder over regarding the source of her powers and the bracelet.
Prior to Episode 3, one essential bit of information we learned, courtesy of child genius Bruno (Matt Lintz), is that the bangle was not the source of Kamala’s powers but rather triggering some innate ability. This makes sense since the series is going to painstaking lengths to establish Kamala’s family history. Whereas Episode 1 only alluded to there being something under the water, having her mother occasionally talk about her “grandmother’s delusions,” Episode 2 dove into more specific details about her parentage.
After learning that the bangle had inscriptions on it that were either in Urdu or Arabic, Kamala started to investigate her family. This was spurred on by her father’s speech to Tyesha (Travina Springer) Aamir’s fiancé, when he explains how Kamala’s grandmother Sana (Samina Ahmed) got lost while trying to board a train to escape from the side of India they were in to Pakistan during the partition. According to her father, Sana remembers seeing stars that guided her to her mother Ayesha (Mehwish Hayat). As he is doing so, something about his words causes the bracelet to power up and Kamala’s eyes to light up. It is then that she sees a vision of a mysterious woman beckoning her towards herself, as we hear train noises in the background. When Kamala talked to the Aunties (or IlluminAunties as she calls then) they came up with all kinds of stories about Ayesha and how evil she was.
Episode 3 finally provides some clarity on all the insanity in Kamala’s life. After Kamran (Rish Shah) dropped the bombshell that the woman in Kamala’s vision was his mother, Episode 3 officially introduces us to MCU’s ClanDestine. It is revealed that her great-grandmother was a Jinn and part of a group called the ClanDestines from the Noor Dimension, who was exiled to Earth for reasons not yet disclosed. They possess the ability to manipulate light, however being on Earth has significantly limited their powers and according to Kamran’s mother Najma (Nimra Bucha), Ayesha and the rest of the gang were on a quest to find two bangles so that they could leave the Earth before they got caught up in the turmoil of the Partition of India in 1947.
This is interesting for multiple reasons. Firstly, it adds credence to Bruno’s statement about the bangle unlocking something inside Kamala, as she is now no longer a pure human being. Secondly, the revelation that the Bangle is one of two cements a popular fan theory about the bangles being related to Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings. The flashback in 1942 that the series begins with also adds gasoline to this theory, having the cave that they find the bangle in feature the symbols of the Ten Rings. The exact origins of where the Rings and bangle came from remain unknown, but it is important to note that the hand Ayesha lifted the bangle off of was blue like the Kree race of aliens featured in Captain Marvel. In Captain Marvel comics, Kree Nega-Bands are worn by Mar-Vell and are able to give cosmic powers to the wearer. “Cosmic” is a word thrown around by Kamala herself when dreamily staring at her new powers, and it has roots in the comics since the cosmic energy allows her to travel to different spaces and planes. We’ve known for some time that Kamala Khan will be joining Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) in The Marvels next year, but now we’re starting to understand why. There’s also the post-credit scene of Shang-Chi where Wong (Benedict Wong) talks of a signal he is receiving that he cannot make heads or tails off. The signal coming from the bangle could certainly be an option.
Ms. Marvel head writer and showrunner Bisha K. Ali revealed that the decision to change Kamala’s powers from the embiggening one in the comics to the “hard light” ones in the series came down to how Kamala would fit in the larger MCU. Fans initially took this to mean that this meant that the MCU wanted Reed Richards to be the only one with embiggening powers, but now there’s a possibility that there was more behind the decision to tweak her powers. After all, none of the hard light stuff was in the comics, nor was the bangle, and it visually being similar to Shang Chi’s powers and the Ten Rings could be a clue as to where her story is headed.
Kamala’s new origin story also firmly makes her heritage and origin part of her superhero journey and identity in a way the comics never did, placing the source of her powers in the 1940s and connecting her to the Partition of Pakistan through her ancestors. The Partition of Pakistan was a pretty hard time for Indians and Pakistanis and while the MCU has often been accused of being all sunshine and roses, the decision to center Kamala’s powers to this particular time period and discuss why it was a hard time for all involved. is a great way to educate the world on the horrors of the Partition while paying respect to the debt many South Asians owe to their great-grandparents who fought for their and their family’s right to survive. It’s a clever way to make Kamala Khan more Pakistani even while she is on track to become an All-American hero. We’ve still got a lot of blanks about Ayesha, the Djinns, and where Kamala’s story is headed, but it is nice to see it all start to make sense not only within the world of Ms. Marvel but in the larger MCU.