‘Ms. Marvel’ Finale Recap: Ending, Post-Credits and X-Men Tease Explained

The sixth and final episode of Ms. Marvel dropped on Disney Plus last week, bringing Kamala Khan’s first adventure (and the seventh Marvel Cinematic Universe TV show) to a close, with a surprising new twist on her comic book origin and the usual post-credits surprise. The finale catches up with Kamala (Iman Vellani) after last week’s emotional trip to the past and her mom (Zenobia Shroff) accepting that her daughter has superpowers.

Underused villain and Clandestine leader Najma (Nimra Bucha) sacrificed herself to close the Veil of Noor, cutting off the dangerous portal to her home dimension. She had abandoned and renounced her son Kamran (Rish Shah), but transferred her powers to him in her final moments.

Back home in Jersey City, Kamran seeks refuge with Kamala’s super smart best friend Bruno Carrelli (Matt Lintz). Their heart-to-heart is interrupted by a drone sent by the Department of Damage Control, which is hunting people with powers. Kamran destroys it using his powers, but the Circle Q convenience store is blown up in the process.

Let’s harness our cosmic SPOILER powers and dive into the finale. This show takes place in the period after Avengers: Endgame and part of Phase 4 of the MCU.

Mutant detected

With Tamran escaped to Karachi, Pakistan, and in the care of the Red Daggers, Bruno tells Kamala that he took another look at her genetic makeup. Turns out she’s not like the rest of her family.

“There’s something different in your genes,” he says. “Like a mutation.”

We get a tiny hint of the ’90s X-Men animated series theme as Kamala processes this, but she dismisses it as “another label” even as real-world fans’ heads explode. Marvel has been teasing the arrival of the mutant superteam for a while now, but Kamala seems to be the first confirmed mutant to appear in the mainline MCU.

“There’s a lot of different ways it could go,” executive producer and Ms. Marvel co-creator Sana Amanat told CNET’s Abrar Al-Heeti after the finale aired. “It is important, and ultimately at the same time, it’s not. … We’re trying to do this entire thing about how we should not be defining ourselves based on these labels, so we didn’t want to put too much weight on it.”

It’s a twist on her comic book origin, in which her abilities are a result of status as an Inhuman (a genetic offshoot of humanity that gains powers when exposed to Terrigen Mist). They’re pretty similar to Marvel’s mutants, which manifest powers when the X-Gene in their DNA activates.

Before Marvel owner Disney regained the cinematic rights to the X-Men when it acquired 21st Century Fox (and the X-Men cinematic rights) in 2019, mutants couldn’t be used in the MCU. It seemed like Marvel was trying to elevate the Inhumans as a replacement. Unfortunately, the Inhumans TV show was bad — it’s on Disney Plus, don’t waste your time watching it — and that idea faded.

Ever since the Fox acquisition, X-Men fans have anticipated the arrival of a mutant superteam in the MCU. So far, Quicksilver from the X-Men movies has showed up in WandaVision (this turned out to be a joke) and Professor X appeared in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (he was in a separate universe form the main MCU one).

The X-Men are coming to Disney Plus in next year’s revival of the ’90s animated series, but it’d be super messy to retroactively set this in the MCU. It’ll probably take place in a parallel reality. We could hear more about mutants’ MCU future during Marvel’s San Diego Comic panel on Saturday, July 23.

Becoming her idol

Kamala’s Avengers fandom is a major element of her character, with a particular fondness for Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers (Brie Larson). The character doesn’t show up to offer Kamala any guidance or words of wisdom, but the post-credits sequence nods to an early Ms. Marvel comics mishap.

Kamala flops onto her bed, and her mom offers one of those firm mom reminders to do her science homework. Her bangle starts shining before she blasts into her closet door (which has a Captain Marvel poster on it). 

She stands up to seemingly discover that she’s morphed into Carol, giving us a brief cameo from Larson, and looks around at the many, many pieces of Captain Marvel art on her walls. It’s also possible that Carol switched places with Kamala — both scenarios would reference the comics.

“Oooh, no no no no…” she says, before running out of the shot.

Our last encounter with Carol came in post-credits scene from last year’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, when she was among the heroes trying to figure out the origin of the mysterious rings — Kamala’s bangle has similar vibes.. We’ll find out what the deal with Carol and Kamala is in The Marvels, which is due to hit theaters July 28, 2023.

That movie will see them working with Monica Rambeau, a former government agent who gained energy absorption abilities in WandaVision. We last saw her being recruited for a space adventure by a Skrull in the employ of superspy Nick Fury.

In the comics, Kamala subconsciously took on Carol’s appearance when her polymorph abilities first manifested because she idolized the iconic hero and perceived her as fitting the traditional superhero mold more than a Pakistani-American. As Kamala gained more control over her abilities, she realized that she should mirror Carol’s deeds rather than her appearance, and she stuck to her own look to craft her superhero identity.

However, the original, pre-Carol comics Captain Marvel lived in the Negative Zone (a parallel universe) and switched places with a human named Rick Jones when he had to engage in heroism on Earth. Jones made the switch by striking a pair of nega-bands (fancy alien bracelets) together. Given Kamala’s use of a bangle in the MCU, it’s possible she and Carol have a similar link.

The first Ms. Marvel-Captain Marvel team up came in Ms. Marvel #17. They worked together as Jersey City and New York City descended into chaos due to another universe colliding with their own — a situation that seems likely to be mirrored in the MCU.

High school high jinks

Damage Control conducts a deeply unsettling search of the Islamic Masjid of Jersey City mosque in its hunt from Kamran, alluding to the treatment of Muslims in the US in the wake of 9/11. After this, much of the episode is spent defending him from agents when he, Kamala and Bruno hide out in Coles Academic High School. Kamala’s other best friend Nakia Bahadir, rival-turned-friend Zoe Zimmer and brother Aamir (Yasmeen Fletcher, Laurel Marsden and Saagar Shaikh) show up to help as well. Having all of them appear is a bit of a stretch, but whatevs.

They distract and confound the agents in a sequence seemingly inspired by the ’80s teen movies of the late John Hughes, but Kamran’s use of his new abilities seems increasingly dangerous — there’s a sense that helping him might be a bad idea.

Kamala is determined to keep him safe, though, and uses her energy manipulation powers to create an awesome crystalline suit of armor that protects her and increases her size as she battles the government agents. This was inspired by the powers of X-Men member Armor, who can generate a psionic exoskeleton to cover her body, Iman Vellani confirmed in a Reddit AMA.

“Embiggen!” she says before armoring up, using her catchphrase from the comics.

It’s enough to help her battle the agents until Kamran can escape and DODC Agent Deever (Alysia Reiner) is finally nabbed for ignoring orders.

Easter eggs, lingering questions and observations

• This episode’s title, No Normal, is shared with the first collected edition of Kamala’s solo comic series.
• Kamala’s costume looks awesome in live action. Did her mom make it or have it made?
• I too would like to know if Kamala has to recharge her powers — it doesn’t seem like it.
• “She looked so… familiar,” G. Willow Wilson, the writer who relaunched Kamala’s first solo comic in 2014, is among those voicing support for the new hero in the social media montage.
• Having Carol show up and tell Kamala she was doing a good job would have been the obvious way to work in a cameo, but the scene with her dad on the roof largely served that purpose.

That’s all for Ms. Marvel on Disney Plus, but the next MCU show to hit the streaming service will be She-Hulk on Aug. 17. Thor: Love and Thunder is in theaters now, with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever due on Nov. 11.