Well, in the comics, her power was something she called “embiggening”. She can extend her limbs, alter her appearance and shapeshift in several other ways. She can basically stretch her body any way she can imagine. She also has the ability to heal from any injury when she transforms back to Kamala from Ms. Marvel, and labels herself a “polymorph”. She often makes her fists huge and delivers powerful blows.

On the page, she emerges from her terrigen cocoon looking like her idol, Captain Marvel. This is because Kamala thought of her during terrigenesis when her powers were awakening, thus accidentally shapeshifting into something similar. 

The Kree, the race that weaponised Carol Danvers into Vers before she transformed into Captain Marvel, first created a mineral known as Terrigen. They used it to help their takeover of the universe, testing it on the people of Earth and thereby creating meta-humans known as the Inhumans. They wanted to use these Inhumans as weapons in their war. This was years back – we’re talking 25,000 years or so ago. 

Anyway, an Inhuman geneticist called Randac discovered crystallised Terrigen and began to work with it to advance his race and allow them to fight back if the Kree returned. He discovered that the crystals coming into contact with water heated to the right temperature creates Terrigen Mist, which is capable of changing the DNA of Inhumans to give them enhanced abilities. This process is known as terrigenesis, and the mists can be fatal to people who aren’t Inhumans. (Although it’s not “considered” canon to the MCU, you may remember the Terrigen Mists in a storyline in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D). 

However, due to Randac wanting to literally engulf every Inhuman in the mists, some Inhumans were overwhelmed by their intense powers and became monsters, leading to the formation of the Genetic Council to oversee the use of the mists.

In the trailer, there seems to be no hint of Terrigen Mists or terrigenesis, though there’s a moment where she seems to stop on her bicycle and look out at the river – a possible nod to her comic counterpart, who went through terrigenesis on the Jersey Waterfront. (Fun fact: if you look closely at that point in the trailer, you’ll see Kamala the fangirl’s Captain Marvel bike helmet, and her jacket seems to be a replica of Carol Danvers’s pilot jacket).

Instead, the on-screen Kamala seems to source her powers from a bangle around her wrist, which emits a purple glow at her touch. She describes her powers as feeling “cosmic”, so this could suggest this variation of Ms. Marvel will have powers closer to Captain Marvel’s cosmic abilities/energy manipulation. We do see some of her trademark “embiggening” of the fists though!

(Tangential side thought: Kamala’s nails are painted green and black in the trailer when she touches the bangles. Do you reckon she painted them Hulk colors, since she’s a known Avengers fangirl?)

One theory is that Kamala’s powers might be linked to Quantum bands. In the trailer, she goes into an attic and opens a trunk full of files alongside what looks like old lab equipment. She picks up the bangles and the lights flicker as if she’s having an impact on the energy in the room. In the comics, a hero called Quasar has Quantum bands from a cosmic entity called Eon. The bands are given to those who will use their power to protect the cosmos by manipulating different kinds of energy. Kamala seems to also be able to create objects out of energy, similar to DC’s Green Lantern. She even creates platforms to walk in mid-air similar to Doctor Strange when he did this for Star-Lord in Infinity War.

She could also have powers that may tie in with Ant-Man and the quantum realm. If you look closely at her doodles at the start of the trailer, she has drawn a little sketch of Ant-Man versus Man-Ant, and in the comics, Quantum bands draw their power from the Quantum Zone, so maybe on-screen, they’ll draw from the Quantum Realm? Visually, the part in the trailer where she seems to fall into a purple haze could bolster this theory – she could be looking at the Quantum Realm energy that’s around us at all times.  

There’s also a theory that these bangles are Kree or Skrull technology from thousands of years ago, and perhaps the science equipment suggests a scientist was experimenting with them. Maybe Kamala’s DNA unlocked their dormant power, like terrigenesis via bangles instead of mists? Considering Kamala is confirmed to be in the Captain Marvel sequel The Marvels and there’s an upcoming Secret Invasion show with the Skrulls, there could be a connection here.

Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios, told Empire: “We adapt the comics; it’s not an exact translation. [Kamala] came about in a very specific time within the comic-book continuity. She is now coming into a very specific time within the MCU continuity. And those two things didn’t match. 

What we will learn about where those powers come from, and how they come about, is specific to the MCU. You will see great comic splash panels in some of our action sequences. If you want big, giant hands and arms, well they’re here in spirit, if not in stretchy, plastic-type ways.”

It could also be that Marvel is trying to differentiate Kamala’s powers more obviously from those of Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic, who will be entering the MCU in the coming years.

In the comics, Kamala’s powers were awakened by the T-Bomb, built by Black Bolt in anticipation of Thanos’ arrival on Earth looking for his son Thane, an Inhuman living in a hidden tribe who hadn’t undergone terrigenesis. 

This happened during the 2013 Infinity storyline in the comics, specifically in New Avengers Volume 3 Issue 10. In this issue, we also see Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, Black Bolt, Black Panther, Shuri, Dr. Strange, Namor McKenzie, Beast of the X-Men, and Iron Man. There was also an incursion.

Sound familiar? Well, you may have noticed that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness featured Reed Richards, Black Bolt, Dr. Strange, and Professor X of the X-Men. It also ended with an incursion. 

With Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hitting screens later this year, a Fantastic Four movie rumoured for 2023/24, and Disney buying the rights to both X-Men and Fantastic Four from 20th Century Fox, it’s possible that the latest Doctor Strange movie is setting us up for some of the storylines here – and maybe Kamala will add to that due to her comic connections here.

(Fun fact: She also wears a t-shirt in the trailer that has Captain Marvel, Wasp and Valkyrie on it – all of which will be in upcoming 2022/23 movies).

Loki introduced He Who Remains, a survivor of a multiversal war between variations of the same scientist form the future. 

In Loki, we see Sylvie (one of Loki’s variants) kill him, and he utters the words; “see you soon” as he dies. He makes it clear that killing him would unleash an infinite number of variants of him, with one being a Thanos-level villain known as Kang the Conqueror. 

However, there’s another variant of He Who Remains called Iron Lad, a teenager who sees the monster he is to become and fights against it, setting up the Young Avengers. He even puts his mind in Vision’s body at one point, so maybe White Vision from WandaVision might come back into the picture.  

It’s pretty clear that Cassie wants to be like her dad, Scott Lang/Ant-Man, from what we’ve seen of her so far. In the comics, she gets her powers from secretly experimenting with Pym Particles. She also has connections to the Fantastic Four, who are set to enter the MCU in coming years, and is a love interest for Iron Lad.

While we’re used to seeing Scott play make-believe with a young Cassie in the movies, the most recent version of Cassie we’ve seen is now older due to the fact five years passed while Scott was stuck in the Quantum Realm during the Blip – so she could be a candidate to join the crew.

Kate has no powers, but is motivated by a fierce determination to make the world a better place and a strong admiration of Hawkeye. 

In the comics, she butts heads with Captain America after Young Avengers team member Patriot is injured and Cap tells them to lead normal lives. Kate tells him that if he were to train them and accept them, Patriot wouldn’t have been injured in the first place. She later receives Hawkeye/Clint Barton’s original bow and arrows with a note from Cap addressed to Hawkeye, explaining that he wanted her to take his codename because Clint was the only other person to stand up to him the way she did. 

She and Cassie have connections to Jessica Jones too, who may come into the picture since Disney bought the Netflix Jessica Jones show.  

We saw Kid Loki in Loki, imprisoned by the Time Variance Authority for killing his adoptive brother Thor, and existing as a ruler of other variants of himself. 

In the comics, he is a reborn Loki after the original Loki was killed during the Siege of Asgard, and lives in Paris with no memories of his past life. Thor partially restores his memories and original identity, but after returning to Asgard, Kid Loki is determined to be his own person and not the treacherous Loki he previously was. 

That said, he’s still a slippery character, and his powers are certainly not to be underestimated due to his young age.  

America was introduced most recently, and has the power to teleport to other realities via star-shaped portals. She also has connections to Captain Marvel and was born outside of conventional time and space. 

She has superhuman strength, speed, durability, and the power of flight.  

“But I thought they didn’t really exist!”, I hear you cry. Well, it’s complicated, but here’s the gist of it in a nutshell. 

In the comics, Thomas and William Maximoff, aka Tommy and Billy, are born when Wanda uses her reality-warping powers to create them, unknowingly using two of five scattered fragments of the soul of demon Mephisto. 

These fragments were lost during an encounter with Franklin Richards, the son of Reed Richards and Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four. When Mephisto reabsorbs the fragments and thereby the boys, they destroy him via the power Wanda had put into the soul fragments and are reincarnated as Thomas Shepherd (Speed) and Billy Kaplan (Wiccan), both born to different families. 

When Speed and Wiccan are recruited to the Young Avengers by Iron Lad, they discover that they are long-lost twin brothers.  

(Side note: Franklin Richards’ nanny is Agatha Harkness, Wanda’s enemy in WandaVision. With House of Harkness and a Fantastic Four movie confirmed, could the two be linked? Kamala also has a black cat illustration by her mirror, and Agatha has a black cat familiar called Ebony. 

The other illustrations around the cat are vintage like the artwork seen in WandaVision, and Monica Rambeau appears in WandaVision and is set to play a big part in The Marvels with Kamala, adding more links between the two storylines).

We saw Eli in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, albeit as a background character as Sam talked to his grandfather, Isaiah Bradley. 

Isaiah was a former Captain America who was one of 300 African-American soldiers used as test subject as part of Project Rebirth’s attempt to recreate the Super Soldier Serum. 

Isaiah was one of only a handful of survivors and travelled to Europe to fight in the war as Captain America, which was seen as treason and led to his imprisonment and the hiding of his heroism from public knowledge. They even told his family he had died.

As he and Sam clash over the meaning and mantle of Captain America before ultimately coming to an agreement, perhaps Eli is inspired by the two Caps in his life and becomes Patriot?  

As I mentioned earlier, Kamala does lead a young hero team in the comics. Similar to the Young Avengers, the Champions are a team of teenagers with a passion for doing good. We haven’t seen any of the other members of Champions in the MCU yet, though notable members we’ve already seen on the big screen include Miles Morales/Spider-Man and Scott Summers/Cyclops. 

Other members include Nova/Sam Alexander, Hulk/Amadeus Cho, Viv Vision, (daughter of the Vision), Nadia Van Dyne/The Wasp (Hank Pym’s daughter from his first marriage), Amka Aliyak/Snowguard, and Ironheart/Riri Williams. Most have appeared in other Marvel media, with Riri set to appear in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and her own Disney + show.

Kamala formed Champions after disagreeing with the original Avengers, which at one point, she was a part of. She had an issue with the way they did things, favouring brawn over brains, infighting, and having a general disregard for problems outside of their missions. She formed Champions to create a new superhero squad who used empathy, intelligence and modern technology like social media and search engines to help those who needed it – in the way they wanted to be helped as opposed to how the heroes thought they should be helped. 

To quote Lorraine Cink in the book Powers of A Girl, “Kamala is one of the few heroes who does everything in her power not to destroy a building, because she knows it belongs to a small-business owner. She asks herself if someone really needs to be punched or if there’s a less fist-forward solution at hand. Kamala is a leader – not because she forces people to obey her, but because people follow her example.”

So it seems Kamala likes to be part of a team alongside like-minded heroes fighting to make the world a better place – much like many of the Young Avengers candidates we’ve seen in the MCU so far. A potential move from Champions to Young Avengers doesn’t seem too far out of the realms of possibility.

We’ve mentioned Kamala is a Captain Marvel fangirl and will appear in the Captain Marvel sequel, but how are the two connected?

It’s not by blood, but by chance. In the comics, Captain Marvel is Kamala’s idol and inspiration. Captain Marvel ends up being her superhero mentor, but the two do butt heads majorly over some ethical issues in some comic storylines.

In a case of life-imitates-art, Brie Larson reached out to Ms. Marvel actor Iman Vellani after she got the part. Iman said: “She talked to me on FaceTime for a while and she’s been my greatest resource and mentor throughout this whole process. Even though she was an Oscar winner beforehand, Marvel has completely changed her life. 

I’ve seen it happen to the Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hollands of the world, but I can’t even imagine putting myself in those shoes and what this next year is going to look like. It is daunting in that sense, but I just have so much love for this character.”

In the comics, she is an Inhuman, an offshoot of humans genetically engineered by the Kree to become superhuman weapons of war, but later abandoned.

Inhumans can exist unaware of their dormant powers, but upon being exposed to Terrigen Crystals, are reborn with their powers. This is how Kamala gets her abilities in the comics, as mentioned further up this article.

However, the lack of terrigenesis in the trailer and the fact the show The Inhumans absolutely bombed could suggest Marvel are trying to reshape Kamala’s hero origins.

Kamala’s identity as a Pakistani-American Muslim girl is one that’s explored in the comics – how does a teenage girl with protective parents sneak out to do hero stuff unnoticed? How does her faith coincide or clash with what she’s doing? 

Iman Vellani said: “We’re introducing an entirely new diaspora of fans to the MCU, all these South Asians and Muslims who never saw themselves represented in a positive light before. I’m excited to share this character and let people know that their experiences are shared and that people understand them. It’s important to showcase children of immigrant parents who are proud of their culture and don’t neglect it.”  

In the trailer, Kamala says: “Maybe they’re right. It’s not really the brown girls from Jersey City who save the world.” In the comics, Kamala sometimes impersonated Captain Marvel, but eventually became comfortable with her own identity as a superhero. Talking about the show, Iman said: “We wanted to lean into that side of growing up when you don’t feel understood; you don’t feel represented, especially when all her heroes are the Avengers, who are predominantly male and white. 

So immediately, she gets powers and thinks, “I have to be Captain Marvel. I have to do what Captain Marvel would do.” But she has to go on her own journey and create her own self because that’s what’s going to help people, not pretending to be someone else.”

In the comics, part of her blossoming into her own hero is her outfit – it’s similar to Captain Marvel’s as a nod to her inspiration, but it also features bangles on her arms. These bangles are a nod to her heritage, and have hollow compartments as they were originally used by Kamala’s great-grandmother to smuggle money out of Bombay during Partition. From the trailer, it looks like these bangles are now imbued with some kind of power of their own, or an ability to activate Kamala’s dormant powers.

In the comics, Kamala is a massive Avengers fangirl! She writes fanfic (under the pen name SlothBaby), has Avengers posters and merch all over her room, attends AvengerCon and is just generally all of us in real life.

Kamala Khan co-creator Sana Amanat, who is co-executive producer on the show, commented that in Iman Vellani’s Zoom audition, she clocked that she was a massive Avengers fangirl just like Kamala! 

Sana told Empire: “She showed me every corner of her room, and it was covered with Avengers. Then she said “Oh wait, I’m not done”, opened up her closet and there was more Marvel everywhere.”   

Iman herself said: “I really got into comic books when I just got into high school and Marvel is the only thing I ever talked about. I was very active on all the Marvel subreddits and I was making theory boards. I was that kid who was obsessed. I would go frame by frame when trailers came out and breaking down all the Marvel movies.

The fact that I’m playing one of my favorite characters is just the most crazy heartwarming experience ever. I’ve gotten to meet so many incredible people who are part of this project and people who are from a South Asian Muslim background, because I didn’t really see many people from a creative side who looked like me doing things that I wanted to do when I was a kid. I’m just very happy that we can be the ones to bring this precious character to mainstream media.”

Apparently, when she visited Marvel head Kevin Feige’s office, he said “God, it’s so nice to show people stuff who actually care!”, knowing that Iman was in love with the Marvel universe – and also him! (She wrote a 4-5 page letter and the first page was her totally fangirling and professing her love of Kevin!)

Sounds like we couldn’t have a better fit for this character.

Much like Kate Bishop, Kamala acquires a canine companion! However, hers is a giant dog with antennae growing out of his head in the comics. I SO want this in the TV show. Who doesn’t need a giant dog to keep them company?!

Lockjaw was sent to keep an eye on Ms. Marvel by Medusa, a villain turned antihero who learned of her Inhuman status. Medusa is married to Black Bolt, who we just saw appear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Medusa’s sister has a connection to Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four, so there’s a potential extra piece in the picture forming for Fantastic Four’s entry into the MCU.

Lockjaw is actually a pet of the Royal Family of the Inhumans, and can traverse time and space. He was born as a result of an experiment – his mother was impregnated by her own cloned genetic material and gestated 5 pups with the purpose of performing terrigenesis in the womb. Lockjaw mutated successfully but his siblings did not, so he teleported them to four different locations (Brooklyn, the Savage Land, Wundagore Mountain and Earth-8311) before the surgeon could experiment on them.

Kamala’s parents are Yusuf and Muneeba Khan, and she has an older brother called Aamir, all of whom moved to the US from Karachi, Pakistan. Kamala met Nakia Bahadir in kindergarten and the two became best friends. Nakia, like Kamala, was a practicing Muslim and the daughter of immigrants.

Kamala’s other best friend, Bruno Carrelli, came into the picture a little later. His mother lost custody of Bruno and his brother Vick and they were living with their grandparents, who were immigrants from Italy. They were struggling to make ends meet so Bruno kept missing out on activities, leading to him becoming a bit of a pariah at school. 

The Khans offered to pay his fees when they found out about this from the teacher, and asked Kamala to play with Bruno. The two eventually bonded over their shared immigrant backgrounds and a love for a TV show called “Tween Mutant Samurai Turtles”! (Can’t think what inspired that name…)

Moving from friends to enemies, Kamala’s school nemesis is Zoe Zimmer and her boyfriend Josh Richardson. Of course, as a hero, Kamala has more maniacal enemies to deal with, but ex-friend turned mean girl Zoe is no walk in the park either.

In terms of hero link ups, we’ve got Captain Marvel of course, as well as potentially the Young Avengers. In the comics, Kamala also has connections to Captain America, Jemma Simmons (who we’ve seen in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, which isn’t considered canon so who knows if we’ll see any Jemma, let alone a Jemma played by Elizabeth Henstridge), Loki, Wolverine, Iron Man, Vision and Spider-Man (Miles Morales, not Peter Parker).

We also see Kamran in the trailer, who is the son of family friends and a crush for Kamala. He’ll be one to watch in the show, I believe! It also looks like we catch a glimpse of Red Dagger at around 1:25 in the trailer. 

Red Dagger, also known as Kareem, is a hero in Pakistan who ends up staying with the Khans on a foreign exchange trip. Looking closely at the trailer where we see a glimpse of him, there’s Urdu writing on a kiosk in what looks like a train station, so Kamala and her family may visit Pakistan at some point too.

Okay, so we’ve gone through friends, allies and even frenemies, but what about the outright bad guy nemeses every hero has? 

Well, judging by the comics, we could see:

– Discord: Discord is actually Josh Richardson, who we mentioned is the boyfriend of friend-turned-enemy Zoe Zimmer. 

– The Inventor: a clone of Thomas Edison with genius intellect and no real morality. Oh, I forgot to mention – the DNA sample for Edison’s clone was contaminated by the pet of the scientist performing the experiment, so Edison is a cockatiel. Yep, you read that right! (Look around 0:43 in the trailer and you can actually see a glimpse of a red neon sign saying “Edison”. Granted, it could be referring to the town of Edison, New Jersey, but nothing seems to be a coincidence with Marvel).

– Becky St. Jude: she has no superpowers, but wears Plasma Armor which allows her to fire energy blasts, fly and increase her strength and stamina.

– Kaboom: Kaboom is a powerful Inhuman who can generate and manipulate electricity through electrokinesis. He can also create shields, and is closely linked to Kamala and another person we see in the trailer, so it seems likely he might show up.

– Doc.X: a computer virus that developed artificial intelligence, Doc.X is able to acquire info from any source and transfer its consciousness into human forms, where he amplifies the human’s strength and durability. In enhanced form, Doc.X is physically equal in power to Ms. Marvel. (Reminder: must reinstall anti-virus software…)

– C.R.A.D.L.E: Marvel loves to make an acronym that also forms a relevant word, and C.R.A.D.L.E. is no different – it stands for Child-Hero Reconnaissance and Disruption Law Enforcement, and they aim to make sure teen superheroes don’t break the law. It looks like they may show up in the trailer, around 1:17 and 1:29 when suited/S.W.A.T team looking people show up and storm her school.

– Kang the Conqueror: As you’ll have clocked by now, we saw a variant of Kang in Loki, and another variant of him is one of Kamala’s allies, so we could potentially end up with Kang as the main antagonist now that the multiverse of madness is open. He is a truly powerful supervillain, so could be why/how Kamala ends up working with Captain Marvel.

– Stormranger: Speaking of evil variants, Stormranger is an evil doppelganger of Ms. Marvel from an alternate reality with the same powers.

– Captain Marvel: Oh yeah, you read that right. Despite Kamala’s admiration of Carol, the two got caught up in a civil war, with each choosing opposite sides.

Although Ms. Marvel is less fist-first than some of the Avengers we’re used to, there’s no doubt that her adventures do involve fights and take a toll on her. Iman Vellani said that the actual movements she used as Ms. Marvel weren’t difficult, but physical training for stamina was crucial because she would be doing those movements repeatedly for 10 to 14 hours a day. 

She said: “You’re using muscles you didn’t even know existed. I was just sore every day. But keeping your body as limber as possible is part of the process.”

Marvel has been foraying into new grounds lately, with Moon Knight and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness featuring horror-esque imagery. Iman herself has said the show will be more Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World than Fight Club, which people compared Moon Knight to.

Kevin Feige has also mentioned comic book style artwork within the show itself, so as well as a lighter tone, it could be similar aesthetically to Scott Pilgrim. 

(Side note: who remembers that funnily enough, Brie Larson aka Captain Marvel was actually in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World?! She played Envy Adams. Coincidentally, Chris Evans, the other MCU Captain, was also in the movie!)

Speaking of Moon Knight, I wonder if there will be any connection? So far, we’re not totally sure where Stephen, Marc and now Jake from Moon Knight will come into the MCU, but if you look closely, Kamala is studying history from a book with Egyptian imagery on its cover at the start of the trailer. I’m probably reading too much into it, but there are connections everywhere in Marvel, so who knows if it might hint to one here!