The new character in the Marvel series on Disney+ comes straight from the comics, but with a few changes.
Spoilers for ‘Ms Marvel’ below
Episode 4 of ‘Ms. Marvel’ on Disney+ tries to find answers. Kamala (Iman Vellani) travels to Karachi to meet her grandmother Sana (Samina Ahmed), who claims that The journey to her home and culture will help her discover the truth about the bracelet that gives her powers..
And, well, Kamala gets a lot more information than she bargained for. Not only do her new friends Waleed (Farhan Akhtar) and Kareem (Aramis Knight) teach her more about the Underground group, but also gains a better understanding of the Noor realm and how it coexists with the world it lives in.
If that’s not enough to keep us busy, the superheroine also discovers that, by breaking the Noor veil that separates the two worlds, Earth will be destroyed.
As we can imagine, this is a major problem considering that both the underground Najma (Nimra Bucha) and her companions are hell-bent on Kamala doing just that and bringing about the destruction of their world. While the mystery behind Kamala’s powers and her family’s link to the Partition will be cleared up in the next episode, the introduction of a new character, Red Dagger, has raised even more questions.
Red Dagger (also known as Kareem) has finally made his official debut outside of the comic book pages and into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Those who know him from the comics already know that his origin story that we have seen in the series is a little different from the comics.. For one thing, he has closer ties to the Khan family than is suggested. In the comics, his mother is a close friend of Kamala’s aunt and he lives with his grandmother.
That’s not a big deal. Marvel series have no problem substantially changing a character’s story. Wow, Kamala didn’t emerge from an earth mist with inhuman powers after all. One thing that seems pretty clear is that Kareem is human, someone who is skilled at fighting, but is still human.. If that fact is confirmed, then Marvel has some serious explaining to do about Kamala and Kareem’s cute encounter.
And no, we’re not referring to the weird question of why someone from New Jersey would wear a tourist-style t-shirt that says ‘New Jersey’ (although we’d like an answer to that, too). We are talking about the strange interaction between the two young men.
When Kamala and Kareem first meet, it is clear that he has been following her.. “I’m not sure which is worse,” he jokes in that arrogant way before the fight, “those glasses you tried on or that mask.” Surprised, Kamala replies, “Are you following me?” To which he replies, “I felt the Noor.”
Pause. Let’s stay here.
This is a nod to episode three, when Najma admits that she was unaware of Aisha’s great-granddaughter Kamala until she put on the bracelet and they felt the Noor. That makes a lot of sense. There is Noor within Najma and his followers due to his clandestine roots.
The Noor is the power source of their realm, it flows through them and is what Kamala’s powers are made of, of course they would be interconnected. What doesn’t make sense, though, is how Kareem would have felt the Noor unless he’s also an Underground. So far, the series has not hinted that this is the case, although they could offer us that plot twist and surprise us all.
So far, this is what we know about Red Dagger.
Who is Red Dagger in ‘Ms. Marvel’?
In the comics, Kareem is a self-taught martial arts fighter. and an expert marksman with a penchant for throwing knives and a lot of talent for the Parkour. Originally from Badin, Pakistan, Kareem moved to Karachi with Sana (Kamala’s grandmother) while studying for university.
Kareem protects the citizens under the masked identity of Red Dagger, but a student exchange program brought him to New Jersey, where he moved into the Khan family home. He begins to feel things for Kamala, but the protagonist rejects him. Fortunately they remain on good terms, enough to fight side by side against Evil.
It is not yet known if any of these details about his origins in the comics will make it to the small screen.. Maybe they’ll give this Red Dagger 2.0 a superhuman upgrade and move away from the source material entirely.
This could give Kamala someone less complicated than Kamran (Rish Shah) but more experienced than Bruno (Matt Lintz). with whom to connect romantically during her confusing stage as a teenage superhero. However, this is highly unlikely. What is more likely is that a plausible explanation awaits us in episode five…
Source: Fotogramas
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
