'Ms. Marvel' reviews say Disney+ series is off to a 'fantastic start'

This week, hot on the heels of Moon Knight, Disney+ gets its next MCU series, and it easily ranks as one of the most-anticipated shows the platform has ever produced. Ms. Marvel, the adaptation of the comic book adventures of Pakistani-American superhero Kamala Khan, is finally here, and that means critics are finally letting us know what they think of the MCU's latest young warrior. 

Inspired by the comics of the same name, Ms. Marvel follows Kamala (Iman Vellani) as she struggles to balance her ever-growing superhero fandom with her life as a teenage girl trying to maintain friendships, please her parents, and navigate life in general all at once. Kamala loves superheroes, particularly Captain Marvel, but her ambitions when it comes to being a hero never really get beyond cosplay, until a mysterious artifact makes its way into her life. Through this artifact, Kamala gains extraordinary abilities that could make her into a superhero, but are superpowers enough to get around breaking curfew and freaking her parents out?

As the trailers for the show have suggested, Ms. Marvel is a teen superhero dramedy in every sense, balancing the epic scope of the MCU with the intimate story of a young girl trying to figure out her place in the world, even as that place seems to be constantly shifting. While we don't know what the full series will look like by the time all six episodes are out, the first two installments were already reviewed by TV critics, and just about everyone seems ready to hail Ms. Marvel as a hit, a vibrant new piece of the MCU that stands on its own thanks to Vellani's charm and the show's own unique energy. 

Check out what some of the top critics around the web had to say about the series below.

"Ms. Marvel is another piece in the expanding MCU, but thankfully, it also shines on its own," Emma Fraser wrote at IGN. "Questions of identity and belonging are a repeat superhero theme. Still, showrunner Bisha K. Ali is not doing a paint-by-numbers origin story with a multiculturalism twist. Instead, the first episode keeps the heart of the comic book while exploring how this beloved character fits into the MCU landscape in a visually arresting and fun manner."

"At its core, Ms. Marvel is a coming-of-age story told through the lens of a Southeast Asian-American teenager. Although two out of six episodes are not enough to make a full assessment of the series, the creative visual storytelling, new power set and star-making performance from Villani certainly indicate Ms. Marvel is off to a fantastic start," Karama Horne wrote for The Wrap.

"In letting Kamala’s story shine on its own terms, Ms. Marvel offers us the very thing she herself never found in all her fangirling: the uplifting vision of a brown girl from Jersey City who saves the world," Angie Han wrote for The Hollywood Reporter.

"But the looming specter of Marvel obligations to come almost makes this series, with its determination to make Kamala an individual and her neighborhood a home, an even more precious commodity. Before Kamala formally becomes Ms. Marvel and gets subsumed into something greater than herself, she just gets to be herself, and that’s more than enough," Caroline Framke wrote at Variety.

"The delightful new Disney+ series, created by Bisha K. Ali and directed by Bad Boys for Life duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, is more than just a Spider-Man redux. Ms. Marvel is a shot of candy-colored joy, a fantastic coming-of-age comedy that happens to moonlight as a superhero show," Hoai-Tran Bui wrote at Slashfilm.

"Even with its familiar take on superhero tales the likes of Smallville did a generation ago, its unrivaled visual pizzazz and the infectious enthusiasm of a radiant yet clumsy heroine make Ms. Marvel an endless well of televised joy. It’s delightful, vibrant, sometimes emotionally heavy, and often blissful fun, with a flavorful blend of coming-of-age adventure and the grounded complexities of second-generation immigrant life in America," Eric Francisco wrote at Inverse.

Ms. Marvel hits Disney+ June 8. 

Looking for more sci-fi? Check out Battlestar Galactica, Brave New World, SYFY's Resident Alien, and more streaming on Peacock.