This article contains Ms. Marvel spoilers.
Ms. Marvel Episode 6
Although Ms. Marvel’s final scene before the credits will likely have the biggest stakes for the MCU, the end-credit scene has more immediate importance. So before we let mutant madness overtake us, let’s take a moment to examine the end-credit scene and what it means for our favorite hero from New Jersey.
Like the comic books that inspired it, the Marvel Cinematic Universe gets a lot of mileage out of letting its characters meet each other. And with Ms. Marvel’s Kamala Khan, we got a hero who not only has powers but is also a huge fan of superheroes. So if there’s ever a good opportunity for a Marvel hero to drop by, it’s in Ms. Marvel, especially given her love of Carol Danvers herself, Captain Marvel. But by the tie the end credits rolled on episode six, the most we got was a (charming) YouTube video and a lot of Ant-Man references.
What Happened to Ms. Marvel?
Midway through the end credits, we cut back to Kamala in her room, doing normal teenager stuff like ignoring her parents and her homework, when the bangle begins to glow. Kamala stands up and walks around, trying to figure out what’s going on. Suddenly, she’s sucked into a multicolored swirl, smashing her closet door in the process.
Out of the closet pops not Ms. Marvel, but Captain Marvel, who stares at her gloved hands with confusion. From the shards of the closet, Danvers picks up one of Kamala’s posters and stares at a cartoon rendering of her own face. Glancing around the room, Danvers realizes that she’s not only in the bedroom of her biggest fan, but she’s on Earth. “No, no, no, no,” she mutters and runs out of view, just as the screen cuts to black. “Ms. Marvel Will Return in The Marvels,” reads the white text that follows.
Why Is Captain Marvel So Upset?
Well, no one would be happy to suddenly find themselves in New Jersey. But beyond that, we really don’t know. As Captain Marvel made clear in Avengers: Endgame, she’s responsible for patrolling much of the universe and can’t come to Earth to deal with anything less than a Thanos-level threat. If she’s in a teenager’s bedroom in New Jersey, then she’s not fighting off the Kree or any other galactic invaders.
That said, Captain Marvel is the most powerful superhero in the Marvel Universe, and she’s probably able to fly back to wherever she needs to be pretty quickly. So when she says “No, no,” she recognizes some other type of issue, one much more pressing than simple temporary displacement. We likely won’t learn more until The Marvels releases next year. Directed by Candyman’s Nia DaCosta, The Marvels brings together Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and Monica Rambeau (who has used the codename Captain Marvel in the comics). Presumably, Danvers’ urgency relates to the threat to be faced by the combined Marvels.
Where Did Kamala Go?
That question is a bit more difficult to answer. If you’ve been listening to/watching Marvel Standom, then you know that body swaps have long been part of Captain Marvel comics. In a cheeky reference to the Fawcett/DC Comics character Captain Marvel (now usually known as Shazam), Marvel’s first Captain Marvel, the Kree Mar-Vell (a version of which showed up in Captain Marvel, played by Annette Benning) and his children Genis-Vell and Phyla-Vell gained their powers from Nega-Bands, golden bracelets that they wore around their wrists. However, Mar-Vell and Genis-Vell could only leave the Negative Zone for a short period of time. When he clanged together the Nega-Bands, Mar-Vell would swap places with Rick Jones, a human who paired up with Captain America or the Hulk.
Where the Ms. Marvel of the comics gets her powers from her Inhuman DNA, the MCU version wears a bangle that recalls the Nega-Bands. So when Kamala disappears and is replaced by Carol Danvers, we may be seeing that body swap in action. While it seems unlikely that Kamala and Carol will be bonded like Rick Jones and Mar-Vell, the end-credit sequence seems to be gesturing in that direction.
But Captain Marvel Fights the Kree. What Does Ms. Marvel Have to do With the Kree?
Potentially a lot. The comic book version of Kamala is an Inhuman, which means her powers come from Kree experiments on human DNA. That part has been ignored for the MCU version, but the Kree are still involved. Back in episode three, a flashback showed how the Clandestine found Kamala’s bangle – on the severed arm of a blue alien, presumably Kree.
Throughout Ms. Marvel, we’ve seen how Kamala and her family get ensnared in an adventure that crosses timelines and dimensions. We don’t yet know who the antagonists of The Marvels will be, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Kree were involved and if they play a bigger part in Kamala’s history.
What Does This Mean for the MCU?
So far, we don’t know how this body swap relates to the other hints dropped by the series, namely the Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings reference in Episode 3. But the MCU has been increasingly concerned with cosmic stories, with the Eternals connecting the Earth to the larger cosmos, cosmic entities appearing in Thor: Love and Thunder, and the multiverse playing a bigger role in several entries. The upcoming Secret Invasion Disney+ series will deal with a Skrull invasion of Earth, showing us what Nick Fury has been doing since leaving for space before Spider-Man: Far From Home.
The body swap probably means that Ms. Marvel won’t be battling Skrulls during Secret Invasion. But as the MCU keeps turning its eyes to the stars, it’s clear that Kamala’s adventures will take her far beyond her native Jersey City. And if she gets to fight alongside her favorite hero Captain Marvel, then all the better.