The Marvels is a fun little party thrown at the end of Marvel’s worst year

08.11.2023 - 18:01 / polygon.com / Nia Dacosta / Carol Danvers / Monica Rambeau

The Marvel Cinematic Universe team-up movie The Marvels has a downright unfair amount of work cut out for it. Consider the baggage on its doorstep. It is:

Here’s the good news: The Marvels shoulders every one of these concerns like it isn’t even trying. And the even better news? It’s fun as hell, even if you don’t know about any of this stuff.

Director Nia DaCosta, who previously helmed 2021’s Candyman remake, has inherited all the downsides of a project set in a shared universe, and few of the upsides. But the good stuff she has to work with? She makes it sing.

First and foremost is the film’s cast, pulled from three previous MCU ventures with no prior interaction before The Marvels, and very little development leading up to it. Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel is the biggest victim of that lack of development: Her one solo outing, Captain Marvel, was a ’90s period piece that did nothing to establish her in the MCU’s present. And it spent most of its run time with Carol as an amnesiac, less clearly drawn than the other Avengers. Her Avengers: Endgame role added no information nor enlightenment; she just showed up as a quiet bruiser.

Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau is similarly undefined. She’s a child in Captain Marvel, her investigator role in WandaVision was strictly support work, and she exited that series with powers that were never shown off in full.

The best and most fully realized of The Marvels’ three main protagonists is the one who brings them together. Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel is a goddamn delight, a giddy fan of Captain Marvel and the Avengers who also happens to have one of the cosmic whatsits that kicks off the plot of The Marvels. The bangle Kamala inherited from her grandmother, which activated her latent mutant powers, is one of two Quantum Bands sought after by villain Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), who needs them to save her dying world — by dooming others, of course.

Kamala is a wonderful silver bullet, both the reason The Marvels is a good time even for viewers who aren’t fully caught up on the MCU tapestry surrounding it, and also a reminder that Marvel’s movie continuity can be a hoot and not a burden for people who engage with it from the right perspective. Kamala — a Pakistani teen and amateur superhero trying to protect her hometown, Jersey City, and placate her worried family (who are in on her superpowered secret) — is literally tangled up in the plot when Dar-Benn’s schemes cause all three women’s powers to get tied together. Carol, a loner off in space, is forced to team up with Monica and Kamala when they all discover that using their powers causes them to switch places.

Through Kamala’s eyes, DaCosta is able to succinctly introduce the audience to