Marvel’s newest show premiered Wednesday on Disney+, but it’s being met with extremely varying reviews.
Driving the news: “Ms. Marvel” is currently the best-reviewed Marvel Cinematic Universe series on Disney+ and received an outstanding 94% approval rating and audience score of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes.
- On Internet Movie Database, however, the show scored only a measly 6.6 out of 10 average rating.
What is it about?: ‘Ms. Marvel’ follows the story of 16-year-old Kamala Khan, “a Pakistani American teen juggling high school, superpowers and a family secret,” according to The Washington Post.
What they’re saying: According to ComicBook.com, “Ms. Marvel” is being “review-bombed” by viewers who are giving the show 1-star ratings.
- “... looking at the data, it’s impossible not to see what’s going on with ‘Ms. Marvel’ as an outlier with malicious origins,” reports Forbes.
- The data shows comparisons of the show’s ratings to other MCU shows that were rated similarly on IMDB, like “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier,” and Forbes points out the extremely uneven distribution of poor reviews on “Ms. Marvel.”
So, is the show good? According to multiple reviewers, yes.
- Charles Murphy of Murphy’s Multiverse says he believes ‘Ms. Marvel’ stays truer to its original comic story than any other Marvel series, saying, “It’s as close as we’ve come in the MCU to comic book pages coming to life. It’s inventive, bright and a ton of fun,” The Direct reports.
- CineXpress’s Fico Cangiano believes Marvel made the perfect choice casting Iman Vellani as the lead, saying, “Iman Vellani is marvelous as young Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel. The first 2 episodes are a fun, witty and colorful introduction to her imaginative teenage coming-of-age story,” per The Direct.
- Rotten Tomatoes reviewer Mardika A welcomed the culture shown in the series, complimenting the show’s “cheerful theme combined with the perspective of the international community in viewing Islam from the outside.”
On the other hand, those giving the series poor reviews seem to be “blasting its diversity, calling it too ‘woke’ and ‘cringe,’” NBC News reports.
- One IMDB reviewer, Matthewmauney, gave a one-star review saying he’s “Not trolling, it just isn’t good.”
- “No one cares about the race, or beliefs of the main character. The show is undoubted the worst MCU product to date, by a significant margin. There was nothing original about the effects and score as the critics drooled over,” Matthewmauney continued.
- mrsaleh-90099, another IMDB reviewer, credited his one-star rating to the show’s “Poor writing, mediocre acting, undeveloped characters.” He went on to say the show seems geared towards the “Pre-teen Marvel fan.”
Note: The first episode came out June 8 on Disney+. New episodes are released every Wednesday, with the finale set for July 13.