and, you know, the howling racists and misogynists were out in force hating it.
I'm always alittle suspect of how much that actually matters. Like, yes absolutely, it exists. But does it REALLY have much an affect on anything? Does a very loud minority ever really matter, or are they just annoying... and sometimes an easy scapegoat?
It's a crutch used alittle too often today even by creators and studios themselves, "Oh you didn't like our project? Obviously some combination of -ist and -phobe."
It works both ways though, and seems to equally ineffective. How many times have people called for boycotts for something on the grounds of it being x-ist or x-phobic, and be completely ineffective?
Ms. Marvel had a few things working against it...
It was associated with a generally received as mediocre MCU movie, Captain Marvel. Otherwise, generally
unconnected from the universe at large.
It did not feature an existing MCU character to garner more interest.*
An unknown actor in the lead role.*
( *The inverse of Moon Knight, a non-established character but a generally well-liked actor in the lead role.)
Geared towards a younger target audience.
Sure, we also can't ignore some cultural things, i'd hesitate to call something like x-ist or x-phobic, but I can speak from my own experience... I just wasn't particularly interested in the muslim cultural pieces. I have nothing against muslims, i'm just... not interested in it. I must reiterate a thousand times because people get touchy but it's perfectly for me to not be interested in things that others are. Totally cool!
On that note, I *WILL* say maybe I learned something from what I did watch of Ms. Marvel. Part of why I didn't get through it was that I just couldn't identify with the show. As a straightish white man, that usually isn't the case. Perhaps there was a bit of enlightenment there, realizing "This must be how other people feel about some things." It is somewhat odd though because I never felt that way about say, Black Panther. Maybe a touch in Wakanda Forever, just acknowledging that the movie definitely doesn't resonate with me as emotionally or culturally as might others, but still enjoyable. I think maybe Ms. Marvel just hit a few too many "Not-me" boxes to trigger it. Like... i'm a straightish white guy again, T'Challa is a straight(assuming) black man around my general age. We're different races, but that doesn't stop me from identifying. T'Challa's cool as hell. Ms. Marvel is a teenage muslim girl, maybe just a bit too far off for me to get into.
Again though, it gave me a modicum of insight as to why people might not want all the heroes on screen to be Chris Hemsworth. It's cool to have a vastly diverse array of characters, even if there may be some i'm less interested in over others, because other people might be all about them! It just sucks from a purely business perspective... tightly focusing on a minority character will probably net rightly focused minority ratings.
In hindsight, it may have been more prudent to almost reverse these two entries and do The Marvels first, introduce Kamala, and THEN do the Ms. Marvel show.
