In the upcoming series Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan's new powers could be hiding a connection with Shang-Chi’s Ten Rings. The teenage superheroine’s release trailer shows off her updated abilities ahead of her debut on Disney+. Her powers have been changed considerably, and the trailer has revealed a potential connection between the new source of her abilities and Shang-Chi.
In Marvel’s comics, Kamala Khan’s body-morphing and shapeshifting abilities are caused by her transformation into an Inhuman after being exposed to Terrigen gas. However, with the disastrous reviews of Marvel TV’s Inhumans series and the potential visual difficulties of bringing elastic limbs and polymorph abilities to the screen, the MCU has changed Ms. Marvel’s powers. The latest Ms. Marvel trailer reveals Khan’s energy projection-based abilities mimicking her trademark stretchy punch and creating a potential connection to the Ten Rings seen in Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings.
In Ms. Marvel’s latest trailer, Kamala Khan discovers a pair of ancient bangles, allowing her to control unexplained cosmic energy. The adjustment to her abilities grants the character more utility than her comic book counterpart, allowing the creation of bullet-proof shields and floating steps on top of her physical abilities. The bangles bear a striking resemblance and similar characteristics as how the Ten Rings were portrayed in Shang-Chi. The Ten Rings in question were examined in Shang-Chi’s post-credits scene by the MCU’s foremost experts in relics, Wong, Bruce Banner, and Captain Marvel, who were unable to ascertain their origin. According to the trio, the Ten Rings were older than anything encountered before, and Shang-Chi’s use of the artifacts activated a beacon across the universe. That same beacon may have caused the activation or discovery of Kamala’s eerily similar bangles.
The change made to Kamala's abilities also creates more connections between MCU characters. Ms. Marvel’s now energy-based abilities are more similar to those of her namesake and idol, Captain Marvel. Likewise, the bangles' shape and inscriptions bear remarkable similarities to the Ten Rings, which are clear when compared to the magnified display of the Ten Rings in Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings' post-credits scene. Though the Rings' powers were changed in the MCU to strength enhancers and physical weapons due to similarities to the Infinity Gauntlet, in the comics, each of the Ten Rings grants specific powers. Kamala’s bangles could introduce more relics like the Ten Rings with specific abilities such as energy projection.
Some details could suggest how Kamala and her family got hold of the bangles. In Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings, Shang-Chi’s father, Wenwu, discovers the Rings in China at the site of an asteroid crash. Wenwu also refers to himself as Khan, the Mongolian warlord who created the world’s largest land empire in history, including Pakistan. Other artifacts similar to the Ten Rings may have ended up in Pakistan during Wenwu’s control of the Mongol Empire. In the comics, Kamala’s bangles are sentimental heirlooms from her Pakistani great-grandmother. In the MCU show, these bangles could have been passed down in the Khan family and found by Kamala, and Shang-Chi's activation of the Ten Rings’ beacon may have triggered the bangle’s latent abilities.
The new origins of Kamala Khan’s powers have been met with mixed reactions from comic book readers. Yet they represent an opportunity to further connect characters in the MCU and enable greater interactions and cameos between heroes. With Ms. Marvel’s potential link with Shang-Chi, Phase 4 of the MCU will be more interconnected than ever.
Ms. Marvel premieres June 8, 2022 on Disney+.