What Is Ms. Marvel's Bracelet? Quantum Bands Powers & Origin Explained

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The Marvels

Summary

The Marvels reveals that Kamala Khan's bracelets are the Quantum Bands, granting her the ability to control photonic energy from the Noor dimension.
The MCU version of the Quantum Bands is the original, more powerful variant, unlike the Kree knock-offs.
The Quantum Bands can absorb immense power and amplify the abilities of superpowered individuals, allowing them to create energy constructs and travel across space through Quantum Jumps.

After their introduction in Ms. Marvel, the MCU has finally confirmed what Kamala Khan's powerful bracelets are, thanks to The Marvels' release. The mysterious artifact (whose partner was lost until the opening moments of The Marvels) was behind Iman Vellani's Kamala Khan discovering her own superpowers. A year on, the bracelet tangles Khan with Brie Larson's Captain Marvel and Teyonah Parris' Monica Rambeau, thanks to the three sharing light-based powers.

Ms. Marvel's bracelets were something of a mystery when introduced, and solving the puzzle was one of the Disney+ series key arcs. Over the course of Ms. Marvel's 6 episodes, her bracelet displays a variety of abilities, from showing Kamala visions to sending her backward in time. The bracelet both enables Kamala's mutant abilities and provides a story anchor for her unique identity and history as a female Pakistani-American superhero. Now, The Marvels confirms exactly what the bracelets are, and brings a hugely powerful artifact to the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline.

A stylized split image of Monica Rambeau, Kamala Kahn, and Carol Danvers in The Marvels

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The Marvels Confirms Kamala's Bracelet Is A Quantum Band

Kamala Khan's Quantum Band Bracelet close-up from Ms. Marvel

In Ms. Marvel, Kamala finds the bracelet in a box of assorted bric-a-brac sent to America by her family in Pakistan. It belonged to her grandmother, Sana, and is revealed over the course of the series to be connected to the Noor dimension. When the MCU introduced Kamala's bracelet, theorists immediately suggested that they could be a stand-in for Quasar's Quantum Bands, which project hard-light constructs that are visually similar to Kamala Khan's new abilities. The Kree Nega-Bands was presented as another alternative; they tap into the energy of another dimension called the Negative Zone, granting their bearer phenomenal powers. The latter was always more logical, given Captain Marvel's own connection to the Kree, and the blue hand Ms. Marvel's ancestor took the band from.

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The Marvels confirms that the bracelet is one of the Quantum Bands, a pair of near-mythical artifacts that Captain Marvel barely believes are real when she is introduced to Kamala. Despite the Kree hints, the MCU version is the original, rather than the Kree "knock-off", which were marginally less powerful.

The Quantum Bands MCU Powers Explained

In the comics, Kamala Khan is a teenager with an Inhuman gene, which granted her powers when she was exposed to the Terrigen Mists. Marvel Studios has switched up her origin and even her powerset for the MCU. She is a mutant, and her Quantum Band was the key to unlocking her ability to control the photonic energy of the mysterious Noor dimension. That allowed Ms. Marvel to change the powers of the Bands, before The Marvels revealed a more comics-accurate power-set.

Ms. Marvel's MCU powers are essentially channeled through the Band, while it also displays some unique abilities of its own. When Kamala puts the bracelet, on she can create photonic energy constructs known as "hard light." Kamala herself has no idea where these powers come from but learns during the series that the bracelet grants her a link to the MCU's alternate dimension of Noor – the plane of existence where the powerful Clandestines, aka Djinn, originate.

The Marvels adds to the mythology around the Quantum Bands, revealing that they are essentially the key to amplifying powers. The Bands can absorb immense power, which draws villain Dar-Benn's attention as she seeks a means to relight the sun above her dying home planet Hala. Like the Power Stone before them, the Quantum Bands can also only be used by a superpowered individual whose genetics can withstand the immeasurable power they can wield when united. Similar to Kamala Khan's own powers, the Bands grant the user the ability to create solid energy constructs as well as "Quantum Jumps" across space.

The Quantum Bands Marvel Comics History Explained

Ms Marvel bracelets hint at her true mcu Role Quasar Quantum Bands

The Quantum Bands are a formidable artifact in Marvel Comics, linked to the Kree Empire. Their origin is disputed, with some accounts suggesting Cosmic Being Eon created them, before gifting them to those he appointed Protectors of the Universe. Both a powerful weapon and a status symbol, they grant the owner immense powers, drawn from the Quantum Realm. The bands would also bond with the wearer's body, sometimes proving immovable until their death.

The Quantum bands command the electromagnetic spectrum, can drain most forms of energy from biological or non-biological targets, and absorb huge amounts of power. They can also fire energy beams, but have a weakness to magic. Both indestructible and impossibly old (at least five billion years). Given The Marvels' confirmation of their origin, it seems Ms. Marvel may be about to get a significant power boost in the MCU.