Warning: Spoilers for episode 6 of “Miss Marvel”.
Thanks to the Miss Marvel finale, mutants now officially exist in the MCU. The big discovery came directly from Bruno Carrelli Matt Lintz, who showed interest in the powers that Kamala received from her bracelet. According to Bruno, Kamala is the only member of her family who has abilities due to a “mutation” in her DNA.
Although Kamala quickly shrugged off the exposure, Bruno’s teasing mutant is of great importance in the MCU. Since Marvel returned the rights to the X-Men, there has been a lot of speculation about how and when Marvel Studios will add Wolverine, Magneto, Storm and everyone else to the picture. The MCU Phase 4 took its first step towards Marvel’s Hilarious Mutants in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness when Patrick Stewart’s Professor X from Fox’s X-Men films appeared in it. However, his role was episodic, which occurred through the multiverse and had no real relation to the main MCU interpretation of mutants. The wait for mutants on Earth-616 continued — and ended with the season finale of “Miss Marvel”.
Related: How did Miss Marvel get her powers?
It was widely believed that the Marvel team’s introduction should start with a high-profile X-Men character like Wolverine or Cyclops, but the studio took the unexpected step of starting with Kamala Khan instead. Using “Miss Marvel” instead of such a huge fan favorite as Wolverine made the discovery of a large mutant a real surprise. After all, Kamala is an inhuman, not a mutant in Marvel comics. In addition, her connection with the genie has already been confirmed in the series, so Marvel was not expected to create a mutant bond with her character. But by taking this course with Kamala, Marvel has apparently laid the groundwork for how the X-Men will work in the MCU.
Marvel Needs to Make Mutants Different in the MCU
To differentiate the MCU mutants from what came before, Marvel needs to offer something unique, and Ms. Marvel hints at how she plans to do that. The idea that the bracelet revealed Kamala’s abilities related to her genetic mutation is completely different from how the X-Men were used in both movies and comics. This massive change in the concept of the X-Men is also a smart way for Marvel to explain why mutants are only appearing now. It was expected that getting around this would be a serious problem, but if cosmic energy is required to activate their hidden X-gene, then it makes sense that hundreds of mutants are not running around the MCU yet.
Choosing a space path with the origin of the X-Men may lead to the fact that there will be fewer mutants in the MCU than in the comics and Fox movies, which will exacerbate the fundamental differences between the mutants of the MCU and previous versions. It will also allow Marvel to retroactively make Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and possibly even Captain Marvel mutants in the MCU. Thanks to Ms. Marvel, the MCU has effectively set its sights on the X-Men, regardless of whether Kamala becomes a member of the team.
