This article contains spoilers for Ms. Marvel episode five.
Fans of the Ms. Marvel comics will know that they don’t shy away from exploring subjects other heroes wouldn’t go near. For a few weeks it’s been clear that the Disney Plus show wants to follow in the same footsteps, devoting time to explaining the effects of the 1947 Partition of India and its long-term consequences on the South Asian diaspora across the world.
But few expected episode five to go so deeply into this topic. Last week we saw Kamala thrown back to a crowded and chaotic train station in 1947. It was in this time period that we spent much of the episode, showing Kamala’s great-grandparents meeting, her great-grandmother using the bangle, and their traumatic parting while desperately trying to reach Karachi.
The episode was essentially a history lesson on the fight for Indian independence and the human cost of British colonialism, even beginning with a faux-newsreel laying out exactly what happened when the British Raj was dissolved. This means that a lot of MCU fans are now fully aware of important historic events not even vaguely referenced in history class – and they’re loving it.
On r/MarvelStudios posters are saying that “MCU [is] teaching me more about world history than school did” and that “it’s such a shame that I’d only heard about certain events from certain perspectives in school. I know there’s a limited amount of time to cover things but a variety of history and experiences would have been nice.”
That’s being echoed on Twitter:
Others thank Marvel and Disney for not pulling their punches:
And that it shows how MCU stories can be genuinely educational:
So there you have it, folks, if you want to teach people about history just toss a few superheroes into the mix and they’ll gobble down the facts.
Here’s hoping Ms. Marvel sticks the landing in its finale next Wednesday.