It’s been a little while since I last talked about The Marvels, but I wanted to swing back around and look at the Kamala-Monica relationship. While not as intense as Carol-Kamala or Monica-Carol, this third major relationship within the central trio is important as well.
Carol looms large in the film, for obvious reasons. On a meta level, this film is a team sequel of her initial solo movie. Undoubtedly, she’s the most powerful of the three, the most experienced (with both superheroing and space travel,) and she’s the one who fought against Thanos. And on a personal level, she has an important, painful history with Monica and is voraciously hero-worshipped by Kamala. She takes up a lot of space in the movie, and that includes her relationships with the other two.
For better or worse, both Monica and Kamala are kind of orbiting Carol, and with the baggage that they bring, they both spend a good chunk of the movie not getting everything they want out of their interactions with her. You have Monica, who straight-up doesn’t want to deal with Carol at all, meanwhile Kamala’s sky-high fangirl expectations could never be met by an actual person, no matter how great they are. And when Carol doesn’t or can’t live up to what they want her to be, that’s where they have each other.
If Monica views Carol as a family member who let her down, and Kamala views Carol as an unattainable hero, they’re able to view one another in a more measured light. They aren’t bringing the same expectations, and so they’re better able to relate to one another as people. Their relationship has a bit more of an older/younger sister flavor. Monica sees how passionate Kamala is and how badly she wants to help, and she gives the younger hero space to do that while also looking out for her. And Kamala sees Monica for the kickass hero she is, but without the same starry-eyed adoration she has for Carol, she doesn’t get as giddy and tongue-tied. Their relationship is born, at least in part, out of needing someone to turn to when they have difficult moments with Carol.
It’s always interesting like this, when you have relationships between three characters and one of them is the bigger focal point. In these cases, the interactions between the other two will always be somewhat in reaction to their feelings about the first character, but even though the presence of that first character will inevitably inform their relationship, the other two characters still ultimately decide what to make of it.
And as the movie goes on, Monica and Kamala become friends and allies. Monica digs deep to use her powers in a brand-new way to save Kamala when an untimely switch puts her in grave danger. They learn to work and fight together in cool, inventive ways. They take in the wildness around them together—especially on Aladna, where Monica teases Kamala about writing Captain Marvel fanfic. And through their growing bond with each other, they’re both able to get to a place where they’re able to connect with Carol without all the baggage that was getting in the way before.
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