Ms. Marvel's Red Dagger is a Formidable Friend
The following story contains light spoilers for Ms. Marvel Episode 4, "Seeing Red."
One thing that's been a welcomed surprise so far in Ms. Marvel, the Disney+ Marvel Studios series that's introducing the Pakistani-American, Jersey City-based superhero Kamala Khan into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has been the detail and care with which the show's numerous side characters have been drawn. Not only have we gotten to know Kamala (Iman Vellani), but in only a few short episodes it already feels like we know her best friends Bruno (Matt Lintz) and Nakia (Yasmeen Fletcher) well and her parents (Zenobia Shroff and Mohan Kapur) even better.
In the show's episode 4, titled "Seeing Red," we find Kamala and her mother, Muneeba, taking an impromptu trip to Karachi, Pakistan, after Kamala and her Pakistan-based grandmother both had the same vision of a moving train. We get more delightful scenes between Kamala and her mother, and get to see her grandmother, Sana, in person and not barely passably using FaceTime.
But this is still Kamala Khan, the ever-curious and always-energetic 16-year-old from Jersey City, we're dealing with. So of course she breaks away from the plan and finds herself (with her powers still working, thankfully) in the midst of another new adventure. And this one is all about that train vision. So, naturally, she goes looking for the Karachi station, and despite some truly abysmal directions, manages to find it. It's only once she's there, though, that she meets someone new: someone throwing daggers right past her head into the Ant-Man mural on the wall behind her. This is where the MCU first introduces a hero known as Red Dagger.
Who is Red Dagger in Ms. Marvel?
Played by actor Aramis Knight, this character's superhero name is technically Red Dagger, but that's not his name—just the group of trained fighters that he was trained in by his mentor, a man named Waleed (who, thanks to our Djinn villains, doesn't make it out of the episode alive).
You can kind of think about this in the same way as Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), who's named for the group she was trained in in Asgard, and not her actual character name. Except this Red Dagger is actually named Kareem (and goes by Kimo), and Valkyrie, for all we know in the MCU, does not have an actual name that we've ever heard.
Part of the reason that Kareem and Kamala start off on rough terms is because he knows that people with her powers—Djinn from the Noor dimension, which he can sense—are not our friends. Like Kamran's mother Najma, who seems at this point to be Ms. Marvel's main villain, the Djinn are willing to do whatever it takes to get back home, which would mean their dimension completely overtaking our own. Kareem knows this, and Kamala knows that she doesn't approve of this—so the two end up on good terms, and teaming up on the same side.
Could Red Dagger show up again in the MCU?
Why not? While it seems like the trip to Karachi is most likely all we'll get of Kareem in Ms. Marvel, he shows up elsewhere in the Marvel Comics run that this version of the character is largely based on (more on that below).
We know for certain that Kamala will be appearing in The Marvels, and it seems possible that Ms. Marvel could get another season. With the introduction of Billy and Tommy Maximoff, Kid Loki, Eli Bradley, Kate Bishop, and America Chavez, (with a new version of Cassie Lang coming in next year's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) into the MCU, it also seems possible that some form of Young Avengers could also be coming.
Any of these could be a good landing spot for us to see Kareem/Red Dagger once again.
What are Red Dagger's powers?
If you've seen Netflix's Umbrella Academy, Red Dagger basically has what Diego has: he can throw knives very, very accurately. Kind of like Hawkeye (both the Clint and Kate versions), or the Daredevil villain Bullseye, but with knives.
What about Red Dagger in the Marvel Comics?
As you can see in the panels above, Red Dagger/Kareem and Ms. Marvel/Kamala have an almost identical meeting in Ms. Marvel to their meeting in the comics.
Red Dagger/Kareem was first introduced in Ms. Marvel #12, written by G. Willow Wilson. In this initial storyline, we meet Kareem (also known as Laal Khanjeer) in Karachi, where he's staying with Kamala's grandmother as he studies for university exams (Kamala's Aunt and Kareem's mother were friends).
As Red Dagger, Kareem protects people in Pakistan on the street level; his only powers are being fairly accurate throwing knives, so he's not exactly taking on Thanos any time soon. As usual, the MCU took some parts of this introduction to the character, and developed some of their own as well.
Like in the show, Kamala and Kareem got to know each other and became friendly during their time in Karachi. Later in the run, Kareem ended up in Jersey City where he stayed with Kamala's family as an exchange student. Fun!
You Might Also Like
