The MCU’s world-building is just stunning. Marvel has taken us through the streets of several countries, but now it’s time to go Desi! Ms. Marvel’s fourth episode took us through the streets and markets of Karachi Pakistan. And it finally introduced us to Farhan Akhtar’s character, Waleed. But having watched Ms. Marvel’s 4th episode, people were left asking who exactly is Waleed. To understand Waleed, we’ll have to answer who is the Red Dagger because he is the Prime Red Dagger.
Like everything in the show, Marvel has altered the origins of the Red Dagger as well. In the comics, Kamala Khan visits her grandma in Pakistan where she meets Kareem. He was a friend of Kamala’s family, so he was staying with her grandma while studying for his entrance exams. After an awkward first interaction, the two became best buddies. But like Kamala, Kareem was also hiding a big secret.
By day, he was your average joe preparing for his exams. But by night, he was the local vigilante, Red Dagger. He doesn’t have any superpowers. He is a self-taught hero who actually learned his combat skills by watching YouTube videos. And as the name suggests, his prime weapons for combat are two throwaway knives. He is so skilled that he can throw those knives with pinpoint accuracy.
During Kamala’s time in Pakistan, she still continued her gig as Ms. Marvel. And naturally, she met with the Red Dagger while fighting crime. The two teamed up and even stopped a train together. They fought as allies not knowing each other’s secret identities. In fact, they did not get to know about each other’s identities for a long while until Kareem came to stay with Kamala’s family in New Jersey. Even then, it took a while for them to reveal who they are. But then Kamala shared her first kiss with Kareem right when Bruno returned from Wakanda. That was awkward, but I am pretty sure none of this will happen in the MCU. Kareem will not be a love interest.
He and Kamala meet in Pakistan just like the comics. But they unmask themselves almost immediately. And here he is a friend of Kamala’s family not through Kamala’s grandma Sana, but through her great-grandma Aisha. Well technically, he probably doesn’t even know Sana or any other descendants of Aisha. He just knows the Legend of Aisha, and the history of her race, the Clandestines. And he is not just some self-taught hero street vigilante. The MCU has turned the name Red Dagger into a mantle that has been passed on from warrior to warrior for hundreds of years. It’s almost like the mantle of Black Panther, but smaller in scale, technology, and resources.
It seems that while Wakanda has had a Black Panther for generations, the US has had heroes for several years, and Pakistan has had its own group of Superheroes called the Red Daggers. And that’s where Farhan Akhtar’s character Waleed comes in. He was the Prime Red Dagger and Kareem seems to be the next one in line. He is a highly skilled warrior. The goal of the Red Daggers is to battle the Unseen. They want to prevent Earth-616 from the realm of the Clandestines. It is a pretty common motivation. Just like Sentinel Prime wanted to turn Earth into Cybertron, and Zod wanted to terraform Earth into Krypton, the Clandestines don’t want to go home, they want to bring their home into Earth-616 until nothing is left of it. They want to turn Earth into the Noor Dimension.
It seems that Najma and co came up with the idea of doing this since they couldn’t go back to their own dimension. They want to use Kamala’s bangle to destroy the veil of energy between 616 and the Noor dimension. But Aisha probably stood against them and teamed up with the Red Daggers to stop Najma. She could have trained the Red Daggers, taught them the secrets of the Noor Dimension, and the weaknesses of all Djinn. She could have taught them how to sense the Noor.
#msmarvel episode 4 spoilers
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bruh how do they introduce farhan akhtar’s character and k!ll him off in the same episode like CMON pic.twitter.com/hWNZjS0Yd6— ⧗ (@waltersndanvers) June 29, 2022
After all, Kareem tracked Kamala because he was able to sense her Noor. And because of Aisha’s teachings, Waleed was easily able to fight and take down multiple Clandestines. But sadly, he met a very early and very predictable demise. Indian fans were excited to see the extremely talented Farhan Akhtar join the MCU. He saved Kareem and Kamala. But after seeing how he died so early and kinda pointlessly, many fans haven’t been happy at all. It’s almost like Waleed came in only to give us an exposition dump about the history of the Clandestines and the Red Daggers.
But this is a comic book universe where people keep coming back from the dead. So, he may not be dead after all. But I wouldn’t hold any high hopes for his return. Did you like the introduction of Farhan Akhtar in the MCU? And what do you think about the changes Marvel has made to the Red Daggers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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