Disney’s ‘Ms. Marvel,’ featuring MCU’s first Muslim South Asian superhero, gets review bombed

Disney Plus’ new miniseries “Ms. Marvel,” featuring the MCU’s first-ever Muslim superhero, was subjected to review-bombing on IMDb despite receiving glowing reviews from critics.

Premiering yesterday on Disney’s streaming platform, the series was flooded with negative reviews on IMDb, resulting in an overall rating of 6.5 out of 10 as of this writing, the lowest rating of any MCU show. Over 23 percent of the show’s reviews gave a rating of 1, while 41 percent gave it a 10. Critics suggest this sort of polarized distribution points to review-bombing from hostile viewers.

The inconsistency between the crowd-sourced ratings and critic reviews also suggests something more is going on than viewers simply disliking the new show. On Rotten Tomatoes, the show currently boasts a staggering 95 percent, making it the second-highest rated MCU film or show to date.

While the reason for the onslaught of one-star reviews on IMDb is difficult to pinpoint, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened to a Marvel production.

The practice of review bombing — which, as its name suggests, involves bombarding a movie with poor reviews — has been on the rise in recent years, noticeably with projects showcasing Hollywood’s greater conscientiousness towards representation.

Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel serves as representation on multiple fronts. The character is a Muslim, South Asian teenage girl entering a superhero universe that’s primarily been explored on screen by white male actors named Chris.

Chloe Zhao’s “Eternals” also fell victim to review-bombing after its premiere, as did “Captain Marvel,” one of MCU’s few feature-length films centering around a female superhero.

Featured Image via Marvel Entertainment

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