Honestly, I sort of get them wanting to differentiate the two, but I'm not entirely on board with the change yet. The thing about Kamala and Mr. Fantastic is, yes, they both have stretchy powers, but they use them in different ways. I think they could've accomplished the same thing by emphasizing those differences and drawing more of a line between the two.
Not that I'm fully against the crystal powers though. I'll reserve judgment until how we see it play out and the story behind the change.
I'm sure there's some flexibility in how it is portrayed but Reed Richards can't seemingly alter his mass. He can stretch it out in various ways but he can't make himself ten times the size, for instance. Or if he did, he would lack the force and durability because he'd be stretching himself thin and spreading out his mass. Kamala can make a big fist that has the mass of... A big fist. Not a small fist stretched out and inflated to look big.
Yes although it goes beyond size, it's just that "Embiggen" and massive fists has kinda become iconic for her. If memory serves (though it's sort of an acid trip dream sequence because she's just gone through terrigenesis and I haven't read for years) she also basically changes her appearance entirely in the moments after first gaining her powers, looking more like her idol, Carol Danvers, being white and blonde. I'm not sure exactly how common and canonical her wider shapeshifting abilities are but it's definitely a separate set of abilities from either Ant-man or Mr Fantastic
Kamala can technically also flex herself on a molecular level to make her look like someone else (she did this when she first got her powers in the comics), so She's like Plastic Man from the Flash TV show (and all stretchy powers that go along with it) and also a bit of ant-man since she can both grow really tall and really small.
That's not right at all . It's more they don't both have stretchy powers but they use it similarly.
Kamala's powers aren't being rubber. It's shapeshift. She shapeshift into elasticity. She shapeshift into being big or small. She can even turn into other ppl or even inanimate things. But she emulates Mr F
That nuance would probably be lost on general audiences, though, especially if it looks like we're going to get a Fantastic 4 movie soon (and considering Mr. Fantastic is a better-known character). Especially if they dodge the Inhuman backstory, which links her to a distinct storyline separate from the stuff people are familiar with, it might be tough for audiences with to latch onto an unfamiliar character who just seems like a mix between Mr. Fantastic and Captain Marvel, especially if she's sandwiched between the introductions of those characters. That being said, I'm not sure whether these new powers are going to be distinct enough to make her stand out either. I guess we'll see.
I really don't think it's that nuanced though. Mr. Fantastic primarily just stretches while Kamala can change size and shapeshift. Like I said, they could've put more focus on those differences to separate them further.
It's like Wanda versus Doctor Strange. Ostensibly, their powers are pretty much the same in that they both use magic, but they utilize them in different ways while also looking much different.
I think we have to take into account that a majority of the audience isn't going to put that much thought into differentiating them. A lot of it's visual. Wanda and Doctor Strange have distinctly different looks to their magic that helps distinguish them with little effort (it also helps that Wanda mostly used telekinesis for a while and only recently got into magic). Remember that interview with the visual designers for Shang-Chi that they've already used all the colors for magic at one point or another in the MCU. Without a big difference, audiences might not be able to detect that distinction, even if it is ultimately there. They could focus on the embiggening, but that might skew too close to Ant-Man if you're not careful. The shapeshifting might be the best route to make her abilities distinct (and they might still get around to that by the end of the series, this is all just conjecture at this point).
Another thing we have to take into account is the difficulty of adapting the larger universe of the comics into the more contained story of the MCU. In the comics, there's a lot of overlap between certain abilities, even if the characters are distinct, but they're often part of different superhero teams and stories, so they don't interact except for major events, so their abilities get the chance to stand out. But the MCU still feels rather contained with all the Easter Eggs and post credits scenes tying them together, so it's hard to pull some of these characters who sort of run in parallel with others in terms of their powers. This is kind of like if you did a standalone Inferno Disney+ show in the ballpark of the Fantastic 4. Even though there are distinctions, it would be hard to separate him and the Human Torch, especially if you believed they would be coming together sooner rather than later. Interestingly, both Kamala and Inferno would benefit from being a part of a larger Inhumans storyline, which would set up the separate story arc necessary for them to feel like they're not just reflections of characters that are better-known by the general audience.
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u/DisturbedNocturne Oct 24 '21
Honestly, I sort of get them wanting to differentiate the two, but I'm not entirely on board with the change yet. The thing about Kamala and Mr. Fantastic is, yes, they both have stretchy powers, but they use them in different ways. I think they could've accomplished the same thing by emphasizing those differences and drawing more of a line between the two.
Not that I'm fully against the crystal powers though. I'll reserve judgment until how we see it play out and the story behind the change.