Who are the ClanDestine in ‘Ms. Marvel?’

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for episode three of Ms. Marvel.

Ms. Marvel has held its cards quite close to its chest so far, keeping the secret of Kamala’s powers ⏤ amongst other things ⏤ shrouded in mystery. One of those things is who the primary villain(s) of the Disney Plus show would turn out to be. The third episode of Ms. Marvel finally gave us some clues for many of the questions we’ve been asking, including just who Kamala’s antagonists are, by introducing a group known as the ClanDestine.

Who are the ClanDestine in Ms. Marvel?

The ending of the second episode of Ms. Marvel saw Kamran, played by Rish Shah, introduce Kamala to his mother, Najma, played by Nimra Bucha. The third episode revealed that Najma was one of the members of the ClanDestine, a group of people who were exiled from their dimension, the Noor Dimension, into Kamala’s. 

A flashback at the top of the episode brought us back to British-controlled India in 1942 and showed the ClanDestine finding the bangle that Kamala wears in the series. It’s revealed that the bangle is the key to getting the ClanDestine back to the Noor Dimension, and for that, they need Kamala’s help. Najma explained to Kamala that her great grandmother Aisha was also a ClanDestine, and therefore Kamala was part ClanDestine as well. Najma also referred to the ClanDestine as Djinn, who are spirits and demons in the religion of Islam. The members of the group, except for Kamran, are all over 100 years old. 

Rather than most superhero groups, the ClanDestine seems more like a family, akin to maybe the Eternals. With that being said, they turned on Kamala in episode three when she learned that the process to send them back to their dimension might be dangerous. Not only did they interrupt Aamir’s wedding, but Kamran seemed convinced that they would kill everybody there just to get to Kamala’s bangle. Luckily, Kamala was able to use her newfound powers to repel their attacks after she evacuated the wedding.

You could assume that the group was evil in nature because they attacked Kamala, but they haven’t done anything truly bad yet, so perhaps the ClanDestine are just misunderstood. It at least leaves a little room for another villain to appear in the series. Plus, it does seem that Najma was not quite telling Kamala the whole story about their origins…

The ClanDestine in Ms. Marvel are actually different from their counterparts in the Marvel comics. The ClanDestine are a somewhat obscure team and were created by Alan Davis in 1994. The name comes from the last name of the main character, Adam Destine. He received the name Destine after he was impaled and survived, but only after he dreamt of an ethereal woman. 

Destine fought in the Third Crusade in 1168, during which he battled a wizard who wielded a magical gemstone. When he was near death, Adam smashed the gemstone and a Djinn named Elalyth granted him immortality. Destined to be together, Adam and Elayth had many children over the years, creating the ClanDestine. Their children included Jasmine, who is also known as Kay Cera, and Cuckoo, Albert, Grace, Newton, Walter, William Chance, Dominic, Samantha, Rik, Rory, Pandora, Nathaniel, Thaddeus, Vincent, Florence, Maurice Fortuit, Garth, Sherlock, and Lance. All of their children had some kind of abilities and during their run, they were often mistaken for mutants. In fact, they worked so well with mutants that a two-part series was written in which the two teams paired up, aptly titled X-Men and the ClanDestine.

As of the third episode of Ms. Marvel, it’s unknown whether the ClanDestine’s origins share more similarities with the comic books than already mentioned, but based on the obscurity of the team in the comics, it seems likely that the show will have more creative freedom than it would have otherwise.

We’ll have to keep tuning in to Ms. Marvel to see if the ClanDestine will connect further to their comic counterparts. Hopefully, the group does not turn out to be villainous and is just really hell-bent on going home. For Kamala’s sake, let’s hope that she’s able to help the ClanDestine get back to their dimension without destroying the world.

Tune in next Wednesday to catch the next episode of Ms. Marvel.