This article contains full spoilers for Episode 4 of Ms. Marvel, "Seeing Red". If you haven’t caught up yet, check out our spoiler-free review of Ms. Marvel Episode 4 and what it's like watching Ms. Marvel As a Muslim Woman.
As Ms. Marvel Episode 4 puts the pieces in place for the final furlong of Bisha K. Ali’s six-part series. Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) makes a trip abroad to meet her Nani, the villainous ClanDestine escape a Department of Damage Control’s Supermax prison and are hot on her trail.
Thankfully, Kamala finds a new friend in the form of the Red Dagger (Aramis Knight). We’ve got the scoop of who he is in the comics and how much the Red Dagger could be a part of the MCU’s future.
Who Is Red Dagger In The Comics?
In the comics, Laal Khanjeer (the Red Dagger) is introduced in G. Willow Wilson and Mirka Andolfo’s Ms. Marvel (Vol. 4) #12 from 2016. Here, he’s known as the protector of Karachi and stalks the streets by night to keep its citizens safe.
Unlike Kamala, Kareem has no Terrigen mist or special bracelets – he’s just a regular Joe. Still, he comes in handy in a scrap, and if he’s not throwing knives, he’s leaping across rooftops with parkour skills he learned on YouTube. Similar to the relationship between Daredevil and Elektra, Red Dagger has been a rival, ally, and even love interest of Kamala. The pair have a frosty meeting in Karachi, where Red Dagger even brands Kamala a foreigner who is stepping on his turf and doing more harm than good.
Jump forward to 2017’s Ms. Marvel #23 and Kareem pops up in America to take part in a school exchange program. Despite living with Kamala’s family, the dynamic duo still doesn’t learn each other's secret identities when stopping a runaway train. However, they later kiss (Ms. Marvel #29) and toy with the idea of coming clean about who they are. Ms. Marvel and Red Dagger have a will-they-won’t-they relationship, but he eventually leaves Jersey City before they can make things official.
In the comics, he has an established tie to the Khan family thanks to his mother being close friends with Kamala’s aunt. It’s also likely the show is skipping over the fact comic book Kareem lived with Kamala’s grandmother in Kamachi before he came to the USA.
What Does Red Dagger’s Introduction Mean For Ms. Marvel?
Like Kamala’s revamped powers and comic book origin, Red Dagger is a little different in the Disney+ series. The Red Daggers are a protective society operating out of Karachi, rather than a singular character. The head of the Red Daggers appears to be Waleed (Farhan Akhtar) who, alongside Kareem, teaches Kamala about how our world connects to the Noor Realm as well as her own destiny as a Djinn.
The introductions don’t last long, though. During a tense showdown between Kamala and her new friends against the ClanDestine, Waleed is killed. While there are questions about Kareem’s future now that his mentor has fallen, it’s unlikely that Najma and the ClanDestine will succeed in forcing Kamala to tear down the veil and it seems Kareem is destined to help her fight them.
Red Dagger’s MCU Future
Although Red Dagger is powerless in the comics, there are also hints that he’s a rogue ClanDestine in Ms. Marvel. Much like how Najma says she realized Kamala’s potential back in Episode 3, Kareem claims he can “sense the Noor” inside her when she asks if he’s following her. In a typical MCU revamp, Kamala could fight alongside a superpowered Red Dagger.
Although Knight isn’t confirmed for Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels, it’s possible Red Dagger will appear alongside Kamala. Assuming Kareem makes it to the end of the series and heads back to America with the Khan family, he could feature as part of her introduction to the superpowered team of Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), and Monica Rambeau’s Photon (Teyonah Parris).
There’s no word on whether Ms. Marvel is getting a Season 2, but if it does, it’s also logical to assume we’ll see Red Dagger again to continue his comic book source material. Further down the line, Red Dagger could even team up with Danvers herself. In the comics, Kareem joins a team of Ms. Marvel stand-ins called the Kamala Corps when she takes a hiatus from fighting crime. The group takes out a low-level villain named The Inventor, so it’s easy to imagine Kareem appearing in something like Ms. Marvel Season 2.