Ms. Marvel Episode 1 Post-Credits Scene Explained

This article contains spoilers for MS. MARVEL Episode 1 and Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Teenagers are naturally reckless, even the most well-meaning among them. When you add in superpowers, the results may be disastrous. So it’s no surprise that following the power Kamala Khan manifested at Avenger Con in the first episode of Ms. Marvel, she would receive the same treatment given to poor Peter Parker and friends in Spider-Man: No Way Home. In the post-credit scene of the Ms. Marvel premier, we see footage of Kamala at Avenger Con being watched by Agent P. Cleary (Arian Moayed) of the Department of Damage Control (DODC).

This isn’t the first time that Agent Cleary has dealt with a superhero. We last saw him in No Way Home investigating Peter, MJ, Ned, and Aunt May, after Mysterio revealed Spider-Man’s secret identity to the world. Those scenes gave us a taste of Cleary’s wily ways, playing the various interrogation subjects perfectly to get the information he wants.

For most viewers, the DODC remains a shadowy government organization, and their treatment of Peter and Kamala will likely do nothing to change that opinion. After a brief mention in Iron Man and Agents of SHIELD, the DODC first appeared in the MCU proper at the start of Spider-Man: Homecoming, confiscating materials from the Chitauri invasion (seen in The Avengers) and setting Adrian Toomes on the path to becoming the Vulture. As their name suggests, they exist to clean up the messes made by superheroes and sometimes prevent others from escalating. While they don’t appear to have any connection to the Sokovia Accords described in Captain America: Civil War, DODC serves a similar function.

Before entering the MCU, Damage Control debuted in 1989’s Marvel Age Annual #4 and soon graduated to a trio of limited series, largely by Dwayne McDuffie and Ernie Colón. Like The Tick or DC’s Justice League International, Damage Control took a comedic approach to superheroes, following the bureaucratic headaches of living in the Marvel Universe. A private construction company with no affiliation to the government, Damage Control was initially a joint venture between Tony Stark and Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime. Although it’s been decades since the last Damage Control mini, the group remains a going concern in the Marvel Universe, showing up in events such as Civil War.

Unlike its comic counterpart, the DODC seems to mistrust and even be hostile toward superheroes. The end credit scene of Ms. Marvel only compounds this feeling, as we’re introduced to a new character – Agent Sadie Deever (Alysia Reiner), who appears even more sinister than Cleary. After the video ends, Agents Cleary and Deever make plans to find Kamala and possibly arrest her to investigate her powers.

The post-credit scene gestures toward a further complication for Kamala if she learns, as her mother urges, to get her head out of the clouds and start living in the real world. It may be a dream come true for Kamala to get powers like her beloved Captain Marvel, but those powers are going to come with a cost. The Department of Damage Control may be here to collect.