Who is Red Dagger?
After watching the latest episode of Ms. Marvel, you probably have a few questions. Most of which we’ll answer for you tomorrow, but one we’ll address now. Who is Red Dagger/who are the Red Daggers?
Aramis Knight as Red Dagger in Ms. Marvel ©Marvel Studios 2022
Red Dagger first appeared in Ms. Marvel #12, which released on January 1, 2016. Marvel Fandom explains that in comics, “He is a hometown hero to Karachi, Pakistan”, and in the comics travels to the US to team up with Kamala Khan. The first Red Dagger in Marvel comics was Kareem, the same character we’ve met today. In the source material. Kareem’s superheroic abilities are limited to expert marksmanship, so one must wonder how he competes with some other MCU marksman who are rumored to cameo in the later episodes of Ms. Marvel.
Other comics history for the character shows him as a rival and part time love interest for Ms. Marvel, while depicting him as more of an anti-hero than an outright villain.
In the show, we’re also introduced to Waleed (Farhan Akhtar) as a *former? red dagger. This interaction gives us a little intel that in the MCU, Red Dagger may be a mantle passed down similarly to the mantle of Black Panther. This conversation also shows us how these red daggers have a deeper understanding of the conflict between humans and clandestines, and the piece that noor plays in all of this.
Hopefully we’ll learn more about Kareem’s backstory in the penultimate episode next week, but it seems as if we’ll be headed back to Jersey soon due to the amounts of trailer footage showing a suited up Kamala fighting alongside Kamran in what is presumably New Jersey.
If you want to learn more about Red Dagger, I highly suggest checking out these links from Marvel Fandom and MCU Fandom.
