Ant-Man and The Wasp Introduced the MCU's Most Tragic Villain

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp, in theaters now.

One criticism the Marvel Cinematic Universe has faced from the beginning is a lack of formidable villains, not just physically, but mentally. For years, Loki and the Winter Soldier were the only ones worth much of anything, with the likes of Whiplash, Malekith and the Mandarin garnering Marvel Studios serious flak.

However, in recent times, the studio has course-corrected, with the likes of Hela, Killmonger and of course, Thanos, standing tall as thoroughly-fleshed out and nuanced villains.

Director Peyton Reed now finds himself improving on Ant-Man's Yellowjacket by creating an enemy audiences can connect with emotionally and empathize with in the form of Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) in Ant-Man and the Wasp. And in crafting the character's tragic backstory to her current predicament of trying to find a means of survival, he's shaped the MCU's most tragic villain to date.

Reed doesn't go down the emotionally complex route at all here, instead proving simplicity works when it comes to crafting a solid arch-nemesis. At first glance, it seems Ghost is your typical villain, stealing technology (namely, the Quantum Tunnel) from Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). This is all so she and the double-crossing Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne) can extract Janet van Dyne aka the original Wasp (Michelle Pfeiffer) from the Quantum Realm themselves.

Now, seeing as Reed smartly had Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins) attempting to steal the tech as well, albeit to sell on the black market, one assumes Bill and Ghost want to do the same. But it's soon revealed Hank and S.H.I.E.L.D. are responsible for creating Ghost and weaponizing her. As her origin unfolds, we see Hank firing Ghost's father from his science team for shady activities. While it was deserved, Hank being Hank does so with a bit of arrogance, something he was known for back in the day.

Ghost (who was a young girl named Ava back then) moved to Argentina with her father, who's obsessed with outdoing Hank, but when he tried to create his own Quantum Tunnel, the energy expelled kill him and his wife, leaving Ava an orphan. Sadly, the energy caused her body to remain in a state of perpetual flux, with destabilized molecules leading to her constantly shifting phases. Bill, feeling sympathy towards her, takes her in, but his employers, S.H.I.E.L.D., spot her potential and turn her into an assassin. He gets no help from his boss at the time, Hank, as he tries to stop them from ruining Ghost's life. This is what led to the fallout between the two intellects.

Eventually, Bill and Ghost part ways with S.H.I.E.L.D. when the organization fell in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but they're left with a more pressing matter: Ava's body needs to be stabilized with mere days left before she fades away into nothingness. They're hunting Janet as they believe they can extract the same quantum energy from her which affected Ava, and stabilize her once again. If this fails, well, at least they'll still have the tunnel to use themselves.

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The thing is, Ava's a victim of circumstance. Why should she be considered a tyrant for turning on those who made her into a monster? Hank also has to shoulder blame, as he turned a blind eye to her and Bill's plight, focusing on his career selfishly instead of those he hurt. Furthermore, Ava never wanted to be a killer, she was turned into a teenage assassin against her will with the false promise of a cure.

If this weaponization sounds familiar, look no further than what HYDRA did with Bucky Barnes, exploiting him as an instrument of destruction. But while he was seen as an adult warrior, Ava was simply an innocent young girl who didn't warrant punishment for her father's sins or S.H.I.E.L.D.'s misgivings.

What makes her so tragic is that unlike, say, Loki, she didn't have a choice in the path chosen for her. These other villains had the chance to say no to the roads they embarked on, but Ava had no say in her destiny. She was forced into a life of servitude and now, she's just trying to regain some semblance of normalcy, and become whole again, figuratively and literally. Sadly, she's scarred for life as Ghost, robbing only because she needs the means to save her own life, and as we see in her journey, it pains her she has to do so from those who indirectly caused her accident.

Killmonger paid for the sins of his father in Black Panther as well, as his dad was a fiend who died for selling his people's resources out. But he too had an opportunity to do the right thing and be the bigger man. Ghost isn't afforded this luxury as she's living a life of true pain everyday, fading away from the world, so it'd be fair to really judge her and call her evil at the end of the day. If that were the case, Janet, upon returning from the microverse, wouldn't have helped her, nor would Bill.

And so, as we see at the end of the film, the entire Team Pym, including Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), seeking out healing particles in the microverse help her. That's because everyone knows Ava didn't deserve what was done to her, especially by people who touted themselves as heroes.

In theaters now, director Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man and The Wasp stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Judy Greer, David Dastmalchian, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, Hannah John-Kamen, Randall Park and Walton Goggins.