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


While many fans enjoyed Peyton Reed's first foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2015's Ant-Man, one of the more common complaints revolved around the movie's villain, Yellowjacket. He came off a bit derivative and way too similar to Obadiah Stane in Iron Man as someone weaponizing technology for terrorists, which even Reed had minor concerns with.

However, Reed more than makes up for that mis-step in Ant-Man and The Wasp by shaping a genuinely nuanced and totally relatable antagonist in Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). In the process, the character undergoes a major overhaul in her transition from comics to film, and by movie's end, it's hard to even classify Ghost as a villain as we realize the character is merely a victim of tragic circumstance.

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With that in mind, let's take a look at how the villain was altered and adapted for the big screen.

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The character's background is obviously what's changed the most for the film because in the comics, Ghost is male, not female as per the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ghost was introduced to Marvel Comics in Iron Man #219 in June 1987, but his past remains a mystery. He has revealed (or at least claimed) he was an IT specialist and inventor who helped create phasing technology for a company called Omnisapient, but he's a sneaky individual so his words often need to be taken with a grain of salt.

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As he indicated, Omnisapient wanted to harness his intellect long-term and hired someone to pretend to be a colleague and fall in love with him, thus tethering him to his work for life. When she ended up dead (trying to blackmail Ghost's bosses for more money), he flew off the hinges, killing everyone from his superiors to the contract killer they employed to take the woman out. He then wiped his identity clean and became a phase-shifting terrorist.

As for his purpose, he became anti-capitalist and dealt in anarchy, preferring to steal and engage in acts of corporate sabotage and espionage, being hired by the likes of Justin Hammer and Kingpin, while attacking entities like Stark and Parker Industries. He even became an anti-hero with the Thunderbolts later on, but ultimately Ghost was about bringing down the system, making money and spreading chaos in society.

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The MCU's Ghost is less about profit though and more about survival. There's no big mystery to her as she's shown to be Ava Starr, the daughter of Hank Pym's former colleague Elihas (known as the genius scientist Egghead in the comics) over at S.H.I.E.L.D. When Elihas is fired, he tries to replicate Hank's quantum energy experiments but in an accident in Argentina, he's killed as well as his wife.

However, Ava lives, but her body's molecules are unstable, allowing her to shift phases and become the Ghost. So, while she has the same powers as her comics counterpart, hers isn't reliant on tech, it's all natural, but sadly, it's literally tearing her apart, leading to a life of pain and misery.

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As for her purpose, well, she's on a mission of revenge after S.H.I.E.L.D. took her in and turned her into an assassin in the wake of the accident. A repentant Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne) helps her out as she escapes and tries to steal Hank's new Quantum Tunnel, but unlike the comics, she isn't interested in selling it on the black market to any rival. In fact, she actually fights off the people who want to do that, like Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins) and his minions.

That's because Ghost needs the tech so she and Bill can extract Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) from the microverse themselves and use her energy to stabilize Ava. In other words, it's all personal and not business at all, as she's stealing to obtain the means to save her life.

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It's a very clever way of breaking the mold and differentiating the movie not just within the previous Ant-Man film, but from the MCU as a whole. Ghost is turned into a villain we emotionally connect with and show some sort of empathy for, a la Black Panther's Killmonger or Avengers: Infinity War's Thanos, instead of being some selfish thief. In doing so, Reed crafts a villain who's highly intriguing and unlike Marvel Comics' Ghost, is someone you might actually find yourself rooting for as the film progresses towards its finale.


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.