Kang can conquer all he likes in ‘Quantumania,’ but Marvel may have already made a crucial error with the Multiverse Saga’s big bad

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is just days away from dropping in theaters and all the hectic marketing around the film has been striving to paint Kang the Conqueror — the new villain it will be ushering in — as the ultimate big bad, touting him as a terror MCU fans have never experienced before. While it all looks fancy and massive, there is also the lingering possibility that the MCU has already burned whatever chances there were of establishing Kang as a formidable foe and might have instead cemented his status as a middling villain at best. 

So far, the trailers, clips, and interviews for the upcoming film have been dead set on repeatedly underlining that Kang is superpowerful, has the means to control and manipulate time, is ruthless, and above all, has killed Avengers in alternate timelines. Scary, right? Thanos barely managed to hold his own against Thor, Wanda, and the other Avengers and only had the upper hand thanks to his army and the Infinity Stones. 

But even though this new evil mastermind claims to have already dispatched the superpowerful heroes multiple times, many might not find him all that fearsome and the blame lies on how the MCU had set the stage prior to his arrival. 

We have already met a not-so-terrifying version of Kang

Yes, He Who Remains was powerful, controlled the TVA, snipped branch timelines in the bud, ended countless variants, kept mighty versions of himself like Kang and other plausible timelines at bay to protect the Sacred Timeline, etc, but the fact remains that all these major milestones he had were merely things we heard about him because in the few minutes we did get to meet him, he came across as quirky and perhaps the most non-threatening villain in the entire MCU. And oh, the fact that Sylvie managed to off him in minutes, without needing to cook some clever plan to outsmart him didn’t help. 

Knowing that Kang is a variant of this He Who Remains doesn’t really seem to spell doom or leave us clutching the edge of our seats in anticipation. I mean really, the latter was already someone considered indomitable, controlling timelines, and the one thing holding the gaping maw of the chaotic multiverse at bay. And this seemingly super being died from a stab wound, that too from an ordinary knife. Well, that’s pretty meh…

Thanos’ existing reputation threatens Kang’s yet-imaginary status

Thanos’ introduction in the MCU has been the stark opposite to that of Kang’s and that has made a world of difference. 

Yes, even Thanos has a rather unusually tamed-down variant in the MCU, whom we met in What If…? where he reformed his ways and joined the heroic Ravagers under T’Challa’s version of Star-Lord. But we met this bonkers version of the universe-annihilating Titan after we spent years being traumatized by how easily he killed his own daughter and witnessed how he wiped out half the living beings everywhere without blinking an eye. We saw him scheming for years, ruthless to a point that every other past MCU villain paled in comparison. 

Meeting an alternate Thanos who is desperate to correct the error of his ways and is Mr. Goodie Two shoes, did nothing to tamper with the imprint left behind by the self-righteous zealot who left only dust behind in his wake because the impression of him being a terrifying villain was already made. 

This is a luxury that has not been afforded to Kang. Ant-Man 3 has no option but to pull out all the stops to make fans part with the lingering notion that Kang is anything like the underwhelming He Who Remains. Perhaps something like killing Scott Lang? Of what we have seen Ant-Man achieve so far, he is definitely not much of a threat to the villain. 

Defeating him might even be a piece of cake for Kang, but if he still kills him despite winning and Scott not posing much of a threat, his status as the ultimate big bad who is not hiding behind a warped perception of campaigning for the greater good (unlike Thanos) would be firmly established

But as far as early reviews for the film are concerned, Kang has successfully proven himself as a force to be reckoned with and has convinced many critics that he is, beyond a shred of doubt, a more menacing villain than Thanos and capable of thrusting the MCU into a web of chaos it has never experienced before. 

Well, hopefully, convincing the hard-to-please fans of the expansive cinematic universe also goes the same way for the time-traveling supervillain when Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters on Feb. 17, 2023.