Infinity War Made It Impossible For 7 Years

The MCU finally answered a Marvel power question years after the franchise brought it up and then made it effectively impossible to answer for 7 years because of Avengers: Infinity War. The MCU timeline has introduced a wide range of characters with powers of all types over the course of its run, bringing many of the most interesting Marvel comic abilities to life. Though this has been great in terms of big action scenes, it has led to some complicated moments in Marvel’s history, since some abilities require more extensive explanations and justifications than others.

A prime example of this cropped up in one 2018 MCU movie, which introduced a character with some decidedly interesting powers, and then intentionally left things on a total cliffhanger at the end of the film’s story regarding the abilities in question, and the impact they’d have on the character and their future. Mercifully, the mystery this now raised has been answered thanks to Thunderbolts*, which effectively addressed a matter that Avengers: Infinity War made it practically impossible for the franchise to address beforehand.

Ant-Man & The Wasp Left What Exactly Happened With Ghost & Her Powers A Mystery Because Of The Snap

Ant-Man & The Wasp introduced Ghost – also known as Ava Starr – to the MCU, and debuted her fascinating powers, which came about as the result of a condition she calls “molecular disequilibrium” that she obtained after being exposed to an explosion of quantum energy. Because of the way this affected her molecules and body composition, she’s able to phase through solid objects and essentially defy several laws of physics, with SHIELD quickly having trained her to use these abilities for battle.

However, it’s shown that these powers came with a steep price, leaving Ava in permanent pain that she sought to deal with via using Hank Pym’s Quantum Tunnel to treat her condition – something that put her in conflict with the movie’s heroes, who couldn’t allow her to do so, as they needed to use the device to instead rescue Janet van Dyne from the Quantum Realm. Luckily, Janet uses the Quantum energy built up within her upon her return to treat Ghost’s molecular disequilibrium, which is shown to provide her some considerable relief and save her life.

While it’s clear this changes things for Ava – and has big implications for her powers, given their ties to her condition – this isn’t addressed as a permanent cure, with the Ant-Man & The Wasp post-credits showing Scott Lang delving into the Quantum Realm in order to retrieve energy they can use to keep trying to help treat Ghost’s condition. This leads to one of the longer-lasting cliffhangers in the entire MCU, as this scene coincides with Avengers: Infinity War‘s Snap, meaning everone in the scene bar Scott is Snapped away, and Lang is lost in the Quantum Realm.

Since the movie also explicitly addresses the idea that Ava’s condition was worsening without quantum energy – and it’s suggested this would have been fatal if not for Janet’s actions in Ant-Man & The Wasp – it’s a cliffhanger that leaves things well and truly open, as it’s unclear whether Ava’s condition is already far better, or still set to kill her in this time. Since it wasn’t clear what had happened with Ghost between this period and Avengers: Endgame, the character returning in Thunderbolts* looked set to answer a lot of major questions about this time, which it mercifully mainly did.

Thunderbolts* Finally Follows Up On Ghost’s Story & Powers After Ant-Man & The Wasp’s Cliffhanger

While Thunderbolts* doesn’t delve into the matter of Ghost’s powers or time before the movie in extensive detail, it does make a point of showing she very much does still have them, but appears to be struggling less with them. Ant-Man & The Wasp focused on the idea that Ava historically struggled to be tangible for any real amount of time, whereas Thunderbolts* doesn’t seem to suggest this is still an issue to the same degree, though Ava mentions in the movie she can only use her powers for a minute at a time.

This is interesting since it seems to suggest Ava found a way to deal with her molecular disequilibrium and potentially find more quantum energy between Ant-Man & The Wasp and Thunderbolts*, although the movie reinforces the idea that Janet’s actions didn’t totally change things for her. This could actually serve to explain why she’s shown to be one of the people working for Valentina in the first place, since working with the Contessa while the Van Dynes, Hank Pym, and Scott Lang were all missing could have been the most tactical approach to things.

Whatever the case, Ghost’s powers are still in full force, but don’t appear to be about to kill her as they were in Ant-Man & The Wasp, despite the time period between the 2018 movie and Thunderbolts* suggesting she could have once again been severely and potentially lethally lacking in quantum energy. Given Secret Invasion‘s Harvest serum is shown to include traces of Ghost’s DNA – showing she was at Endgame‘s Battle Of Earth – it’s possible she may have reunited with Ant-Man and company for at least some of the help they were hoping to give her all those years ago.

Thunderbolts*’ Ghost Story Makes Me Hopeful For Her MCU Future

Thunderbolts* helpfully answers a fair few questions about Ghost and what her life and volatile powers look like years after Ant-Man & The Wasp, but it also leaves quite a lot still relatively open about the character. While this may prove slightly frustrating for those hoping to get more details about the character, this makes sense given Thunderbolts* has to balance the stories and arcs of so many protagonists, and leaves the doors open for the franchise to further explore vital questions like how Ava is dealing with her condition and whether the Ant-Man crew is still involved.

With Ghost confirmed to be one of the characters returning in the MCU as part of Avengers: Doomsday‘s cast, letting elements of Ghost’s story be explained by later MCU installments such as the Avengers movie feels par for the course. Now Ava is part of The New Avengers, it seems her story is set to be far more focal than ever before, which hopefully should also mean the franchise is able to go into even more detail about her powers, and how they’ve evolved alongside the other changes in her life following the initial Avengers: Infinity War cliffhanger in her story.

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