Unfortunately, everyone’s feelings about Kang are a lot more complicated at this point, thanks to all the troubling Jonathan Majors drama, but when the movie came out, one of the few widely praised aspects of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was the debut of the Multiverse Saga’s new big bad. With the thoroughly hated threequel having made its way to digital this week, however, the Conqueror is finding himself on the receiving end of the fans’ ire.
Although, to be fair, it’s less to do with the specifics of the character and more the fact that the filmmakers allowed him to fall prey to a seriously overused and stupid movie trope that cinema-goers are hoping gets disintegrated immediately. After a Twitter account titled Marvel Perfect GIFS & Clips shared a shot of Kang atomizing his enemies in battle. user @Capsicle1949 ironically went viral for pointing out what’s actually imperfect about this moment: Kang didn’t use this power again when he should’ve done.
“If there’s one thing that annoys tf outta me when it comes to certain characters is literally having the ability to evaporate anyone in an instant only to conveniently NOT do that with the main heroes,” noted the furious fan, gaining thousands of likes in support in the process.
In many ways, this complaint can be considered an evolution of what’s probably the oldest supervillain trope in the book — the ancient question of why don’t they just kill the hero already? These days, we don’t tend to see the bad guys putting the good guy into elaborate traps instead of just shooting them point blank, but the problem instead arises in this form, as an OP villain suddenly gets much weaker during the final fight.
Nonsensically varying power-levels will always be an issue in a franchise like the Marvel universe, but Kang’s apparent incompetence in Quantumania is definitely one of the most egregious examples you’ll find in the MCU.