Ant-Man, shmant-man — Tom Hiddleston’s performance in Loki season 2 has, once and for all, instilled actual fear in the prospect of a Kang dynasty.
It was supposed to feel ironic, in an Alanis Morissette kind of way, that the biggest, baddest villain to ever grace the MCU was to make his grand entrance in a film starring the Earth’s tiniest hero. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania promised a smackdown for the ages, a mere taste of what the Avengers could expect going up against the multiversal monster and his innumerable variants in Avengers: Kang Dynasty. Instead, we got ants — literal ones. And Kang was defeated by them.
Kang the Conqueror has become the laughingstock of the MCU. He is by no means a threat worth headlining an entire Avengers movie. …Or at least, he wasn’t.
In just one episode, shepherded by Tom Hiddleston’s spectacular performance, Kang was restored to his rightful glory, and we’ve been left to grapple with the gloom of his impending presence.
I can still hear the unadulterated fear in Hiddleston’s voice as Loki plunges the time stick into the wall in the War Room, pruning away the layer of wallpaper hiding the great busts of He Who Remains. “That’s who built this place!” he shouts, his face pale with horror. “That’s who stole your lives! That’s who’s coming back!”
Meanwhile, Mobius, Hunter B-15, General Dox, and Judge Gamble look on with shock and the tiniest quiver of terror. And just like that, Hiddleston singlehandedly saved the MCU.
What Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania failed to do in a feature film-length blockbuster, Loki managed to capture in 36 minutes on Disney Plus. Seeing fear in people’s eyes at the sight of Kang — or He Who Remains — that was what was missing from Quantumania. Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) did the best with what she was given, but it was sabotaged by a heartfelt backstory that failed to capture Kang’s evil nature.
One of the greatest assets Thanos had in the years leading up to Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame was an evil plan that continually thwarted the Avengers’ best efforts, and a slew of minions, monsters, and members of the galaxy who openly feared him. From the very first whisper of Thanos, there were minions and monsters who did his bidding out of fear. By the time the Avengers got a whiff of him, that fear was palpable.
If Loki season 2 continues to deliver this caliber of anxiety and emotion, there might actually be reason yet to get excited for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.