‘Loki’ Introduced Kang Better Than ‘Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania’ – Armessa Movie News

Editor’s Note: The following article contains spoilers for Loki Season 2.Jonathan Majors‘ Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as He Who Remains in Loki Season 1 is so good, that it actually works to the detriment of his second and more essential character, Kang the Conqueror. Frankly, Phase 5 of the MCU has frankly gotten off to a bit of a weird start with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023). While not the worst superhero film ever made, the third film in the Ant-Man series feels like it’s trying to do way too much while accomplishing very little. All at once, it’s trying to be a straightforward movie about Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and his family, trying to introduce a new facet of the MCU with the Quantum Realm, and introduce the franchise’s next big bad. That last goal is undoubtedly the most important to achieve, and thankfully the film gets close to accomplishing it thanks to another fantastic performance from Jonathan Majors as Kang.

We say “another” because Marvel fans with Disney+ will know that we’ve seen Majors in the MCU before, with his Marvel acting debut officially occurring in the season finale of Loki. There, Majors successfully brought to life the show’s shadowy main antagonist, He Who Remains, a variant of Kang who created the Time Variance Authority and the so-called “Sacred Timeline.” Even though we only got about 30 minutes with the character before meeting his demise at the hands of Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), He Who Remains made a lasting impact, and it’s ultimately because of him that the MCU is at serious risk of entering a Kang Dynasty. It’s a scary thought, but there’s a pretty big problem after watching Loki Season 2 — He Who Remains is about ten times more interesting than Kang is right now.

He Who Remains Is Clear About His Intentions in ‘Loki’

For being a villain who has been to multiple dimensions, Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania feels largely one-dimensional. The issue here isn’t Jonathan Majors’s performance, as, again, his performances so far in the MCU have been absolutely stellar. The issue is the characterization, as right now, the next big bad for the MCU feels quite generic and boring. So far, Kang is just another would-be megalomaniac who wants complete and total control of the world. Maybe the only unique difference is that Kang wants control of all universes instead of one, but that’s not exactly new either, since that’s the same end goal that we saw with Infinity Ultron (Ross Marquand) in What If…?.

He Who Remains is another story entirely. Not only is his reasoning for why he’s doing what he’s doing much more clear and concise, it still comes across as unique and engaging. Essentially, in a massive multiversal war between thousands of variants of himself, He Who Remains came out on top as the victor. His first order of business as supreme lord of the multiverse? Remove the concept of the multiverse entirely. Instead, He Who Remains opted to make a singular, perfect timeline. One that he had full control over and didn’t risk the possibility of creating more variants to cause mayhem on the rest of the cosmos.

This was the duty of He Who Remains for eons, but once Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie arrive at his doorstep, he decides it’s time for a change. As he frankly puts it, He Who Remains is tired of monitoring the multiverse and thinks it’s time for someone new to take over. Two versions of the God of Mischief hardly seem like the ideal candidates for stewardship of the universe, but at this point, He Who Remains doesn’t really care. He just gives them the information and gives them two choices: either they just take over the Sacred Timeline and rule over the TVA, or they kill him and unleash the dangers of the multiverse and all of his deadliest variants.

Kang Ranks With Forgettable Villains Like Ronan and Kaecilius

Some of the most forgettable villains in the MCU’s rogues gallery are the ones that are just evil for evil’s sake. Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen), all villains that are just generic and disposable evildoers. Kang, unfortunately, falls into a lot of the same pitfalls of those predecessors, with his entire personality revolving around the ole “I’m just stoic and evil” trope. All in all, he just feels like every other bad guy we’ve seen in Marvel’s plethora of stories.

The personality of He Who Remains could not be more different from his more notorious variant. When Loki and Sylvie meet him, he seems like a happy-go-lucky, fairly normal human being. As the two Lokis point out, He Who Remains appears to be “just a man,” as he happily chomps on his green apple while nonchalantly explaining how the TVA and the multiverse work and how he came to be in control of it. Eventually, that nonchalant nature of He Who Remains comes across as more manic than anything else. He may be a lot of things, but he’s no liar, so when he tells the two anti-heroes that once he dies, the floodgates of a billion Kangs will return to the multiverse, it instantly sends shivers down Loki’s spine.

MODOK Doesn’t Make Sense As Kang’s Henchmen in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’

It sucks to say this, as Corey Stoll‘s return as MODOK is a big highlight in Quantumania, but his appearance in the story doesn’t make much sense. Why on Earth would Kang look at a barely alive mutant and think “Yeah, super-assassin”? As great and as funny as MODOK is in the film, he isn’t nearly a major threat. Alioth, on the other hand, is. The smoke-like being seen towards the end of Loki Season 1 has spent eternity feeding on the various variants at the end of time itself, and He Who Remains sheds even more light on why Alioth is so important. The beast is exactly what He Who Remains used to win the multiversal war between his variants, showing that even beings as powerful as them have a weakness. If what he’s saying is true, Alioth could be a major plot point in ending the Kang Dynasty. Meanwhile, MODOK is over there making jokes in the afterlife since he was killed off far too soon.

RELATED: What Is the Temporal Loom in ‘Loki’ Season 2?

Rama-Tut, Immortus, and Scarlet Centurion Are Already More Interesting Than Kang

True to He Who Remains’ word, Kang was not the only variant to return to the multiverse. As the first post-credits scene of Quantumania shows, Rama-Tut, Immortus, Scarlet Centurion, and thousands of other variants are ready to cause chaos, each one with their own different and distinct personalities and motivations. We get to see Majors shine once again as he plays a variety of different characters in wholly different ways, which once again works to Kang’s detriment. These fantastical versions are so bizarre that the prospect of seeing them again is far more fascinating as of now than the inevitable return of the blue butcher of the cosmos that is Kang the Conqueror.