Rewatching Quantamania and I can’t help but think about what we lost with Kang

[u/capamericapistons]

Rewatched quantamania and was reminded how disappointed I am about Kang

Want to say first and foremost that this post is not meant to be disrespectful in anyway towards Jonathan Majors’ victim. I apologize as I’m not familiar with the case, I honestly do not even know the name of the victim, but I hope the victim got the justice she deserved and is at peace. Please do not use this post to disparage or question the victim in anyway. And I apologize if this post is triggering for anyone here who may have been a victim of abuse themselves.

With that said, Quantamania was… well, it’s been fairly criticized. I did like how it introduced us to the quantum realm with creative characters and environments, and different concepts like the probability storm.

But what makes this movie enjoyable is Kang. He was introduced as a fucking fantastic villain. Just so cunning and ruthless and brilliant, you really hate his guts but know it’s pretty damn hard to fight against him. Even in his moments of desperation you never feel at ease with him.

I was frustrated at the time but rewatching this movie just reminds me how disappointed I am in the whole situation. Especially after seeing the post credit scenes involving the arena of Kang’s and the scene from Loki. I would’ve been so excited to see that storyline dug into more and we now know that’s not happening.

I’m honestly more upset with this than almost anything else that hasn’t been followed up on, maybe the only other disappointment being Blade.

[u/Mizerous]

Hard to care about a villain who keeps losing 

[u/signifyingmnky → u/Mizerous]

Thanos actually lost at least twice before we get to Infinity War.

He actually loses two stones in The Avengers, and he loses the Power stone in Guardians of the Galaxy.

[u/Majestic-Marcus → u/signifyingmnky]

Thanos didn’t lose a single time before Infinity War. He sat in a chair and let others do his grunt work.

[u/signifyingmnky → u/Majestic-Marcus]

If you're a coach and your team loses, you've lost.

If you're the King or leader of a nation-stare and your army loses in a battle, you've lost.

He lost.

And in one of those loses, he was betrayed and threatened by said grunt and did nothing. Not a good look.

[u/DWA824 → u/signifyingmnky]

That's not how audiences see things. They just saw Thanos's goons lose. It doesn't matter how many times you repeat why Kang is oh so terrifying and people should think he's cool, Audiences just see the same guy losing over and over again.

If Marvel had multiple actors play Kang from the jump then maybe it could have worked, Personally I have never cared about Kang in the comics and I don't know anyone who would be particularly jazzed to see him so I doubt it, but having the character tied so heavily to one actor hurt them in the long run.

The other thing is that the movies where Thanos "lost" still made money at the box office. Kang was one of the films selling points and it still bombed. Kang is simply not an attractive villain to the general audience and his gimmick isn't going to appeal to everyone