The rules of one Avenger’s powers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been confusing since his debut a decade ago, and the animated Marvel Zombies series just made this even worse. Many MCU stars reprised their roles in Marvel Zombies, voicing variants of their live-action characters who inhabit a world ravaged by a Quantum Virus that has transformed millions into zombies. We first saw this reality in What If…? season 1, episode 5, “What If… Zombies?!,” which introduced a group of heroes whose story continued in Marvel Zombies, including the disembodied head of Scott Lang’s Ant-Man (Paul Rudd).
Videos by ComicBook.com
Scott Lang lost his body at the start of the zombie outbreak – which started when an infected Janet van Dyne returned from the Quantum Realm – but survives as a head in a jar wears Doctor Strange’s Cloak of Levitation. It’s not Lang who uses his Ant-Man powers in Marvel Zombies, however, but we catch a glimpse of the zombified van Dyne and Hank Pym, while several other San Francisco citizens grow in size because of the unpredictable size-changing zombies. This breaks Ant-Man’s power rules yet again, however, as we always thought individuals needed the protective suit to change size safely.
In Marvel Zombies episode 2, people were grown in size before being transformed into zombies, and they grew to immense sizes seemingly without any harm. This goes against everything we know about Ant-Man’s size-changing powers in the MCU. Sure, in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the Lang, Pym, and van Dynes were shrunk without suits and brought into the Quantum Realm, but we could have assumed this was thanks to their familiarity with their powers or because of adjustments made by Kang the Conqueror.
Marvel Studios has made the logistics and science of Ant-Man’s powers seriously confusing many times over the last decade since Paul Rudd’s MCU debut in Ant-Man (2015). If the Pym Particles shrink the spaces between atoms, it’s unclear how these size-changing heroes can become smaller than atoms to go subatomic and enter the Quantum Realm. Additionally, Ant-Man and the Wasp’s strength when shrunk or grown is also massively inconsistent – if they have the same force as a grown man when small, this should also be the case when big, so the Giant-Man forms should be ridiculously weak.
Scott Lang’s role in Marvel Zombies was fairly small, and his fate after the Queen of the Dead’s (Elizabeth Olsen) success is uncertain. It’s possible that he could return in a potential Marvel Zombies season 2, which hasn’t yet been confirmed by Marvel Studios. Paul Rudd will next be seen as Scott Lang’s Ant-Man in live-action in Avengers: Doomsday in 2026, where he’ll be joining other MCU heroes in an epic battle against Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) – perhaps his powers will be better explained, but we won’t be holding our breath.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Virgin Films -
Image Courtesy of Netflix -
Image courtesy of Monolith
