Who Is Ghost, The ‘Ant-Man And The Wasp’ Villain?
If you watched thefirstAnt-Man and the Wasptrailerwithout paying much attention to anything except forPaul Rudd’s face andEvangeline Lilly’s tricked-out Wasp costume, you would be forgiven for missing the brief glimpse of the superhero sequel’s villain. The Big Bad ofAnt-Man and the Waspis a mysterious figure, appearing for only a fleeting moment in the trailer, and not doing much other than look menacing in a grey hooded costume and mask.
This isGhost, and there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to theAnt-Man and the Waspvillain.
Who is Ghost?
Ghost is a Marvel Comics villain who first appeared inIron Man#219 in 1987, created by writer David Michelinie and artist Bob Layton. An expert hacker and anarchist, Ghost invented a unique microchip technology which he infused in his own body, creating a “cyberpathic” connection to computers. The microchips' biggest asset was that they could become intangible, preventing them from overheating and granting Ghost the ability to phase through objects and become invisible — though not at the same time.
Ghost had a chip on his shoulder (pun intended) against corporations, vowing revenge against the company that betrayed him to profit off his inventions. At least, that’s what he thinks happened.
Ghost has a remarkably dubious backstory, told only through an unreliable narrator relating what Ghost told them. The comics only introduce Ghost after he has become a supervillain, and he has erased all traces of his existence before he became an anti-corporate hacker and assassin.
Ghost vs. Ant-Man and the Wasp
In a departure from the comics, the movie version of Ghost is played by a woman,Hannah John-Kamen, known for roles inKilljoys,Black Mirror, andStar Wars: The Force Awakens. But other than that, not much is known about the character outside of her costume and a brief scene of a white, gloved hand undergoing a strange blurring effect. /Film’s Ethan Anderton touched a bit on this in hisbreakdown of theAnt-Man and the Wasptrailer, and you’re able to see it in the image above. That scene may comes from Ghost’s first experiment with phasing, which seems to be an ability that the film will draw from the comics.
What about Ghost’s motivations? We know that Scott Lang (Rudd) was thrown in jail before the events of the firstAnt-Manfor corporate whistleblowing, and that in the sequel, Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne are now corporate executives-turned-fugitives. Ghost’s vendetta against corporations could tie into their story somehow, possibly as a revenge scheme against Pym Technologies.
Ant-Man and the Waspis set to hit theaters onJuly 6, 2018.
