With the agility that he showed during the fight scenes, I'm slightly surprised you didn't have him Hypersonic.

That being said, I LOVE the dial. being able to generate the characters on their last click still helps him out tremendously.

My thanks! I'd initially had something more complex in mind, combining them into a single dial, but I wound up needing to keep them separate. He has one hell of a Gandalf moment when he shows up with another army to save the day, for sure!I'll buy that too! Haha I'm thankfully not super bothered by logic in sci-fantasy movies like this, but just a little explanation like you and Hein2208 did would've helped smooth that out for me.Many thanks, friend! Glad this dial feels exciting! It sure was fun making a beatstick like him, even if I'm preeeeeeetty sure I undercosted him.

I was sorely tempted to go with HS, considering how he zips around, but it seemed like in the movie, he usually didn't go too far after he hit something-- and I worried that it'd make the dial too powerful if I'd included it!

That makes sense. Keeping them separate gives the player more freedom for how to assemble their ant army, so I like that.

Had QUANTUMANIA been submitted to my writers’ circle, I would have three major notes for it. We’ll go one at a time.

The first note is there’s no clear protagonist.

It should be right up there in the title: “Ant-Man & Wasp,” right? Well, Ant-Man has no meaningful character arc. He doesn’t learn to give a s*** about the homeless; he just rushes to save Cassie because he’s her Dad. He doesn’t have to sacrifice himself; the movie cops out of Kang killing him or trapping him in the Quantum Realm, probably because it tested poorly.

Cassie wants to help the less fortunate, but she also doesn’t learn or grow (apart from in size) from her experiences. She’s the kind of character who’s meant to spur a protagonist to growth.

Wasp doesn’t do anything meaningful.

Same for Hank Pym. I applaud his socialism, though!

Janet is the only one who knows what’s going on, and she’s one of the people guiding the characters around the story… but she doesn’t change or grow from the experience. Her relationship to Kang, while storied and personal, doesn’t amount to a meaningful confrontation between them.

Same deal for Jentorra and the Quantum Realmers. They know the score, have a personal relationship to the plot and the villain’s actions, but they’re only there to guide characters to plot points and be a convenient army when the plot demands it. They’re a narrative device with faces.

Kang, weirdly, feels like the richest developed character because of the way our understanding of him evolves over the course of the story. We also see how he is challenged by obstacles, how he overcomes them, and how late in the script, he’s somewhat humbled by forces he’d thought beneath him. …Except he’s clearly the story’s antagonist and villain.

So whose story is this?



#178 Veb
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0
Points: 35
Keywords: Quantum Realm, Monster

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Gelatinous Body: Veb takes a maximum of 1 damage from all effects.
"I... I have HOLES!!!": Capture. Veb may use it at range with 5.

The next note is this is way too plot-driven.

As mentioned in the previous entry, the characters don’t seem to make decisions based on their wants and needs, so much as they are spurred by the plot.

Ant-Man & Cassie are nearly eaten by fauna before they’re captured by Quantum Realmers, who are attacked by MODOK, who captures them, only for Kang to force Ant-Man to do stuff, etc., etc. Any choice or resistance Ant-Man makes is token because the plot or other characters immediately forces a decision upon him. Same for Wasp & Hank. No time to think, just do whatever Janet says! Jentorra and her freedom fighters are literally just there to keep the plot moving. Kang, for all his bluster, is the agent of most of the s*** happening that keeps the narrative ball rolling.

Characters aren’t given time to think, evolve, or change, and that’s a shame… the script clearly wants Ant-Man to recognize his egotism and sacrifice himself…

…but hey, the plot says that’s not his call.



#179 Quaz
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0
Points: 30
Keywords: Quantum Realm, Psychic

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Everyone Has Such Dirty Thoughts: Support & Outwit. If characters within 4 squares can use Empower, Enhancement, Perplex, and Probability Control, so can Quaz.

I was disappointed Quaz didn’t turn out to be Quasar as rumored leading up to the movie once the name was discovered. Just seems like a waste of that actor to have him play a made up character.

It certainly does feel like wasting a great actor, no lie.

I think so much of the problem is that none of the Micronauts Quantum Realmers are particularly well-characterized outside of a single gag, and they don't have any presence in the movie but to be an army for when it's plot-convenient. They can barely be called characters, and apart from their visuals, they're uninteresting as hell.

Imagine a (bad example incoming) LAST SAMURAI or DANCES WITH WOLVES scenario where the whole movie was Scott's relationship with them and how they'd grow with him as characters and as a surprise team. And, going a step further, how rewarding it'd be feel if they were versions of Luis & Kurt? (not including Dave, as his actor, T.I. is facing a range of criminal allegations) Kang could still be the villain, but we'd have so much more context for his oppression of the Quantum Realm and we'd have built up characters that maybe we'd want to see again.

Haha the best case scenario for these clowns is to never show up again.

Hear, Hear! I was so excited when I found out William Jackson Harper was in Antman and joining the MCU. I was so disappointed when I watch the movie and found out how much they wasted him.

I still think the cosmic bracelet they introduced in Ms. Marvel will be used as one half of Quasar's Quantum Bands. They'll probably combine their lore with that of the Nega-Bands for simplicity, and just have one pair of bracelets with cosmic powers.

It's still not entirely clear to me how much of Ms. Marvel's new powers came from the bracelet, and how much of it was her newly activated mutant powers, but those energy constructs certainly seem Quantum Band-y.

So once the Marvels (Danvers, Rambeau, and Khan) are done using them in The Marvels, they'll probably find their way to someone else, who can then become the MCU's Quasar.

That's just my guess, though.

Been a little busy this last little bit getting my own set ready to publish, so I haven't gotten to say as much in here as I would've liked haha.

Very briefly going back to Wakanda Forever, I very much agree with the overall sentiment towards Namor. One of the highlights of the movie to me. I know we still got the Atlantean assault on Wakanda, but in all honesty? Namor still seems downright pleasant when compared to his comic counterpart. I'm used to comic Namor reaching levels of dickery few others can match (don't get me wrong, that's still very fun in its own way lol), but I enjoyed this take on a slightly more reasonable and understandable Namor. He's a sympathetic antagonist done well. Something I believe is hard to find, or at least be done well, in a lot of modern movies.

In Quantumania's defense, I had fun. Was it a great movie? No. Will I watch it again? Maybe at some point. But overall, I had a pretty good time. I went in only hoping for Kang to be cool and got exactly what I wanted. That said, the VFX definitely had its issues (but I wonder if it would be judged so harshly had it not come out almost immediately following Avatar 2), and I definitely agree the characters served the plot rather than the other way around. As much as I love Paul Rudd's Scott, I really was a little disappointed he didn't go down swinging against Kang or remained trapped in the Quantum Realm with Hope. I understand we still have the build up to Kang Dynasty, but it really left me feeling like there was a jarring lack of consequences and weight to the final moments.

Loved the attack of Hank Pym and his Socialist Ants during the final fight lol. Probably the first time I actually got excited about his character in the MCU.

I'd almost guarantee that Scott died in the original draft and/or he and Wasp got stuck in the Quantum Realm.

At a guess, that was a last-minute change made because A) test-screeners (which are now apparently entirely comprised of Marvel Studios' family members) thought it was too much of a downer ending, B) Leaving Scott & Hope in the Quantum Realm would've seemed repetitive after ANT-MAN & WASP, and C) Marvel Studios needed this one to be an exciting win because financially, their movies haven't been doing so hot lately.

The problem is, I think this was originally the end of Phase 4 (and it sure feels like it!) and without doing something to raise the stakes and make Kang look like a legitimate threat on his own, the only thing you have to sell him is Jonathan Majors' performance.

So I'm on Team Kill Ant-Man. (But, like, respectfully so)

The third note is there are too many characters in too many plot threads.

The script gives nearly equal screen time to Ant-Man, Wasp, Cassie, Hank, Janet, and Kang. It gives lesser-but equal screentime to Jentorra, MODOK, and the freedom fighters. It makes time for Bill Murray’s pointless, phoned-in cameo. Any screenwriter will tell you that 5 characters tends to be optimum, as that allows each of them to get enough time for development and to become deep & interesting. Any more characters than that and they tend to get shallower and shallower, defined by quick traits rather than substance.

Because the plot drives everything and there’s SO much worldbuilding to rush, most of our characters are little better than caricatures. All the freedom fighters have precisely one gag (if that!), and our primary characters mostly rely on previous MCU films to serve as their backstory. And personality. And motivation.

And that’s why they all feel so flat.

Compounding this is the fact that there are too many subplots among the characters. Ant-Man & Cassie are trying to survive; Janet’s freedom fighting days are catching up to her; Hank has socialist ants; the freedom fighters are fighting for freedom; Kang wants to escape; MODOK wants respect… the stories intercut like crazy for the first half of the film, sometimes jarringly, but by the time they begin to interweave, they don’t feel like an elegant chain of cause and effect, but characters with siloed stories bumping up against each other. Nothing is adequately explored, making everything feel weightless.



#180 Xolum
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 6
Points: 60
Keywords: Quantum Realm, Monster, Warrior

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Let's Torture Them!: Characters damaged by Xolum choose one: A) Take 1 unavoidable damage B) Take 1 Action Token.

Ooh, I like the way you flip between close and ranged powers, so he always has a power for both.

Also, is my memory failing me, or was this the only good-guy death apart from nameless masses (and MODOK)?
Killing exactly one of the named good-guys in that big battle seems weird to me for some reason. I don’t know why.

Yeah I was fully expecting that to be the start of Kang dropping characters left and right during that fight. Would've been on brand, but I guess falls into the same realm of killing Scott. They were worried it might be too dark.

Right? Like the character seemed so insignificant to the overall story it just feels like they could have hired anybody to play that part like it should have went to some lesser known actor looking for a first big movie type role. And between the rumors of him playing Reed then possibly Quasar it’s just like really?

He would have been a fantastic Reed if they decided to do that.

Maybe they can still ret-con his character to become Quasar at some point. I certainly hope so. But until then just feels like a missed opportunity.