Avengers: Endgame was packed with action and subplots due to it bringing together all the surviving heroes of the snap to undo Thanos’ actions, but it accidentally doomed a recently introduced hero and nobody noticed. Over the course of more than a decade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought a variety of characters from Marvel Comics to the big screen (and now to streaming as well), from heroes and villains to allies and some others that were believed to be villains but were in fact victims of some terrible circumstances.
Among those heroes, and one who played a crucial role in Avengers: Endgame, is Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), who made his MCU debut in 2015 in his first solo movie. Lang joined Team Captain America in Captain America: Civil War before returning in his second “solo” movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp, where he shared the spotlight with Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Ant-Man and the Wasp also introduced Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), best known as Ghost due to a condition that made her phase through objects. Ghost was initially considered a villain, but after her backstory and her condition were revealed, Scott, Hope, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) joined forces to help her.
Ava Starr is the daughter of one of Pym’s former partners who died along with his wife during a quantum experiment, which is also the cause of her condition. This resulted in Ava’s molecular structure and equilibrium becoming imbalanced, and in order to control her phasing, she was given a suit that helped her control this condition, but the suit did nothing for the pain she constantly went through. With the help of Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne), Ava planned to cure herself with Janet’s quantum energy, and while the latter voluntarily gave her some of her energy to temporarily stabilize her, Ava isn’t cured yet. This led Scott, Hank, Janet, and Hope to plan to harvest quantum energy to help Ava, but the MCU ended up dooming Ava through the snap, as it left her with no cure or treatment for five years.
The mid-credits scene in Ant-Man and the Wasp saw Hank, Janet, and Hope turning into dust as a result of Thanos’ snap in Avengers: Infinity War, while Scott was trapped in the Quantum Realm. Avengers: Endgame saw Scott escaping (thanks to a rat) the Quantum Realm and returning five years after the snap, but very little time had passed for him. With Scott in the Quantum Realm and the rest of his team vanishing, this means Ava was left with no treatment or possible cure, and as she was on the run with Foster at the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp, it’s unlikely she had access to other methods to cope with her phasing and pain. This could, unfortunately, mean that Ava died at some point after the snap, but there’s one way this potential plot hole could be fixed, and it’s by making her one of the many people that were snapped. Being one of the victims of Thanos’ snap would have bought Ava some time, allowing her to return in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania for a cure.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is considered among the weakest entries in the MCU, and as such, it has been mostly forgotten not only by the audience but by this universe as well, with no references to Ava so far. Locking Scott Lang in the Quantum Realm helped the surviving heroes plan the time heist in Avengers: Endgame, but it also doomed Ava if she survived the snap, and it’s to be seen if she will be included in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania or if her story will be added to the MCU’s already long list of plot holes.
