There’s so much about Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s third act that fans practically detest, from the treatment of Corey Stoll’s M.O.D.O.K. to the tacky restaurant coda scene. The conclusion’s biggest crime for many, though, is how Kang the Conqueror is ultimately defeated, with few being fond of the way Jonathan Majors’ temporal tyrant is taken out by a swarm of ants. To misquote Killmonger, is this your big bad?
Having Kang, touted as the greatest threat the entire multiverse has ever seen, get bested by a bunch of (admittedly overgrown and hyper-evolved) insects really fired up the fandom, so it’s surprising to discover that Quantumania actually borrowed its method of Kang’s defeat from somewhere else in the Marvel multiverse. As Twitter user @conquercomics pointed out, a very similar event occurred in the Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes animated series.
The OP went on to clarify that they weren’t attempting to dunk on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, an acclaimed adaptation of Marvel Comics for a lot of fans, but rather show up those complaining about Quantumania for what is actually just authentic comic book-y silliness.
As explained above, EMH‘s Kang had it even more embarrassing, seeing as he was swarmed by simple cockroaches, while the MCU’s Kang had to deal with ants who were giant of both body and brain. And yet, fans have been routinely saying online that they wish Quantumania had borrowed more from EMH in its portrayal of Kang and M.O.D.O.K. Go figure.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania can still be seen in theaters (not that anybody is seeing it anymore) while Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is streaming on Disney Plus.