So here we are, stuck in the painfully long space of time between this summer’s “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and next year’s “Captain Marvel” and the as-yet-untitled “Avengers 4.” There’s a whole eight months between now and “Captain Marvel” in March. That’s a lot of time to make wild guesses about what’s to come in the final two chapters of this stage of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
I’ve spent a lot of time going down comic book rabbit holes the last couple months to try to get a handle on all this, and I’ve got one of those wild guesses for you right here. This one involves what part Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), will have to play in all this madness. And how “Ant-Man and the Wasp” may have given us a pretty big hint about that by having Scott Lang, the Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), get stuck in the Quantum Realm when Thanos snapped his fingers.
I think the clue comes courtesy of an obscure hero from the ’80s named Quasar.
Ever heard of Quasar? No? Don’t worry, that’s not all that unusual. For a cosmically powerful hero from Earth, Quasar (real name Wendell Vaughn) is pretty obscure, and as I’ve polled various comic book nerds about him, only once have I gotten a stronger response than “Oh, yeah, that guy.”
His lone solo run lasted from 1989 to 1994 — 60 issues, and only nine of them are available in the Marvel Unlimited app. Nine! It’s not unusual for old runs to be missing issues on Marvel Unlimited, but that’s a pretty unusual and dramatic ratio. While, sure, he did pop up every once in a while for crossovers and guest appearances after his solo run, and Marvel recently handed off the Quasar mantle to a new character, nobody cares.
But while I categorically don’t think we’re gonna be seeing him in a movie any time soon — or ever — there are interesting Quasar-related things that I think have a pretty good chance of being very relevant to the Marvel Cinematic Universe after “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and ahead of next year’s “Captain Marvel.”
But before I get to those things, we should step back for a second and talk about the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm has been one of the MCU’s most interesting enigmas — specifically because of the name — since it was introduced back in the first “Ant-Man” movie. The comic book equivalent of the Quantum Realm concept is the Microverse, though it does not resemble the Microverse all that much from what we’ve seen of it so far in “Ant-Man” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp.”
The real mystery of the Quantum Realm’s name is not just about why they went with a name that has no comic book parallel, but why they went with that name specifically. And I think I’ve come up with a possible answer.
So in Marvel comic books there’s a concept of a sort of side dimension that characters use to travel around the universe quickly. Basically every sci-fi universe has some version of this — hyperspace in “Star Wars,” for example — but Marvel has been pretty haphazard about it over the decades they’ve been using this conceit, which a bunch of different names being thrown around to describe this side dimension.
But the basic concept has been relatively consistent over the years. Characters will use some kind of dimensional portal or wormhole to travel to this other dimension, and from there they can jump back out to wherever they want to go. The first time Marvel used this idea was back in “Fantastic Four #37” in 1965, when Reed Richards and pals use an experimental rocket drive to fly through what Reed calls “subspace” to get to the Kree Empire in a different galaxy.
“Subspace,” “hyperspace” and “warp space” are the three main terms that are thrown out there to describe this method of travel, though those are not the only ones, and most of the time they kinda just gloss over what’s actually going on when folks skip around the universe. Like it’s just your run-of-the-mill sci-fi faster-than-light travel, don’t worry about the specifics.
And that’s more or less how the MCU has treated interstellar travel thus far. They just go fast, don’t worry about it. And so we don’t know or care about how that works.
Okay, so there are two reason I’m talking about this right now. First, here’s how Jack Kirby drew this “sub-space” for the first time back in “Fantastic Four #37”:
So, that is vaguely reminiscent of the some parts of the Quantum Realm that we see in “Ant-Man and the Wasp.” See for yourself:
Now, let’s go to my second reason for bringing all this up: Quasar! Finally, let’s talk about Quasar.
So the really interesting thing about Quasar is that he is, essentially, a quantum superhero. His power comes from the Quantum Bands which can do, well, whatever the author of the comic in question wants them to. That’s the fun of “quantum” things.
But there is one specific thing that Quasar can do with the Quantum Bands that is relevant to all this — he can use them to do that sub-space travel thing without a ship. Except he doesn’t call that side dimension sub-space or any of the other terms that are used in Marvel lore. He calls it the Quantum Zone.
You could try to argue that Quasar’s Quantum Zone is not the same as sub-space — but it functions the same way. And when he makes what he calls a Quantum Jump in “Quasar #32,” some people watching even guess that he’d entered warp space.
So we’re going to assume they’re the same thing.
Now, even more interesting is that Quasar’s Quantum Bands draw their power from the Quantum Zone, much like how Doctor Strange draws his power from other dimensions. And even more more interesting is that Quasar was given the Quantum Bands, and thus his power, by the cosmic entity Eon — who named him the new Protector of the Universe.
The previous Protector? Mar-Vell, who we’re going to see in “Captain Marvel” next year, as played by Jude Law.
Again, I don’t think there’s even a small chance that Quasar himself is going to show up in the MCU, but I would guess there’s a distinct possibility that Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel herself, will be given some of Quasar’s quantum abilities.
It would fit irritatingly well based on how the MCU likes to sort of remix comic book lore, and based on certain assumptions we have about what will happen in “Captain Marvel” and “Avengers 4.” Let’s run through those real quick:
1. Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, is now stuck in the Quantum Realm after “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” and he probably won’t get out the way he came in. We’re assuming a “time vortex,” which Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) mentioned just before he went down there, will be involved. We don’t know what a time vortex is, but we’re guessing it’s a wormhole back to the normal world — which also probably sends whoever goes through one to a different time than the one they came from.
2. Mar-Vell, the original Captain Marvel and the Protector of the Universe, will die in the 1990s-set “Captain Marvel,” setting in motion the events that will lead to “Avengers: Infinity War.” This is especially important given Mar-Vell’s relationship to Thanos in the comics — Mar-Vell was made a Protector of the Universe specifically because he and Thanos were arch-enemies. Read more about that here.
3. Carol Danvers will obviously take up the mantle of Captain Marvel and somehow be key to defeating Thanos in “Avengers 4.”
4. Time travel will be involved in defeating Thanos and undoing the damage caused by the Infinity Gauntlet in “Infinity War.”
So if time travel is important, it stands to reason that our heroes will have to figure out a way to travel to whatever times they actually want to visit on purpose. And that timely mention of time vortexes in “Ant-Man and the Wasp” would also indicate that that the Quantum Realm will be involved in facilitating said time travel — otherwise they’d need to steal the Time Stone off Thanos’ burnt out Gauntlet, which doesn’t seem like a logical way for the “Avengers 4” story to kick off.
So if the Quantum Realm of the movies is the equivalent of the Quantum Zone from the “Quasar” comics, and if Captain Marvel in the MCU, possibly as Mar-Vell’s successor as Protector of the Universe, has some sort of Quantum Band-type tool that can harness the power of the Quantum Realm, then she may well be able to use it to send the Avengers off on a rollicking time adventure.
Based on the pieces we have to work with at the moment, this feels like as good a guess as any. The MCU has often mixed and matched pieces from the comics in new places and characters, and often just goes in completely new directions with stuff, like Janet van Dyne’s as-yet-undefined quantum abilities which have no apparent precedent in the comics.
Now, if we’re right about any of this then it’s likely we’ll only be half-right. Like maybe there is a character who can use the Quantum Realm to jump through time in a controlled manner, but it’s not Carol Danvers. We theorized elsewhere that Ant-Man could meet a past version of Janet down there — maybe the reason she knows what a time vortex even is is because she has used one before, or watched Scott go through one. Or maybe Ant-Man himself will figure it out after being stuck down there a while.
Or maybe we’re completely wrong. But based on what we know about the situation in the MCU at present — which admittedly is not really all that much — and based on what we know of how the creative overseers of the MCU operate, what I’m suggesting here certainly feels like the sort of thing they would do.
But whatever the answer is, we’ve got a long wait until we find out one way or another. “Captain Marvel” is a mere eight months away.
All 61 Marvel Movies Ranked, Including 'Shang-Chi'
This year will end up bringing us five (5) new Marvel movies, but somehow we're just getting started. "Shang-Chi" is the second after "Black Widow" -- let's see how it stacks up against all the previous theatrically released Marvel movies, both inside and outside the MCU.
61. "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer"
Just a nightmare. A total nightmare. There have been a number of bad superhero movies, but from the talking gas cloud the filmmakers cast as Galactus to Jessica Alba's dye job, this one transcends bad.
60. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"
A totally chaotic stir fry of nonsense that tells the story of how Wolverine got his claws. Features an early version of Deadpool (also played by Ryan Reynolds) whose mouth is stapled shut, which should tell you all you need to know about it.
59. "Elektra"
That five minutes when they tried to turn Jennifer Garner into an action star went about as well as it should have.
58. "X-Men: The Last Stand"
Just a total mess, incoherent from the word "go." After losing director of the first two X-Men films Brian Singer to the first Superman reboot attempt, replacement Matthew Vaughn gave way to eventual director Brett Ratner, who might have killed off the superhero genre entirely were "Spider-Man" not blowing up the box office.
57. "Fantastic Four" (2015)
There could maybe have been a good movie in here somewhere -- the cast (Michael B Jordan, Miles Teller, Kate Mara) certainly warranted one. But this Frankenstein of a film is a behind-the-scenes horror story, and you can see it in the totally disjointed final product.
56. "Daredevil"
This was basically "Early-2000s: The Movie," with Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Colin Farrell and Michael Clark Duncan as the main players. The cherry on top of this turd sundae was that damn Evanescence song.
55. "Fantastic Four" (2005)
Tim Story's first "Fantastic Four" is just sort of there, challenging you to remember it exists. With Chris Evans, who played the Human Torch here, going on to embody Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that gets tougher every year.
54. "The Punisher" (2004)
This is the Punisher as a straight revenge thriller, and it's not bad. Thomas Jane performs admirably, but the whole thing is missing that extra something that would have elevated it beyond standard genre fare. Setting it in Tampa didn't help.
53. "Spider-Man 3"
Maybe the bad outweighs the good here, but Emo Peter Parker's dance number remains one of the greatest single moments in any comic book movie, sorry, haters.
52. "Howard the Duck"
A notorious flop at the box office and, yeah, it's not exactly "good." But now, 30 years removed from its premiere, "Howard the Duck" is pretty fun as a relic of the '80s.
51. "The Punisher" (1989)
Dolph Lundgren and Louis Gossett Jr. star in a low-rent '80s grunge C-level classic. This one's all novelty value.
50. "Ghost Rider"
For a movie starring Nic Cage about a dude who rides a Harley and turns into a flaming skeleton, this is a surprisingly mundane movie.
49. "The Amazing Spider-Man"
We may never figure out what went wrong with Marc Webb's Spider-Man duology, but his choice of Andrew Garfield to play Peter Parker is still brilliant. It just sucks that this movie doesn't really make any sense.
48. "X-Men"
The beginning of the current wave of theatrical superhero movies, "X-Men" was kind of a cheapie and it showed. Novel at the time, now it just comes off as unremarkable mid-budget action fare as Fox was merely sticking its toe in the superhero waters. Timid.
47. "The Incredible Hulk"
It's sometimes hard to remember that this one counts as part of the MCU, since it placed Ed Norton in the Dr. Banner role since inhabited by Mark Ruffalo in the "Avengers" films. It's also hard to remember because it's generally not memorable.
46. "Thor"
The fantasy Marvel movie is directed by Kenneth Branagh, who covers the whole movie in canted angle shots and theatrical stylings. It's pretty boring, also, but at least it looks cool.
45. "The Amazing Spider-Man 2"
More of the same impossible-to-follow hack-n'-slash plotting from the previous movie, offset by Andrew Garfield continuing to be awesome and Jamie Foxx going way over the top as the big bad.
44. "Thor: The Dark World"
"The Dark World," in contrast to the first "Thor" movie, is certainly not boring. If anything, it suffers the opposite problem, going so hard and fast that it loses substance.
43. "Blade: Trinity"
Starring a pre-Deadpool Ryan Reynolds basically playing a vampire-slaying Deadpool, throwing out one-liners like his mama's life depended on it, this may not a "good" movie, but it sure is fun.
42. "X2: X-Men United"
A big step up from the first "X-Men" both in production values and quality, it still lacks much in the way of energy. Which is inexcusable when you've got Alan Cumming as the teleporting mutant Nightcrawler all over your movie.
41. "Spider-Man"
Sam Raimi truly assembled the prototypical superhero movie with this first entry in the "Spider-Man" franchise, in 2002. Like "X-Men" before it, "Spider-Man" is a bit underwhelming today, but unlike "X-Men" it was proud of its nerd roots.
40. "X-Men: Apocalypse"
Could have been a bizarre ironic summer classic if it were structured like a real movie and had any character development whatsoever. Instead it's just a shot of visual adrenaline that I'll probably want to revisit at some point -- but not when I'm sober
39. "Avengers: Age of Ultron"
"Ultron" is frustrating for what it lacks -- chiefly the feeling that it's advancing the overall story arc of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But as with the first "Avengers" movie its weaknesses are overcome by great character work.
38. "The Avengers"
The story is a total mess, relying heavily on moviegoers' memories of previous MCU films (if you didn't remember or know coming in what the Tesseract was, hoo boy). But the novelty of the Marvel's first big superhero team-up was irresistible, and director Joss Whedon balanced his ensemble expertly, giving everyone plenty to do so none of them ever fades into the background.
37. "Blade"
Pure B-movie trash, which is fine because that's precisely what it aims for: bloody, crass, awesome. Blade, by the way, remains the only black comic book character besides Shaquille O'Neal's "Steel" to get his/her own movie, though Marvel's "Black Panther" is slated for a 2018 release.
36. "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance"
For the sequel, they tapped the "Crank" director duo known as Neveldine/Taylor. It was an inspired choice, because "Spirit of Vengeance" was exactly as nutty as you'd hope a PG-13 comic book movie would be. Shame that it was apparently stressful enough to break up the tandem of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor.
35. "Captain America: The First Avenger"
A lot of folks like to complain that all superhero movies are the same. But this was actually a pretty good World War II movie, too.
34. "Guardians of the Galaxy"
Plot-wise, it never really adds up to anything, but the strength of the cast and the bizarre world they explore more than make up for it.
33. "The New Mutants"
It's an absolutely serviceable little piece of entertainment, and there's a lot of novelty in its overall strange vibe. But after years of delays and reshoots you can definitely feel the hand of the focus group a bit too much.
32. "Blade 2"
Beloved nerd Guillermo del Toro took over for this one and ramped everything up to 11. More vampires, more blood, more people getting sliced up -- and of course baddies whose jaws can split open and swallow a person's head whole.
31. "Big Hero 6"
Disney Animation Studios made a Marvel movie, and it's really sweet. Sure, it's the kiddie version of Marvel, but that doesn't prevent it from being a wholly satisfying experience.
30. "Captain Marvel"
It’s fine, but “Captain Marvel” feels like a movie from before Marvel Studios really hit its stride in Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Right now it’s a movie that seems very much out of place.
29. "Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2"
An improvement on the first film, and an absolute delight from moment to moment -- but it never quite coalesces into a coherent whole because so many subplots distract from the core story and rob it of its emotional impact. Would be a top 5 comic book movie if it had just reigned in the plot.
28. "Iron Man"
It was Robert Downey Jr.'s reemergence on the big screen, and he's flawless in this origin story that takes Tony Stark from billionaire playboy weapons manufacturer to billionaire playboy other-things manufacturer.
27. "Avengers: Endgame"
This movie is, frustratingly, far from perfect. In fact, it’s kind of a huge mess. But it’s also awesome and thrilling and hilarious and contains some individual moments that are perfect. I wish it was better, but with everything required of a movie that exists to wrap up 21 movies’ worth of story arcs, I’m glad it’s as good as it is.
26. "Hulk"
In 2003 the modern wave of superhero movies was still in its infancy, and Ang Lee -- still the best filmmaker to do a comic book movie -- got experimental with "Hulk." And what he made was an incredible melodrama with visual stylings meant to ape comic book panels. It didn't sit well with audiences, but "Hulk" remains one of the most compelling and interesting Marvel movies to date.
25. "The Wolverine"
This was, like, just a legitimately enjoyable melodramatic action movie. Sure, it turns into a video game boss battle by the end, but for most of its running time it's just an actual movie.
24. "Punisher: War Zone"
Whereas the previous "Punisher" movie was melodramatic and contemplative, this one is just murderous. And it's awesome.
23. "Venom"
How can anybody resist the pull of Tom Hardy doing comedy? This movie knows exactly what it's trying to be, and what it's trying to be is dumb and fun and nothing else. And it is extremely fun.
22. "X-Men: Days of Future Past"
Its time travel logic is a bit iffy, but "Days of Future Past" is still tremendously entertaining because, while epic, it's not overly serious. As "Back to the Future" taught us long ago, you can get away with a lot of logical leaps if you strike the right tone.
21. "Iron Man 2"
Swaps Terrence Howard for Don Cheadle, while Mickey Rourke breaks cars with laser whips. Who knows what was going on in this movie, but it was almost OK anyway.
20. "Deadpool"
In the angsty and angry times we live in, "Deadpool" is perfect. Aggressively violent and flippantly meanspirited, it's the exact emotional release we needed.
19. "X-Men: Dark Phoenix"
The main series "X-Men" movies have never achieved any sort of greatness, but at least "Dark Phoenix" ends the whole thing with one of the best efforts of the bunch. And that sequence on the train in the third act is easily the best action sequence of these movies.
18. "Spider-Man: Far From Home"
It’s frustrating that it doesn’t really deal with the immense fallout from “Avengers: Endgame,” but it’s still as visually creative as any movie in the MCU, and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio is an all-timer of a villain. Dude goes all the way out in this.
17. "X-Men: First Class"
The first "X-Men" movie that could be described as "fun." It's basically two movies crammed into one, story-wise, but director Matthew Vaughn's touch is so breezy and enjoyable that it totally works anyway, thanks in large part to a brilliant cast that includes Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and James McAvoy.
16. "Shang-Chi"
There's some amount of "bit off more than they could chew" with this one because there is so much stuff we've never heard of that needs explaining -- the classic origin story problem. But the action is unbelievable, and probably the best and most interesting we've seen in the MCU in that regard. If they can hold on to director Destin Daniel Cretton I bet the second movie, unburdened from those standard first movie issues, is gonna rip.
15. "Spider-Man: Homecoming"
Not quite the best "Spider-Man" movie, but still an absolute delight, with a cast full of scene stealers. Michael Keaton as the Vulture makes for one of the best Marvel villains ever.
14. "Deadpool 2"
While you may get whiplash from the "Deadpool" sequel's occasional very serious and emo scenes, the rest of the movie is thoroughly delightful, somehow managing to be even funnier -- and more hilariously violent -- than the original.
13. "Ant-Man"
"Ant-Man" represented a first for the MCU by being a straight-up comedy. And it's a very good one, with a cast that's perfectly suited for it. Aside from Paul Rudd who plays Ant-Man himself, Michael Pena is the true standout as Scott Lang's best friend and former cellmate.
12. "Ant-Man and the Wasp"
It's ever so slightly frustrating that this one doesn't fully integrate into the "Infinity War" situation, but even so it's thoroughly a delight. Evangeline Lilly is so good at the Wasp that I'm retroactively irritated that she didn't don the suit in the previous "Ant-Man" movie.
11. "Doctor Strange"
If it weren't hamstrung with all the requisite elements of an origin story, "Doctor Strange" might have been the best Marvel movie ever. That's the power of the astonishing visual imagination on display here. People love to talk about the nebulous concept of capturing some long lost childlike sense of wonder though the magic of cinema -- "Doctor Strange" is one of the only movies I've watched as an adult that really accomplishes that.
10. "Spider-Man 2"
This is a movie that fully understands its main character and taps into what made him such a captivating figure for so long. Yeah, Peter Parker's a superhero, but he's also a college kid working a minimum wage job to make rent while also taking university physics classes. Peter buckles under the pressure, something we can all relate to.
9. "Iron Man 3"
As far as I'm concerned this is the "Iron Man" movie. Somehow, Shane Black was able to infiltrate the MCU and make a legitimate Shane Black movie with all the wit and raw humanity you'd expect from him. It carries exactly the sort of authorial identity we should want all these movies to have.
8. "Thor: Ragnarok"
A thorough delight. This might be the most fun we had at the movies in all of 2017, and so we can't help but love it.
7. "Captain America: Civil War"
Multiply the two previous best Marvel movies by one another and you get "Civil War." It packs the sort of emotional payoff all the disconnected Marvel movies can't really provide. And as an action film it's easily the best of the superhero genre.
6. "Avengers: Infinity War"
You could certainly make the argument that "Infinity War" does not really hold up on as a complete movie on its own, because it kinda begins with the second act. But I don't care. The culmination of this ten-year shared universe experiment should stand on the shoulders of the movies that came before it. The fact that it packs such a profound emotional punch, however, is what really makes it work.
5. "Black Widow"
Natasha's long-overdue solo is held back a little by some fully unnecessary trademark Marvel CGI nonsense, but otherwise this film has a vibe that is fully it's own thing. It does away with the Marvel house style, aside from in two big action sequences, in favor of a low-key indie look that feels so much more intimate than any previous MCU flick.
4. "Black Panther"
It's held back a little by being saddled with standard "origin movie" issues -- introducing audiences to the world of Wakanda isn't a quick and easy task, and it could use an extra 15-20 minutes to flesh out the supporting characters -- but still manages to be the most substantial superhero movie ever. It's kind of amazing that Disney let writer/director Ryan Coogler make this overt a political statement -- it's the most openly political mega-budget movie I've ever seen . Also, while I'm listing superlatives: Michael B Jordan delivers the best performance ever in a superhero movie. Good lord.
3. "Logan"
James Mangold's small-scale western is a game changer for the entire superhero genre, daring to defy pretty much standard by which you expect these movies to operate. It's just a great movie by any normal standard. Where "Civil War" elevated the genre, "Logan" opts instead to be something else entirely and we're all the better for it.
2. "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse"
The best superhero movies, and movies in general, are the ones that are truly most human. And "Spider-Verse," despite being animated, despite the wacky cast of Spider-People, despite the outlandish premise, is as real as movies get.
1. "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"
The Russo brothers, who made their entrance to the MCU directing "Winter Soldier" before taking the reigns on "Civil War" and, eventually, 2018's "Avengers: Infinity War," really impressed with "Winter Soldier." It's a classic spy thriller with a superhero twist. And Robert Redford as the bad guy is a really nice touch.
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Decades of big-screen Marvel adaptations demand a long, ranked list. This is that list
This year will end up bringing us five (5) new Marvel movies, but somehow we're just getting started. "Shang-Chi" is the second after "Black Widow" -- let's see how it stacks up against all the previous theatrically released Marvel movies, both inside and outside the MCU.
