One of the hardest things about making
an Ant-Man movie is that he really doesn’t have too many movie-quality
villains. Honestly, the only bad guy of his that I can think of (other than
Ultron) is a guy named Whirlwind. He’s a Mutant that spins really fast, causes ‘whirlwinds,’
but isn’t all that bright. Which kind of takes him out of the running for major
antagonist. He’s the guy that the main villain hires to wreck stuff to distract
the hero. And the best candidate, Ultron, has been done. So there goes his one,
to my knowledge, film worthy bad guy. So, how did Ant-Man get around this problem? Why, take one of Ant-Man’s lesser
villains (that a handful of people have heard of) and give him a major
overhaul. But I’ll get to that in a second. Let’s get to it.
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| Went from this... |
Darren Cross was a self-made
millionaire and CEO of Cross Technological Enterprises. It’s a major
corporation that rivaled businesses like Stark International. Cross was a
shrewd business man, and by that I mean a corrupt tycoon that would anything
and everything to ensure that he comes out a head. And he’s probably a sociopath.
They never say it outright, but the signs are all there. Despite being absurdly
rich, Cross had a major problem that money was having trouble solving. He
suffered from a rare, terminal heart condition. A heartless man dying of a
heart disease… Is that ironic or not? Or is it more like “rain on your wedding
day,” and thus just sucky? Whatever, a discussion for another time. Cross was running
out of time. And considering that the wait list for a donor heart is incredibly
long, and one can’t simply buy the top spot, Cross tried a more experimental
treatment. He had his scientists whip up a pacemaker, a nuclear powered
pacemaker, to keep his heart beating. He then kidnapped respected heart surgeon
Dr. Erica Sondheim, to implant his new pacemaker. The procedure worked…sort of.
The nucleorganic pacemaker keeps his heart going, but also radically mutates
his body. It caused his entire circulatory system to expand, disfiguring him
and also gave him superhuman strength. Hooray for unintentional superpowers.
Boo disfigurement. The other major problem was that Cross’s supersized body over
worked his heart and caused it to burn out, requiring him to have his heart
replaced on a fairly regular basis. Which wasn’t too difficult for a corrupt
business man. He just had his people kidnap homeless folks and vagabonds, and then
forced Dr. Sondheim to make the additional changes to his prospective new heart
that his new super enhanced body needed. This went on for a while, until Scott
Lang in his stolen Ant-Man costume stumbled onto his operation.
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| ...To this. Something went horribly, horribly wrong. Or maybe it's just the speedo. |
The new Ant-Man busted in on the
operation, which Sondheim hastily finished, before fighting Cross. Ant-Man keeps
Cross busy long enough for Cross’s heart to burn out, and then escapes with Sondheim.
Sondheim reveals later that when Scott busted in, she used the momentary distraction
to swap the new heart for the one she just took out. Sondheim gets points for
dishing out comeuppance. It’s dampened a bit by, you know, the death of said receiver
of comeuppance, but yeah, good for you. Dr. Sondheim. Cross is presumed dead,
and his son Augustine takes over as head of CTE. Unbeknownst to most folks,
Augustine had his father cryogenically frozen and became obsessed with resurrected
him. A few years down the line he re-kidnapped Dr. Sondheim, you’d think she’d
have Scott on speed dial at this point, and forced her to help him. He also
enlisted the aid of his second-cousin and fellow Ant-Man villain Crossfire
(William Cross). Crossfire kidnapped Cassie Lang, daughter of Ant-Man, to cut
out her heart and implant it in Cross. The thought was that Cassie’s Pym
Particle irradiated heart would compensate for the Cross’s mutated physiology.
Sondheim is forced to do the operation. Rather PO’ed by this, he’d just gotten
his daughter back after all, Ant-Man broke into the facility and he and the resurrected
Cross duked it out. Thankfully, Dr. Sondheim was able to give Cassie a new
Heart (they just had another one on hand? Weird…) while Cross and Ant-Man
fought. Cross and his son were forced to flee, because there was an unfortunate
to this latest unethical procedure. The Pym Particle irradiated Heart seemed to
work, but it also caused Cross to suddenly shrink. Cross just does not ever get
away from these insane procedures. Such a shame. He got away, to menace Ant-Man
another day. One assumes. This is as far as any bio’s I’ve read have gone. We’ll
see how things turn out for Cross after the big universe alteration.
Darren Cross is a ruthless
businessman and above average strategist. He gained superpowers after having an
experimental Nucleorganic pacemaker implanted. The pacemaker caused his entire
body to mutate into a giant red form. It gave him superstrength and reflexes.
The only real downside, other than the puffy red body, is that the Nucleorganic
pacemaker puts too much strain on his heart. The organ quickly “burns out” and
needs to be replaced on a fairly regular basis.
Darren Cross has been used but once
outside of the comics. You know all this stuff I’ve just talked about? Forget
about it for this next section.
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| Much scarier, much buggier. Just much better. |
He is set to appear as the main
antagonist of Ant-Man, portrayed by
Corey Stoll. This version is a former child prodigy. He was mentored by Dr.
Hank Pym, who later took him on as a business partner. More recently he teamed
up with Hank’s estranged daughter Hope van Dyne to force Hank out of the
company. He’s since renamed Pym Technological Enterprises after himself, and
been experimenting with Pym’s old Tech. His latest plot seems to be to sell
Yellowjacket suits, upgraded variations of the original Ant-Man costume, to the
highest bidder. He will face off against Hank’s latest mentee, Scott Lang.
Because of the extreme difference between
the comic to film character, here’s film Cross’s powers. Through the use of Pym
Particles, Cross is able to rapidly grown and shrink in size. He possess a much
more advanced version of the Ant-Man costume, dubbed the Yellowjacket suit. This
suit increases his strength while an inch high, comes equipped with laser firing
leg-like appendages and a jet pack, and assumedly the same insect
translator/control helmet that the Ant-Man suit has. The Yellowjacket suit is
clearly more combat oriented than the Ant-Man version, hence Cross’s desire to
mass produce and sell them to the highest bidder. He’s a clever heartless jerk
like that. Cross is still ridiculously smart and ruthless.
Usually, I prefer it when studios
try to keep close to the source material. Mostly because “artistic” changes
that the writer and/or director choose to make all too often completely change
a character for the worst. For example, in X-Men Origins, I wanted to see
Deadpool, not this silent freak with a ton of non-canon powers that the
director called Deadpool.
PREACH! You
wise nerd, Preach!
I thought you’d approve, Deadpool.
That being said, the changes being made to Cross from the comics to film work.
Gasp!
Blasphemous traitor!
Deadpool, Shut up! I’m trying to
talk here. Where was I… right, the changes seem to work. They’re turning a
pretty generic evil business tycoon into someone that feels like an antithesis of
our shrinking hero. This version is more than just the first criminal Scott
Lang’s Ant-Man will tangle with, Cross is his opposite. Someone that has taken
the great power given to him by their predecessor and used it for himself. It
just makes for a more dramatic story than “find the bad guy, save the doctor”
plot that Cross was originally a part of. Plus, I really like the design of the
Yellowjacket costume, it’s vaguely similar to the original Ant-Man costume, but
the color, added robo-arms, and helmet have a distinctly alien vibe to it. The scenes from the trailers have been
excellent, and so far Marvel hasn’t made a misstep with their adaptation
choices. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see. He’s the vastly different
Yellowjacket. Or he’s the deceptively brilliant Darren Cross. Next time, Hank
and Jan’s dangerous daughter, Hope van Dyne, aka Red Queen.
http://marvel.wikia.com/File:Darren_Cross_%28Earth-616%29_from_Marvel_Premiere_Vol_1_47_001.jpg
http://www.comicvine.com/images/1300-4584691
http://marvel.wikia.com/File:Darren_Cross_%28Earth-616%29_from_Ant-Man_Vol_2_4_001.jpg
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