Well, considering that I just did a
goblin, it seems only logical to do ghost as well, right? And not just any
ghost, but THE Ghost. While I mentioned this in my Ant Man and the Wasp review,
I feel the need to point out again that the Ghost of that movie, Ava Starr, is
an original character of that film. While I’ll go into her background in the character
section, the bulk of this will be centered on the Ghost of the comics and most
of the cartoons, whom is depicted as male. And that’s like the one concrete
fact that we know about him. Let’s get to it, shall we?
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| The Ghost and Crossbones, a match made in hell. |
The Ghost is a man who’s past is
largely shrouded in mystery. While large parts of it can’t be substantiated, as
the people involved besides Ghost are dead and he has claimed to have had his
original identity wiped from public record, he has given us an origin story. I’d
be willing to bet parts of the tale will either be revealed to be total lies or
facts distorted by hate and anger at some point, here’s what he’s said. Back in
the day Ghost worked as a programmer and engineer at a rising IT company called
Omnisapient. While he doesn’t give his real name, I’m just going to call him
Jacob Marley. What? If everyone else is blatantly showing off Christmas stuff
in October, I should be allowed a somewhat subtle joke. Jacob impressed his
companies board of directors with his prowess with designing advanced tech and
his immense intellect. He quickly received multiple promotions before being put
on the company’s flagship project, a new processor that could physically change
in reaction to its environment. Basically, the processor would become
intangible before it could overheat, allowing for rapid cooling. The Ghost Tech,
as they dubbed it, caused the company’s stock to skyrocket. Which was good. But
the board also grew ever more dependent on Jacob specifically to run and design
their tech. Which was bad. After months of exhausting work, I’m reasonably certain
with unpaid overtime, Jacob demanded to get some time off. The board was
obviously… upset about the idea of Jacob not completing the project ahead of schedule,
which would gain them billions, there wasn’t much they could do, now is there?
Just before Jacob left on his
vacation, an attractive coworker… ugh, she doesn’t have a name either. I’ll call her Jenny, because why not? Jenny
came onto him and expressed interest in him. Jacob, whom claimed to be
introverted and a tech geek before his transformation, was smitten with her
almost instantly. He cancelled his vacation and kept working, but spent a lot
of time with Jenny during and after work. Well, isn’t that convenient for Jacob,
and his bosses. More and more of Jacobs personal life seemed tied to his job,
but he didn’t complain as an attractive romantic partner is an incredible stress
reliever. Things ended badly, though, as Jenny was killed in an explosion that
destroyed her apartment. Gas leak, I’m sure. Jacob, depressed and needing some
kind of escape, plugged his brain directly into his Ghost processor. Not sure
if that sciences, but belief needs to be suspended with an origin story. Combining
his mind with the processor pushed his consciousness into a hyper aware state,
and he was able to piece together some things that he’d subconsciously realized
that didn’t add up. Jenny, he realized, had been a Honeypot. The board hired
her to seduce him and keep him working on their projects. She’d been killed because
she’d demanded they give her more money, or she’d go public with what they did.
I can imagine only a few things more heartbreaking than realizing just how
badly Jacob had been used. The board had surveillance on him, so they realized
what he’d discovered. They hired a hitman to take care of him. Hm… I feel like
they’re just making more problems for themselves, but what do I know. The hitman
set off a bomb in Jacob’s apartment, killing most of his neighbors. Jacob
survived as the Ghost tech processor made him intangible as the heat of the
explosion heated up the processor. Nearly
dying and discovering how much of his life was a fabrication, Jacob Marley died
metaphorically and was reborn as the Ghost.
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| The Ghost is always trying to stick it to The Man. |
Ghost became a hyper paranoid vigilante,
hell bent on killing evil corporations. He killed the board of directors, their
assassin and then the records of his former life. Sometime later, Ghost was hired
by Carrington Pax, one of the head executives of the Roxxon Oil Corporation, to
destroy Accutech Research and Development. The tech firm had been developing a
beta particle generator, a potential super energy source, but refused to sell
it to the oil company. Probably because folks in the Marvel Universe know their
oil companies are evil. Roxxon hired Ghost to drive the company into bankruptcy.
Thankfully for Accutech, they’d attracted the attention of Tony Stark, whom
bought it within days of Ghost making his move. Ghost attack, to which Tony sent his “bodyguard”
Iron Man to stop. The two faced off, and Iron Man was able to beat the specter
back. Ghost swore revenge on Tony, believing the corporate goon was more worthy
of his ire than the working-class stiff in the suit. Huh.
Tony, fearing an attack by someone
that could literally walk through walls, spent the next few weeks optimizing his
armor and waiting. Roxxon, worried that their dealings with Ghost might become public,
hired another costumed villain, Spymaster, to deal with him. The two fought in
a Stark Enterprises building, which ended with Ghost sticking Spymaster in a
wall and making him tangible again. Iron Man set up a trap for Ghost who walked
right in. They were both in the beta particle generator room, the beta particles
interfering with Ghost’s ability to cloak himself or go intangible. There was a
ticking clock element with the fight, as the radiation from the Beta particles can
be fatal after prolonged exposure. The floor ended up melting, and Ghost fell
through. Iron Man only found the burnt remains of his costume, but he knew
Ghost was still out there.
Ghost has since gone up against
Iron Man several times, as well as other heroes when he takes contract work. He
doesn’t seem to care who he fights, he’ll fight anyone that tries to get in his
way. He’s since joined the Thunderbolts. It’s kind of like Marvel’s Suicide Squad,
a team made up of anti-heroes and villains that work for the government. While
not having sought redemption, he seems to be trying to be a better person than
he’d once been.
Despite the supernaturally suggestive
name, Ghost’s powers are completely tech based. He’s designed and built a special
battlesuit that incorporated his original Ghost Tech. This allows him to go
intangible and pass through solid objects, or turn himself invisible, but not
both at once. He also has incorporated various gadgets to help him hack or reprogram
electronics on the fly, and to intercept and tamper with electromagnetic signals.
He’s also a crack shot, using a variety of guns and grenades to help with his
work. He’s a genius level inventor and computer hacker.
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| Why's every song about Love, or Drinking too much? Well, Maybe it's because, everybody's lonely! Sorry, that's Jukebox the Ghost. |
Ghost has appeared a few times outside of the
comics. They seem to tone down the corporate terrorist angle of his character
and usually portray him as a highly skillful mercenary. He’s usually an Iron Man
villain, but the Ghost’s biggest appearance was up against Ant Man and Wasp in
the film bearing their names.
Ghost appeared in a few episodes of
Avengers Assemble. He’s introduced in “The Kids Are Alright” in the
third season. In the episode, Captain America and Iron Man are working with a
pair of Inhuman heroes, Inferno and Ms. Marvel, to handle a few Ultron robots. After
that mess was handled, they give the teen heroes a tour of Avengers Tower.
Unfortunately, at the same time Ghost attacked to steal Iron Man’s AI Friday.
He’s significantly more dangerous as this version had discovered he was an Inhuman
and gone through Terrogenesis to unlock his powers. Thankfully for him, his Inhuman
powers were a more powerful form of phasing. The Avengers send him packing in
the end. He appeared again in “Avengers No More.” He tried to steal tech from
the Stark Expo, but is stopped by the new intern, Jane Foster and Thor.
He appeared in Marvel’s Spider-Man.
This version is a former Stark Enterprises employee and that’s why he’s got a
personal vendetta against Stark. In the episode “Stark Expo” he crashes said
expo, phases into Iron Man’s mark 50 armor and starts causing havoc. Iron Mand
and Spider-Man force him from the suit, but he steals the suit’s “inter-connectivity”
disks, which let him hack all of the other tech at the expo. He’s finally
stopped by Peter, whom used the Venom suit to enhance himself enough to over
come him.
 |
| This Ghost is hunting Pyms. |
A new Ghost, Ava Starr, is
introduced for Ant Man and the Wasp. She’s portrayed by Hannah
John-Kamen. She is the daughter of a former associate of Hank Pym’s, Elihas
Starr. She was the one survivor of the quantum explosion at her dad’s lab. She
was left in a state of molecular disequilibrium that caused her to phase
through solid object, but caused her extreme pain. She was saved by another
former Hank Pym colleague Bill Foster who had her join SHIELD. She was trained
as an assassin, given a suit to better control her powers, and the codename
Ghost. She left SHIELD when she realized they wouldn’t help fix her. She and
Bill Foster attempt to steal Hank Pym’s mobile lab to get his Quantum Realm
tech to help Ava. They believe that they could use the quantum energy that Hank’s
wife, Janet van Dyne, had absorbed over the last thirtyish years to stabilize her.
Once Janet is brought out of the Quantum Realm, she uses her energy to
partially stabilize Ava. Scott, Hope, Hank and Janet end the film with a
mission to gather more quantum energy particles to stabilize Ava further, but
the Pym/van Dynes are Blipped out of existence while Scott was in the realm. Huh, hope Ava was either blipped too or Bill
Foster found another way to help her. Just saying.
The Ghost’s biggest strength, I think,
is his look. He’s one of the most visually unique villains of Marvel’s roster.
The white suit and largely featureless mask make him hard to forget. I think it
also helps that, because he doesn’t have a super specific or well know origin
means that he can be whatever a story needs him to be. Sure, that’s true of
most characters, but the more popular a character the more you do really need
to stick to certain plot beats, if you don’t want to piss off fans. If you want
to write a Batman story, he needs to be a billionaire with dead parents. You
want to write a story with Magento, you’ll need to include that he’s a survivor
of a war and an incredibly angry but charismatic leader. There are no such necessities
for Ghost. You need a generic psycho with weird powers? He can do that. Need a skilled
mercenary that will keep hounding a target? He can do that. Need him to be a
tragic victim of circumstance, and be a woman? She can do it. Plus, his powers
are kind of kick ass. Phasing plus invisibility are kind of the perfect combo for
a mercenary or assassin. I wonder how he’d handle going up against the X-Men’s Kitty
Pryde? It’d be an interesting fight, for sure. And that’s all I have to say
about that.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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