History
Early Life and the Accident[]
Ava Starr was born to scientist Elihas Starr. Her father worked with Dr. Hank Pym on a project concerning the quantum realm. Pym wanted to open up a tunnel to the quantum realm, but shut the project down when he realized the potential dangers of this technology being released to the world. In shutting it down, Pym also discredited Elihas and tarnished his name in the intellectual sphere. Outraged and determined to prove that he was part of the project, Elihas began privately engineering his own quantum tunnel in Argentina. Something went terribly wrong, however, and Elihas began to evacuate the building, including his wife Catherine and daughter. Ava knew he would not make it out, and did not want him to die alone. She ran back into the building, with her mother following her, where the quantum tunnel exploded and killed everyone in the lab except Ava. Ava stayed with her parents' bodies until authorities arrived, who tried to pick her up but found that they could not touch her as she had been quantumly destabilized by the explosion.
S.H.I.E.L.D. and Bill Foster[]
Ava was taken into the care of S.H.I.E.L.D., where she had many caretakers, but each of them were either cruel or ultimately gave up on her and trying to control her affliction, which caused unpredictable and immensely painful shifts in her tangibility. She was then introduced to a new caretaker, Dr. Bill Foster, who refused to give up on her and taught her to control her condition for the most part. Once she had her instability under control, S.H.I.E.L.D. designed a suit for her to wear which allowed her even greater control over her state and instability, but also began using her for off-the-books espionage and assassination missions. Disgusted by this maltreatment, Bill helped her to sneak out of where she was being kept and stowed her away in San Francisco, California, where Bill took a job as a college professor.
Entropy[]
_from_Ant-Man_and_the_Wasp_(film)_001.jpg){kind=link}
Ava without her mask
As she got older, Ava found that it was harder for her to control her quantum instability and the pain that came with it, even with the suit S.H.I.E.L.D. made for her. Bill and Ava worked together to create a chamber which bombarded Ava with quantum energy, which they found could temporarily stabilize her, though even this became less effective after a while. Ava realized that the only way she could cure herself, even temporarily, was by taking in a great quantity of quantum energy all at once, though she had little idea of where to find this. It wasn't long before Ava and Bill realized that Ava's deteriorating control over her state was because she was being torn apart. They realized that without a long-term cure for her condition, she would ultimately be killed by her instability. They then found that Dr. Hank Pym had begun working on the quantum tunnel again in an effort to bring his wife back from the quantum realm. Realizing that draining Janet's excessive quantum energy would likely be her best chance at survival, Ava, with Bill's help, set out to obtain the lab and the quantum tunnel.
Versus Ant-Man and the Wasp[]
One of the first opportunities Ava saw to retrieve Pym's shrunken-down lab was during a deal between black market arms dealer Sonny Burch and Pym's daughter Hope. Ava let Hope take out Burch's security as the Wasp before ambushing her and trying to steal the part Hope had just purchased from Burch. She was almost defeated when Scott Lang showed up to provide backup as Ant-Man, but ultimately got away with Pym's lab.
Ava returned to her hideout with the lab, but began experiencing difficulty in controlling her state and laid down in her chamber to try and stabilize herself. She was asleep in the chamber when Scott and Hope, who had tracked the lab with Bill's help, snuck in to try and steal back the lab. They made little noise, but it was enough to wake Ava and she knocked them and Pym out and tied them up. Bill arrived some point later. Scott was the first to wake, to whom she explained her history and predicament before waking Hope and Pym and explaining the same to them. She told them that she planned to harvest Janet's quantum energy regardless of whether or not it killed Janet, which outraged Pym. He refused to help and the feigned a heart condition as a distraction, allowing them to steal back the lab and escape. Ava pursued them, planning to kidnap Scott's daughter as leverage, at which point Bill stated that she could do what she pleased, but that he would not help her anymore if she did something like that, and Ava ceded.
Cured[]
Scott, Hope, and Pym hid out and made themselves untraceable. Ava could not get a lead on where to find them until Scott appeared on the news in his giant form while retrieving the lab from Burch. Ava tracked the trio to their new location and battled Scott and Hope while Pym shrank down into the quantum realm. Scott and Hope were soon distracted by Burch's forces, allowing Ava to sneak into the lab and begin tampering with the quantum tunnel and start draining Janet's quantum energy at her expense. Scott and Hope attacked again and began fighting her off until Pym and Janet returned from the quantum realm. Janet was immediately able to sense Ava's brokenness and fear and willingly lent some of her quantum energy to her, enough to temporarily cure her condition. Bill and Ava went into hiding, but stayed in contact with Scott, Hope, Pym, and Janet, who began to regularly harvest quantum energy to stabilize her.[1]Attributes
Powers
- Quantum Mutation: Ava was destabilized on a molecular level when her father's quantum tunnel exploded. Though it causes her great pain, she possess multiple abilities relating to this.[1]
- Intangibility: Ava can render herself untouchable through the quantum instability, allowing her to pass through walls, vehicles, objects, and people.[1]
- Invisibility: Ava can become invisible to the human eye, allowing her to spy or ambush easily, though she still registers on heat sensing radars.[1]
Abilities
- Experienced Combatant: Ava has been trained by S.H.I.E.L.D. in several types of combat, making her a fearsome opponent, even for the likes of the well-trained Hope van Dyne.
- Experienced Spy: Ava was taught from a young age by S.H.I.E.L.D. how to perform high-stakes espionage and sabotage using her powers.
- Expert Strategist: Ava is S.H.I.E.L.D.-taught about different kinds of scenarios and methods of offense and defense, meaning she has an expert understanding of strategy.
Weaknesses
- Quantum Entropy: Ava's quantum instability causes her immense amounts of pain, describing the feeling as her "molecules being torn apart and being put back together again." She ultimately suffers from a kind of entropy, the tendency of matter to tear itself apart, if not treated with quantum energy after some time.
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Ghost's Suit: Ava wears a suit designed for her by S.H.I.E.L.D. which helps her to control her instability.
Notes
- Hannah John-Kamen portrays Ghost in the film Ant-Man and the Wasp. John-Kamen will reprise her role in the upcoming films Thunderbolts*, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars.[2]
- RaeLynn Bratten potrayed the character as a child in the film Ant-Man and the Wasp in flashbacks.
See Also
- 1 appearance(s) of Ava Starr (Earth-199999)
- 2 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Ava Starr (Earth-199999)
- 1 mention(s) of Ava Starr (Earth-199999)
- 5 image(s) of Ava Starr (Earth-199999)
- 1 quotation(s) by or about Ava Starr (Earth-199999)