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Summary

• MCU fans discuss how Loki season 2 builds up Kang the Conqueror as a terrifying threat more effectively in just one episode than Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania does in an entire movie.
• Alluding to danger creates a bigger emotional impact than showing it explicitly, as seen in Loki season 2 episode 1, where Kang doesn't even appear.
• Kang's early defeat in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania significantly lowers his perceived power and credibility as a villain, but Loki season 2 and other upcoming MCU projects can still improve the villain so he can match and surpass Thanos.

Warning! This article contains spoilers for Loki season 2, episode 1.Loki season 1 episode 1 reveals the problem with Kang the Conqueror's introduction in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and MCU fans are well aware of it. After the Loki season 1 finale set up Kang's arrival with He Who Remains' ominous death, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania featured Kang as its main villain. However, Ant-Man and his family defeated Kang and moved on with their lives rather easily, reducing the villain's credibility by a big margin before he had a chance to prove himself against more Avengers in an upcoming MCU movie or show.
Now, the MCU once again elevates Kang's looming presence by Loki season 2 episode 1's ending. This contrast between Loki's two-season buildup and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania's disappointing Kang debut has proved jarring for many. On X, many MCU fans have voiced their opinions about the dramatic whiplash between these MCU projects. See some of the posts below:
Loki seasons 1 and 2 make use of suspense, rather than action, to create a horrifying yet believable threat. Alluding to danger but not showing it explicitly has been the main tool of thrillers, murder-mysteries, and horror movies for decades, as the threat of the unknown is generally more terrifying than the source of danger itself. Loki's desperation throughout Loki season 2 episode 1 makes a bigger emotional impact on the audience than the entirety of Kang's on-screen presence in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where Kang's behavior and actions fail to stand out from any other supervillain.
On the same note, Kang's absence in Loki season 1 and 2 paints him as an all-powerful and inevitable force of nature, whereas his early debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania exposes his weaknesses. Seeing Kang the Conqueror struggle to defeat Ant-Man and his family at the same time that Loki is desperately trying to prove the villain's threat to the TVA drastically lowers his perceived power. What's worse, Kang's humiliating defeat after a barrage of attacks from Hank Pym's ants, MODOK, and the Ant-Man family makes it seem as if Loki vastly underestimated Kang in the first place.
The jarring inconsistency in Kang's threat to the MCU between Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania proves that Marvel Studios not only needs to be careful while choosing what to include in the MCU's movie and show slate, but also while choosing what not to include in each project. Only one single disappointing look at the Multiverse Saga's main villain puts his credibility into question, so a less-is-more approach could be a possible solution to keep the franchise's overarching story consistent.
Can Kang Really Be The MCU's New Thanos? Apart from succeeding as a proper multiversal villain, Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror also needs to match the high bar left by Thanos in the MCU's Infinity Saga. Thanos only had three brief cameos before his main villain role in Avengers: Infinity War, and all of them teased certain traits of the character, but none of them took away his ominous presence. Once Thanos arrived to face the Avengers, he was depicted as an unstoppable villain who surpassed Earth's Mightiest Heroes in strength, strategy, and determination — to the point that Thanos claimed a full-fledged victory against the Avengers by the time Avengers: Infinity War's credits rolled.
Loki seasons 1 and 2 have taken more time to set up Kang the Conqueror as the MCU's main villain than any project in the Infinity Saga did with Thanos. Yet, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania also did more to undermine Kang's potential. One element that can make the difference for Kang, for better or for worse, is his nearly omnipresent nature as the Council of Kangs. Unlike Thanos, there are countless different versions of Kang. Some are weaker and easy to defeat, while some may be nearly unstoppable. This is a possible explanation for Kang's poor performance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: the worst Kang variant is yet to come.