Yellowjacket

"I spent years carrying around my anger for Hank Pym. I devoted my genius to him. I could’ve worked anywhere. I chose my mentor poorly. You didn’t even have a choice. He never believed in you. It’s a shame what we had to do, but he forced us to do it."

- Darren Cross to Hope van Dyne

Darren Cross was the protégé of Hank Pym who became the CEO of Cross Technologies. His obsession with Pym's former design of the Ant-Man Suit led to him replicating his Mentor's formula which he intended to sell to the terrorist organization HYDRA. Using his own version of the suit, the Yellowjacket, he tried to fulfill the transaction, but he was stopped and killed by Pym, Hope van Dyne and Scott Lang.

Working for Pym Technologies
"Hank Pym was my friend, and mentor, but mentors are meant to nurture their protege's potential, not stunt it."

- Darren Cross

Darren Cross graduated from MIT as valedictorian at the age of twenty. He was hired directly from MIT by Hank Pym, and for a time worked as his assistant at Pym Technologies. However, he became obsessed with learning the secrets of Pym's Ant-Man Suit, and his size-reducing Pym Particle technology.

Taking Over
"I'm the future of war!"

- Darren Cross

Over the years, Cross forced Hank Pym from his own company and took over as CEO, renaming it Cross Technologies; the company under Cross' leadership became a rival of Stark Industries under the guidance of Cross. Cross continued to obsess over Pym's previous experiments that had remained hidden from the world, focusing much of his energy into understanding the science behind the Ant-Man Suit. Evenutally, Cross' obsession paid off and he was able to make his own weaponized version of the Ant-Man Suit, called the Yellowjacket Suit.

WIRED Magazine Interview
"Pym Tech has yet to roll out a single new product during your time as CEO." "Is there a question?"

- James Rondell and Darren Cross

Cross gave an interview with WIRED Insider discussing his work at Pym Technologies. Cross assured his interviewer James Rondell that Pym Tech was working hard with their old designs while developing a new design which would be astonishing. When Cross was asked about Hank Pym and his involvement in the company and whether or not he was pushed out of his company, he claimed he and Pym were close friends before cutting the interview short.

Reunion with Hank Pym
"Hank, will you tell our guests what you told me every single time I asked you was the Ant-Man real." "Just a tall tale." "Right, because how could anything so miraculous possibly be real."

- Darren Cross and Hank Pym

Cross organized a presentation with several potential investors for his Yellowjacket Suit, and also invited Hank Pym to witness his success. To his surprise, Pym showed up and was greeted by his estranged daughter Hope van Dyne, who was now working for Cross. While giving his presentation, Cross showed off many pieces of footage believed to be of Ant-Man in the 1980's and used Pym as an example of his history with the project, which Pym continued to deny. Eventually Cross showed his guests his Yellowjacket armor and explained its many benefits to the military with a slick presentation. He explained how he had been able to recreate the technology used by the Ant-Man and created a new form of Pym Particles which could shrink who or whatever came into contact with it while increasing their strength. However, a member of Pym Technologies, Frank, seemed less than impressed, noting it was only a suit which could also pose a threat if it were to fall into the hands of their enemies. Annoyed at having been questioned, Cross asked to see Frank in private later to discuss the Yellowjacket further. With the guests discussing the pitch, Cross spoke to Pym in private. When Pym finally confessed that he had developed the Pym Particles and the Ant-Man Suit in the 1980's, Pym warned Cross not to pursue this project any further as he believed that the technology was far too dangerous when put into the wrong hands. Cross refused to listen to reason and vowed to complete his work, telling Pym that they could have built the Yellowjacket as partners, but Pym had ruined any chance of repairing their partnership. As Cross walked away from Pym, he was approached by Mitchell Carson, an old enemy of Pym's who was now working for HYDRA. Carson offered a deal to Cross in which HYDRA would purchase the Yellowjacket Suit for twenty percent of his asking price in exchange for a fast payment in cash. Blinded by his greed and pride, Cross accepted the offer and began to put things in place to sell his weapons to the ultimate terrorist organisation. However, before he could sell the technology, Cross knew he had to perfect it.

Murder
"Darren, I don’t think you understand…" "Hm. We still haven’t worked out all the bugs. Goodbye, Frank."

- Frank and Darren Cross

Cross sought out the guest who questioned him in the Pym Technologies bathroom, where he presented himself as friendly and understanding, handing over a paper towel for the man to wash his hands. However, when the man continued to question Cross' work, Cross shot him with a gun containing the unstable Pym Particles, causing his body to shrink and collapse into itself, leaving a tiny bloody mess on the floor. Cross wiped away the mess and flushed it down the toilet.

Dinner with Hope van Dyne
"I deserve EVERYTHING that's coming to me!"

- Darren Cross to Hope van Dyne

Viewing the presentation to have been a success, Cross invited Hope van Dyne out to dinner with him to celebrate. There Cross discussed his fractured relationship with Hank Pym and they toasted to Cross' impressive success with finally completing his experiments and van Dyne told him he deserved everything that was coming to him.

Perfecting the Serum
"Commence experiment 34C, organic atomic reduction." "Darren, maybe we should think…" "Shrinking organic tissue is the centerpiece of this technology. I can’t go to the buyers with half a breakthrough."

- Darren Cross and Hope van Dyne

With Hope van Dyne by his side, Cross continued his experiments to try to perfect his version of the Pym Particles, bringing in lambs to act as his test subjects, despite promising van Dyne that they would be using rats. The experiments continued to be a failure, with each shot of Pym Particles reducing the lambs to a tiny bloody mess on the floor. Cross refused to give up; however, and continued bringing in test subjects for hours on end, forcing his staff to work long hours, with one after the other being instantly killed when coming into contact with the unstable Pym Particles. Eventually one of the tests finally proved successful when the lamb was reduced in size and stayed alive in a small glass container. Delighted, Cross picked up the container and gave it a gentle flick, knocking the lamb off-balance before he began smiling manically at his success.

Confronting Pym
"Pym Tech, the company you created, is about to become one of the most profitable operations in the world. We’re anticipating fifteen billion in sales tomorrow alone. You’re welcome. I know this is odd, but I’d like you to be there. This is my moment, I want you to see it." "Sure, Darren. Yeah, sure. I’ll be there."

- Darren Cross and Hank Pym

Cross travelled to the Pym Residence with the intent of killing Pym after he told his former mentor of his success. When he arrived, he found the door unlocked and overheard Pym speaking to Hope van Dyne and Scott Lang before discovering plans throughout the house for what appeared to be an elaborate heist into Pym Technologies to steal the Yellowjacket Suit. Before Cross could study these plans further, he was interrupted by Hank Pym. Not wishing to raise suspicion, Cross greeted his friend warmly and invited him to the presentation of the Yellowjacket as Cross' greatest achievement, which Pym had accepted. As Cross drove home, he phoned van Dyne in an attempt to keep them unsuspicious of his discovery and told her that he had just seen Pym, asking her where she was, to which she lied and claimed to be at her home. In an attempt to sabotage Pym's heist plans, he then ordered her to increase security at Pym Technologies ahead of the Yellowjacket Suit presentation; she reluctantly agreed, which caused a major problem in the forthcoming heist. Cross then told van Dyne that he was lucky to have her on his team, despite knowing of her recent betrayal.

Selling the Yellowjacket
"Mr. Carson introduced me to these fine gentlemen here, they’re representatives of HYDRA. They’re not what they were, they’re doing some interesting work. And I’m enjoying myself!"

- Darren Cross to Hank Pym

As the day arrived to present the Yellowjacket Suit to his investors, Cross found Hope van Dyne walking through the Pym Technologies corridors where she had been sabotaging the inner workings of the building ready for the heist. Not wishing to let Van Dyne believe he was aware of her plans, Cross smiled and asked her opinion on his suit before they set off to greet their guests arriving for the presentation. When Hank Pym arrived at the facility as requested, Cross happily invited him into the presentation room for a private discussion about their work as Pym congratulated him on his success. As Cross went through the security checks, Pym noted that he may have overdone things, but Cross said with a smile that he could never be too careful. Once Cross, Pym and van Dyne were alone in the presentation room, Cross' bodyguards held them at gunpoint and Cross revealed that he had known all along of Pym's plans. He then waited for Scott Lang to dive into the glass case to steal the Yellowjacket Suit and trapped him inside, removing the suit beforehand, mocking Lang for his failure. They were then joined by Mitchell Carson, whom Cross introduced as the representative from HYDRA. Pym attempted to convince Cross not to sell the suit to them, but Cross refused to listen and threatened to kill Pym. However Lang was able to break free; he and Van Dyne began fighting Cross' guards, but Cross managed to shoot Pym. As Ant-Man and van Dyne ran to the bleeding Pym's aid, Cross stepped behind Lang and placed his gun to his head, threatening to kill him if he did not remove the Ant-Man Suit immediately, even promising that he was willing to pull it off his corpse. However before Cross could pull the trigger he noticed that a group of ants had began crawling up his arm and biting into his skin, causing him incredible pain. Unable to fire the gun Cross ran out the room, leaving Pym, Lang and van Dyne behind. While Carson escaped with the Pym Particles and the money, Cross ran to his guards while ripping ants off his skin. As he held one final ant between his fingers and slowly crushed it to death, the furious Cross demanded that a helicopter be brought to the roof immediately so he could escape, he then left to guards behind and ordered them to kill anyone who stepped out of the room without mercy before leaving to get on board the helicopter before he could be arrested by the police that had gathered outside.

Fighting Ant-Man
"Did you think you could stop the future with a heist?!" "It was never just a heist!"

- Darren Cross and Scott Lang

Cross took the Yellowjacket Suit in his suitcase and made his way to his helicopter on the roof, screaming at the pilot to leave as soon as possible. As he began to escape, Cross witnessed a swarm of flying ants coming towards him, led by Scott Lang, Cross began firing his gun wildly in an attempt to kill Lang but only succeeded in killing one of the ants carrying Lang. This only served to anger Lang, who managed to get onboard the helicopter and knock out Cross' guards. However, Cross managed to kick Lang out of the helicopter but he held on by grabbing the seatbelt. He taunted Lang for attempting to stop his plans with a heist, to which Lang clarified that it was never a heist, which confused Cross and caused him to look back on the building. Cross watched in horror as Pym Technologies, along with his research of the Yellowjacket, was destroyed by the explosives Lang put in earlier. With no other choice and his plans ruined, Cross put on the Yellowjacket Suit and prepared to fight Scott Lang on his own terms. The pair began fighting each other, shrinking down to size and increasing back to size again. Cross' suit proved superior to Lang's due to the mounted cannons on the back; however, due to Lang's extensive training with the Ant-Man Suit, he managed to keep Cross back. Eventually they caused damage to the helicopter and forced it to crash land. As they fell they tumbled into Cross' suitcase and fought a battle inside. The pair landed in a family's swimming pool where Cross regained his size and threatened to slaughter them. Scott Lang defended them and after a brief confrontation, Lang managed to throw Cross into a bug-zapper, seemingly overcharging the suit and killing him. While Lang was being arrested by local police-officers who were unaware of the situation, Cross awoke from within the bug-zapper screaming insanely, with his suit burnt and his body wounded but very angry and seeking revenge on those who destroyed his plans.

Death
"Sorry, sweetheart, you have to help daddy pay for his mistakes."

- Darren Cross' last words

Cross travelled to the home of Scott's ex-wife Maggie Lang and took their daughter Cassie Lang hostage, waiting for her father to come to rescue her. It did not take long for Scott to arrive and confront Cross as the pair engaged in a brutal miniature fight on Cassie's toy train-tracks, throwing sections of the train at each other. Lang called for reinforcements from his army of Ants who attacked Cross, before Lang was able to throw him into the train tracks, causing him to be run over by Cassie's toy. Lang attempted to shrink and sabotage Cross's suit. However, he discovered the mainframe on the Yellowjacket suit was encased with a shell of titanium, which could not be penetrated unless the Ant-Man Suit's regulator was deactivated; this would put Lang in danger of shrinking indefinitely. Frustrated by his inability to kill Lang, Cross attempted to attack Cassie while she was being protected by Jim Paxton. Although Paxton attempted to shoot Cross, he was quickly disarmed by one of the suit's arms, leaving him and Cassie defenceless. As Cross prepared to murder the innocent family simply to torment his foe, Lang was left with no other choice but to turn off his suit's regulator and sacrifice himself by shrinking into the Yellowjacket Suit and damaging its internal mainframe. Cross screamed in horrific pain one last time before the suit then collapsed into itself, smashing the glass in his helmet and crushing his limbs until Cross' body was completely destroyed. Lang was briefly teleported into the Quantum Realm, before finally being able to return to his normal size.

Personality
"I'm gonna show you just how insignificant you are."

- Yellowjacket to Ant-Man

Darren Cross is an extremely cruel and ruthless businessman who is willing to use Hank Pym's Pym Particles as a weapon. He is a man who believes that his ends justified the means and would easily attempt to use anything in order to gain his final goal of miniaturizing organic matter, including using lambs to shrink even if the end result was a failure and once this was accomplished Cross had no qualms about flicking the successfully shrunk lamb in its container as a mere plaything. He was a good person when he started working for Pym as his protege, but that changed when Cross became obsessed with the Pym Particles and the Ant-Man Suit. As Pym pointed out, Cross was basically what Pym used to be like in his youth and originally thought he was the son he never had.

Cross had no problems with murder, as he killed Frank for questioning the Yellowjacket Suit's safety using a Shrink Gun, attempted to kill Pym out of jealousy and anger, and Cassie Lang and Jim Paxton when they got in the way. He was also willing to sell the Pym Particles and Yellowjacket Suit to shady businessmen like HYDRA. As a man of extreme caution and intellect, he was able to deduce and plan ahead of his enemies, like when he set a trap for Scott Lang, Pym and Hope van Dyne after the latter attempted to steal his suit. As Yellowjacket, he became crazy after losing Pym Technologies and being electrified by a fly-light trap. He attempted to kill Ant-Man with no restrain, as he unintentionally killed his bodyguards and the pilots during the helicopter fight with no regard for his own action, and was willing to use Cassie Lang as a hostage to get to her father.

Powers
"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

- Scott Lang

Yellowjacket Suit
 * Size Reduction: Using the original Ant-Man suit and Pym Particles formula as a start up point, Cross developed a new suit which allows him to reduce approximately to the size of an ant. He also still maintains his regular sized strength and durability when shrinking.
 * Flight: The suit has the power of flight.
 * Energy Pulse Stinger: The suit has two tentacle-like 'stingers' on the back which can fire intense energy blasts.
 * Superhuman Strength: The suit grants the wearer superhuman strength while shrunk.

Abilities
"Well, they don't draft the stupid kids first."

- Darren Cross


 * Genius Level Intellect: Darren Cross graduated from MIT at only twenty years old and was impressive enough to be recruited by genius Hank Pym to work for him.
 * Master Scientist: Cross was recruited by Hank Pym to work at his company, Pym Technologies as his personal assistant and one of the lead scientists. Over time, he became obsessed with replicating Pym's Ant-Man Suit, and managed to create his own version, the Yellowjacket Suit.
 * Expert Businessman: Cross was able to oust Pym from Pym Technologies and become its leader. Though the company had not presented a product in some time, Cross assured, in an interview, that its shareholders were satisfied.

Weapons

 * : Cross took one of these guns from one of his security guards, with the intention of personally killing Hank Pym. Due to Ant-Man and Hope van Dyne's intervention, Cross was unable to kill him, but he still managed to shoot Pym in the shoulder. A group of Ants disabled Cross' gun, and he was forced to discard it.
 * : Cross took one of these guns from one of his security guards while trying to escape from Pym Technologies Headquarters. He began to shoot at a swarm of Ants, hoping to kill Ant-Man, and he managed to kill Ant-Man's steed, Ant-thony.
 * Shrink Gun: As Cross tried to create a new form of the Pym Particles, he failed to shrink a living body. However, he weaponized it to the Shrink Gun, able to kill living beings by condensing their tissue into a tiny puddle of protein substance. Cross used it on Frank.

Allies

 * Cross Technologies
 * James Rondell - Interviewer
 * HYDRA
 * Mitchell Carson - Business Partner
 * HYDRA Buyer †

Enemies

 * Hank Pym - Mentor turned Enemy
 * Hope van Dyne - Assistant turned Enemy
 * Scott Lang/Ant-Man - Killer
 * Frank † - Associate turned Victim
 * Ant-thony † - Victim
 * Cassie Lang - Hostage
 * Jim Paxton
 * Gale
 * Maggie Lang
 * Luis
 * Dave
 * Kurt

Trivia

 * In the comics, Darren Cross was a technology industrialist. His heart was failing, so he murdered homeless people and took their hearts to keep himself alive. Scott Lang fought Cross when he kidnapped Specialist Erica Sondheim, the only person who could cure Lang's daughter, Cassie. When Lang and Cross fought, Cross died of a massive coronary.
 * Darren Cross listens to The Cure.
 * In the comics, Yellowjacket is one of the many heroic identities taken by Hank Pym. During his first time donning the Yellowjacket suit, Hank Pym's mental state greatly suffered due to the Pym particles affecting his brain chemistry, similar to the reasoning given for Cross's mental deterioration in the film.
 * Cross's role as the Yellowjacket bears many similarities to Ultron's various depictions in the comics. In the film, Cross had a strained relationship with Pym which is very reminiscent to Ultron's relationship with Pym in the comics. When Cross questioned Hank Pym for pushing him away, Pym reasoned that he "saw too much" of himself in Cross. This is very similar to how Ultron's personality was based on Hank Pym in the comics, and it could also be referencing the fact that the Yellowjacket persona was one of Pym's many superhero identities. Furthermore in the Ultimate Marvel comics, Ultron was a super soldier robot that later gained sentience and decidedly assumed the Yellowjacket persona after rebelling against its creator, Hank Pym.
 * Cross calls the Ant-Man Suit "Propaganda. Tales to astonish!" This is a reference to the name of the comic book Hank Pym first appeared in, Tales to Astonish.
 * Darren Cross/Yellowjacket appears as a playable character in the non-canon video game Lego Marvel's Avengers. He is unlocked by downloading and completing The Ant-Man Level & Character Pack.

Behind the Scenes

 * He is the second main villain to be killed by the titular character(s) of the film in which he appears, first being Ronan the Accuser.