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Ava Starr is the daughter of Elihas and Catherine Starr, and a founding member of the New Avengers. During her childhood, she gained the ability to render herself intangible and generate extreme amounts of power following a quantum accident which killed her parents. At a young age, S.H.I.E.L.D. began taking advantage of her powers, enlisting her as a stealth operative under the moniker of Ghost prior to Hydra's uprising. Under Bill Foster's care, Starr realized that she was slowly dying due to a lack of quantum energy, which she involuntarily harnessed.
Within weeks of succumbing to her disease without a cure, Starr learned that a Quantum Tunnel had been created by Hank Pym and embedded into a portable lab. Her plans to absorb energy from the Quantum Realm conflicted with Pym's plans to rescue Janet van Dyne, whose survival in the Quantum Realm relied directly on the energy Starr sought to extract. Starr began making attempts to steal the lab by force, putting her in conflict with Ant-Man and Wasp. Upon her return, Janet transferred some of her quantum energy into Starr, stabilizing her affliction. With her pain healed, she went into hiding with Foster.
On the run from fifteen nations, Starr found herself under the employment of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, working as a shadow operative for O.X.E. When de Fontaine was faced with incoming impeachment, she sent Ghost and her other operatives to kill each other in an attempt to get rid of any incriminating evidence. Following a brief battle, where Ghost murdered Taskmaster, the group learned the truth and agreed to work together to escape. Ghost, now teamed with Yelena Belova, U.S. Agent, Red Guardian, and Winter Soldier, decided to take down de Fontaine and stop her plans to use Bob Reynolds as her own weapon. The team saved Manhattan from Void, and de Fontaine publicly declared them as the New Avengers.
"My father tried to continue his research on his own, desperate to restore his name. So, he took risks. Too many, until something went wrong. He told us to run. I could tell he was scared. I didn't want him to be alone. When I woke up, my parents were dead. I wasn't so lucky."
As a child, Ava Starr grew up in Argentina as the daughter of Catherine and Elihas Starr. Starr witnessed the fallout of her father's partnership with Hank Pym, who kicked him out of S.H.I.E.L.D. and smeared his name within the scientific community. Embittered, Elihas continued to research quantum energy on his own, despite the risks. When an experiment involving the Quantum Tunnel went wrong, Starr tried to run to her father to ensure he did not die alone, but the tunnel ruptured before she reached him, killing her parents and inundating her with quantum energy.
When the Fire Department arrived, they were unable to touch Starr as she had become intangible from the accident. Starr was placed in an orphanage and later met her father's ex-colleague Bill Foster, who gave her a teddy bear. Although she was upset for her inability to hold the toy, Foster encouraged Starr to focus her powers, eventually allowing her to solidify and pick it up. Foster promised to find a way to cure her condition and began to act as a surrogate father to Starr, developing the quantum chamber to allow her to briefly stabilize and ease her pain.[1]
"Dr. Foster did his best to keep me safe. But others at S.H.I.E.L.D. saw an opportunity in my affliction. They built me a containment suit so I could control my phasing and trained me to be a stealth operative."
Observing the potential asset her powers could become, S.H.I.E.L.D. took Starr and began to train her in espionage so that she could go on missions to take down threats that proved too difficult for conventional operatives. They developed the Ghost Suit for her to harness her abilities, granting her the option to slip between intangible and solid states, and promised to help find a way to cure her.
Ghost appearing during one of her missions
Over the course of her time in the field, as well as the prolonged suffering caused by her quantum displacement, Starr became hardened and extremely vicious, eventually realizing that S.H.I.E.L.D. had no intention of finding a cure. When S.H.I.E.L.D. collapsed in 2014, Starr was taken back in by Bill Foster, who began to assist her in researching a cure as her condition started to deteriorate.[1]
In 2018, Starr observed Hank Pym, who shrunk the Mobile Laboratory and left with Hope van Dyne and Scott Lang. Starr suddenly materialized a short distance away, tracking their van to Sonny Burch's restaurant, Oui. After Burch attempted to double-cross van Dyne, Starr waited until van Dyne, in her Wasp Suit, had defeated Burch's mercenaries and taken the final component.
Ghost appeared in front of Wasp and engaged with her in a duel for the component, loosening her grasp of it until she was punched in the face once Wasp turned small. After phasing out from Wasp's attack, Ghost disappeared from the conflict and waited for the opportunity to distract her and grabbed her body to slam it on a table. As Wasp grabbed the component and tried to attack Ghost with a service table, she phased through it without a flinch.
Ghost then attacked Wasp by punching her in the face, knocking the component out of her hold. Despite gaining an upper hand on Wasp, Ghost's plans were thwarted when Lang, in the Ant-Man Suit, arrived, being stopped at the moment when she pinned Wasp against the wall. Ghost was kicked to the ground by Ant-Man, causing her to disappear again. Once the two managed to defeat her, Ghost came up with a plan to confront Pym from where he was contacting them.
Going outside of the restaurant while Ant-Man and Wasp tried to communicate with Pym, Ghost managed to find Pym inside his van and phased through his throat with her arm. Threatening Pym with his life, Ghost coerced him to give up the Mobile Laboratory, resulting in it being handed to her. She then fled the van before Ant-Man and Wasp could intervene.
Arriving at her hideout, Starr walked inside the guestroom with the Mobile Laboratory and the component and placed them on a desk. Taking off her suit so that she could breathe, Starr placed her suit down and slowly walked over to her Quantum Energy Chamber to temporarily stabilize herself. Once Starr was inside the Chamber, she rested on her bed and tried to relax while her molecules were put into place.[1]
While Starr was recovering inside the Quantum Energy Chamber, Hank Pym had successfully tracked down the Mobile Laboratory using re-engineered tech from an earlier Ant-Man Suit and sent Wasp and Ant-Man there to retrieve it. While they were able to enter the building and locate the lab, Starr woke up from her rest and quietly snuck up on them.
Starr went behind the Wasp's back and knocked her out with a punch to the head and kicked Ant-Man's face, causing them to lose consciousness. Starr then began to put them in restrains while they were sitting in a chair for interrogation. When Lang regained consciousness, he tried to wake up van Dyne and Pym, who were beside him. Starr quickly appeared in front of Lang, telling him that they can't hear him.
Starr introduced herself to Lang, and was asked if she used her Suit to go through things, so she responded that it only helped her control her powers and the pain she felt while doing so. As Lang expressed his fear of her by questioning if she'll rip his heart out from his chest, Starr laughed at his fear and told him that she would never hurt him unless she had to, noting she wanted something that was in his head instead.
After touching Lang's face and triggering her powers again, Starr decided to wake up the rest of the captives, kicking them to wake them. When Wasp threatened Starr to never touch her father, she expressed that she was a little too gentle with him. Once Bill Foster clarified who Starr was, van Dyne wanted to know what was going on, leading Starr to tell Pym that her father, Elihas, worked with Pym until their disagreement had gotten him fired.
Ghost explains the truth of her own past
Starr further mentioned that her father was discredited for good measure once he was fired from his research on quantum energy. Starr continued that her father was doing his research while taking risks until something went wrong. Starr told them that his research had killed him and her mother, Catherine, but she survived from the explosion that resulted in her powers emerging. Starr noted that she was adopted by Foster and was taken in by S.H.I.E.L.D. as an assassin.
Starr declares she wants to cure herself
Foster told them that once S.H.I.E.L.D. had collapsed, he took Starr to his home and noticed that her condition had worsened even further. As Foster explained that Starr needed a cure, he was told that she noticed Pym was building a Quantum Tunnel and knew about the psionic link that Lang shared with Janet van Dyne in order to track her down in the quantum realm and extract her quantum energy to permanently fix her displacement.
After Foster allowed Lang to answer a call from his daughter, Foster continued on by telling them that they would be extracting Janet's quantum energy that she absorbed for thirty years to give it to Starr for her survival. Pym refused to cooperate with Foster because of the possibility that Janet would die during the extraction. Starr bitterly retorted by telling him that he would do as she said, walking over with Foster as he took the component.
As they were about to leave, Pym feigned a heart attack to trick Foster into opening the Altoids tin, leading him to grab the tin and give it to Pym. Getting suspicious over Pym, Starr noticed that it was a trap and told Foster to not open it. The tin released a group of enlarged Ants came out, allowing van Dyne and Lang to escape with the lab. Starr was then attacked by van Dyne with her Stingers, and she watched the rest of the captives flee the room as she ached in pain.[1]
"You said you could fix me. You promised!" "I know. I will. But not like that. You let one finger on that little girl… I won't help you. And we're done." "Fine. There are other options."
With Hank Pym, Wasp, and Ant-Man taking back the Mobile Laboratory and the component, Starr witnessed Bill Foster checking the Quantum Energy Chamber and told her that it could barely help her temporarily restore her molecules. On that note, Starr asked how long she had, in which Foster theorized that it could be a couple of weeks.
Starr agrees to find another option
Starr demanded that they needed to get the lab, suggesting that kidnap Lang's daughter in order to give up the lab for themselves. Foster told Starr to not resort to that, noting that he would not participate in that kind of behavior. Starr responded to him that he was not the one who was being tore apart from her condition and told him that he promised to fix her. Foster told Starr he would help her but would not resort to violence.
Knowing that Foster would not help her if she went after Lang's daughter, Starr declared that she would find another option. Infiltrating X-Con Security Consultants, Starr invisibly observed Sonny Burch interrogating Luis with Truth Serum. Luis initially misinterpreted Burch's questioning on Lang's whereabouts by describing his emotional state, before Burch demanded his literal whereabouts. Luis answered that he was in the woods.
Starr made herself appear in front of Luis, startling both parties. Starr leaned in closely to ask Luis where in the woods, to which he answered that it was specifically Muir Woods. Now with the knowledge of the location of the Mobile Laboratory, Starr then left the room and phased out of sight. Starr went outside of the office and purposely damaged Burch's car to slow him down and quickly headed for the lab.[1]
"Is it ready or not?" "We can begin the extraction process now. Listen, Ava, this whole thing could be very dangerous. Maybe, maybe we should…" "Maybe we should what? Wait? I've got days until I'm dead. We're doing this, Bill. Now."
When Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne were arrested by the FBI in Muir Woods, Ghost followed Agent Stoltz as he took the Mobile Laboratory inside a van. Ghost watched Stoltz walking to his car to put the lab inside, only for her to puncture his heart. Ghost took the lab after she attacked Stoltz, leading the FBI to become suspicious.
Starr demands to continue the process
Starr arrived inside the Laboratory and had Bill Foster operate the Quantum Energy Chamber by using the Quantum Tunnel to extract the energy from it. After they had begun the extraction process, Starr was told by Foster that it could be dangerous. Starr responded to Foster that she had days to live and that they would be performing the process regardless. Just as Foster began to turn on the Tunnel, a group of Ants stopped their machine, causing them to realize Pym was interfering.
Once Starr looked below the army of Ants on the control panel, she told Foster that they couldn't be that far away from the lab. Picking up her helmet and walking out of the lab, Ghost found a streak of Ants from an abandoned building. Ghost snuck up behind Ant-Man, who had previously freed Pym and Wasp from the San Francisco FBI Office, smashing his face on a glass window and kicking him across the wall to the other side of the room.
As Ant-Man got up to grow smaller, Ghost walked towards him and told him to call off the Ants that were invading their plans. Once Ant-Man realized his suit wasn't working properly, Ghost began to chase him down at a walking pace, passing through walls as he tried to escape from her. While Ant-Man had temporarily lost Ghost and tried to contact his team to hurry up on the plan, she found him hiding near a wall and began to chase him down again. Ghost finally tracked down Ant-Man, passing through a table.
Ghost snuck up in front of Ant-Man while he was reporting to his team, aggressively kicking him towards a wall. Ghost was about to attack Ant-Man but had noticed the lab had shrunk down into small size again. Looking at Luis giving the Mobile Laboratory to Wasp, Ghost was quickly outraged, realizing that she had fallen into a trap. Ant-Man told Ghost that misdirection was the first rule of close-up magic, turning small again in order to leave the area.[1]
A three-sided car chase then took place between Wasp and Sonny Burch's men across the streets of San Francisco. Ghost managed to chase down the cars that were heading down the streets and used her phasing powers to move across a random woman's car, kicking Burch's men in that face so that she could hijack his motorcycle.
During her drive-by with her motorcycle, Starr had managed to track down Ant-Man and Wasp's van and began to drop her motorcycle to sneak up in front of the van. Ghost went through the car window and kicked Wasp away from the back of the van, letting her out of the van before she shrunk down. Ghost tied Luis and Ant-Man with their seat belts and got the Mobile Laboratory from them, escaping the van to hijack a nearby truck with a wooden plank. Ghost drove the truck with the lab in hand and tried to get over to her rendezvous point.
Wasp suddenly tracked down Ghost and began to fight against her for the lab until Ant-Man had to interfere in the conflict. Ghost noticed Ant-Man clinging onto the windshield wiper and began to turn it on in order to lose him. Wasp leaned in for the punch but Ghost phased out to dodge and then grabbed Wasp on the driver's seat, hoping to strangle her out. Wasp got out of Ghost's grasp and as they continued to fight, Ant-Man enlarged himself and punched Ghost in the face.
Ghost was slightly knocked out from the attack and in that moment, so Wasp took the lab and flew away behind the truck. Ghost took off her helmet and phased through the driver's seat and landed onto the wooden platform on the truck. Before the both of them could fight against each other, Burch and his mercenary had bumped into the truck, letting the lab fall into the hands of Burch once again. Ghost jumped out of the truck and landed on the ground.
While on the ground, Ghost witnessed Burch and his henchman driving away to another direction and followed them along the way. Eventually, after Ant-Man took the lab from Burch and struggled to breathe, he dropped the lab on the nearby pier. While Luis planned on getting the lab, Ghost kicked him away from it and used the remote she stole from him to make it normal size again, entering the building as fast as possible.[1]
As Hank Pym was preparing to exit the Quantum Realm with Janet van Dyne, Starr began her process of extracting energy to repair her body. Foster followed Starr and warned her that Janet would die if she continued the extraction. Starr ignored Foster's statement, as she thought he cared more about Janet than about her.
While Starr reached for the control panel, Foster promised that Janet would be able to help her, leading her to push him away aggressively. Starr told Foster that this was the only way and turned on the Quantum Tunnel in order power the Energy Chamber. Starr walked inside the Chamber and she began to become whole again, much to her delight. Ant-Man and Wasp walked inside the lab and stopped her from using the Tunnel to power the Chamber.
Starr noticed what they were doing and began to interfere with their plans to stop her. Starr attacked Ant-Man with full force, but her punches could not land on him until he grew small enough that she kicked him across the room. Starr saw Wasp near the control panel and began to attack her, phasing out of her Stingers that she was blasting at her. Starr attacked Wasp with her punches and kicks but was caught off guard once Ant-Man had teamed up with Wasp.
Starr was kicked into the ground, but attacked back once Wasp tried to knock her out and proceeded to kick Ant-Man in the face. Noticing Wasp on the trail of the Tunnel, Starr walked over to her and finally tried to kill her only to be run over by the Quantum Vehicle, flying across the room. Starr was stopped by Lang and van Dyne and kept at bay as Pym and Janet were able to successfully return from the Quantum Realm.
By then, Starr's body was began to fall apart completely; however, Janet calmed her down and told her that she felt her pain. Starr expressed to Janet that her condition hurt and always had. Janet apologized for her sickness and told Starr that she could fix it. Janet transferred a portion of quantum energy into her, making Starr feel whole again and letting her touch Janet's hand. Luis then burst inside the lab and warned them that the Police were coming.[1]
Ghost proceeded to escape the Mobile Laboratory with Bill Foster, Scott Lang, Hank Pym, Janet, and Hope, who had a plan to distract the FBI from their path to not get them all arrested. Once they had succeeded on the plan, Starr and Foster escaped the scene and into an alleyway in order to avoid getting arrested.
In the alleyway, Starr told Foster to leave her, but he insisted on staying with her. Starr expressed that she had hurt people, but Foster responded that he wouldn't abandon her. With a bleak smile, Starr hugged Foster. Starr kept in contact with the Pyms and Lang, who were working on curing her by harvesting quantum energy. However, the team were disintegrated into dust by Thanos, which left Lang trapped in the Quantum Realm, thus preventing them from providing any further help to Starr.[1]
DNA Acquired[]
By 2023, Ghost's DNA had been acquired by her former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury, who placed her DNA alongside many other enhanced individuals in a vial known as the Harvest. The Harvest vial was then administered by the Super-SkrullsGravik and G'iah, bestowing both of them with Ghost's powers.[4]
New Life[]
Working for O.X.E.[]
"The infamous Ghost. A S.H.I.E.L.D. reject on the run across fifteen nations."
While on the run, Ghost was encountered by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who recruited her to work for O.X.E., undergoing shadow ops assignments. Ghost was provided with a new suit to help her control her powers, which she utilized to complete various assassination and infiltration missions.[5]
"I'm not sure what's happening here, but you're all exhausting and my job is done." "But you see, my job is to keep an eye on you. So no, you are not gonna go anywhere anymore."
Only ordered to kill Taskmaster, Ghost phased through U.S. Agent and attacked her target. The two engaged in a fight, with Ghost dodging all of Taskmaster's attacks by becoming intangible until she was tackled by Belova. Ghost quickly escaped from Belova with her intangibility and resumed fighting Taskmaster. Belova threw her knife at Ghost, who caught it and threw it at Taskmaster, but she deflected it. Ghost attempted to open fire at Taskmaster, but she blocked the bullets with her shield before kicking Ghost away.
Ghost quickly recovered, became invisible, and got in front of Taskmaster and shot her point-blank in the head, killing her instantly. Ghost removed her helmet and took satisfaction in successfully completing her mission, but she soon overheard someone else in the vault. Ghost, Belova, and U.S. Agent took aim at a man who stepped out from behind some boxes and introduced himself as Bob Reynolds. The doors around them shut, trapping them inside, but Ghost went to leave, only to be stopped by Belova, who explained she was sent to kill her. Belova and Ghost then realized that de Fontaine had sent them all to kill each other.
U.S. Agent did not believe this, and brought up Ghost, Belova, and Taskmaster's criminal past, which made him think he had been sent to bring them in. Ghost and Belova laughed at U.S. Agent's delusion as he told them to tie themselves up, and Ghost resumed her departure, turning invisible. However, when she went to phase through the door, her powers were disabled due to a high-frequency sound barrier being triggered, hurting them all and preventing any of them from leaving.[5]
Stuck inside of the O.X.E. Vault, Starr began looting off of Taskmaster's corpse, stealing her bow and sword. Suddenly, an alarm went off and the room started to get hotter, leading them to realize they were about to be incinerated. Yelena Belova made a plan to destroy the power source to the sound barrier, and once they found it, Starr was able to phase out of the room to open to door.
Starr informs the other about her powers
Starr went to escape, abandoning the others, but the power to the elevator had been cut, so she went back and opened the door. John Walker thanked Starr for saving them, but she stated she had no other choice. The group then questioned Bob Reynolds about how he ended up in the vault, but he did not know. The group made their way on top of the elevator and wondered how they would get up, with Walker suggesting Starr phase up through the walls, but she explained that she needed to see where she was going.
Starr tells the group about her childhood
Reynolds had the idea for them to link arms and walk up the shaft. As they ascended, Walker commented on Starr's suit being hard, which annoyed her as she informed them about how she spent her entire life in a lab and forced to wear the suit to prevent her body from disintegrating. Belova compared their difficult childhoods. Once they reached the top, they did not know how to get out of the shaft without falling, so Walker broke the link to save himself, causing the rest to fall.
Starr stopped her fall by plunging Taskmaster's sword into the wall, allowing Belova to cling to Starr and catch Reynolds. Walker helped them out of the shaft and as they went to exit the vault, they discovered O.X.E. agents had arrived outside. Belova made a plan for them to escape, instructing Starr with finding an escape vehicle, but as Belova was talking, Starr vanished. Starr acquired a truck and waited for the others to make it outside of the vault, where she pulled up behind them.
As they entered the truck, Walker noted that Starr had come back for them twice, but Starr claimed that she only did so because it was necessary for her escape. As they drove away, they were stopped, so Walker told them he would handle it, and Starr went invisible. They overheard gunfire, drawing the agents away, so Starr phased into the back of the truck to see what could have caused the diversion and found Reynolds was gone. The three witnessed Reynolds be gunned down, so they drove away, honoring his sacrifice. As they escaped, they noticed Reynolds fly into the sky and crash back down, causing the truck to be knocked off the road.[5]
"Bucky, there won't be a committee left, okay? There might not even be a government. She has some big–" "Threats. Yes, I got it. Named Bob, or Sentry, who flies, right? And you're all heroes going after Val, ready to save the day."
The three discussed what happened to Bob Reynolds, with Yelena Belova knowing that Valentina Allegra de Fontaine was responsible, showing the others the documents on Project Sentry. Starr asked about Taskmaster, commenting that Belova seemed to have known her, to which Belova explained that she had a tough life and that they would all end up being killed one day.
The three made their way through the desert, with Starr mocking John Walker for his military lingo. They spotted a vehicle in the distance, so they all dropped to the ground to hide, but it turned out to be Belova's father, Alexei Shostakov, who had arrived to save them from de Fontaine. They entered Shostakov's limousine and drove away, with Shostakov awkwardly talking to the group, including asking Starr if parts of her body reappeared in the wrong place when she turned invisible.
Starr attempts to fight against the convoy
Shostakov declared the group as a team and thought that they were called Thunderbolts, after Belova's childhood soccer team, however the rest of them were against the idea and just wanted to hide away since de Fontaine was hunting them. They were found by a convoy of O.X.E. agents that began firing upon the limousine. Starr phased onto the outside of the limousine and went to deal with the convoy, but they used the Stark Sonic Cannon to once again disable her powers, so Walker dragged her back inside.
The group were saved when Bucky Barnes arrived and destroyed the convoy. But, Barnes also shot a Disc Grenade at the limousine, causing it to crash, and the group were taken to an abandoned garage, where they were restrained, with Starr's powers being blocked by Chitauri Handcuffs. The group tried to explain the situation with de Fontaine and Reynolds to Barnes, but he did not believe them. However, when Barnes got a call confirming the story, he decided to release the group and recruited them to help stop de Fontaine, which they all agreed to so they could save Reynolds.[5]
"There is no us. There is no we. Bob changed into that thing and there is nothing any of you can do about it." "Then what did you do exactly? Because I seem to remember you getting your ass beat way worse than mine."
The Thunderbolts made their way to New York City, where they acquired a moving truck and drove to the Watchtower. Starr sat in the back with Yelena Belova and John Walker and discussed their equipment, with Starr mocking Walker having a big gun. Upon crashing through the Watchtower's entrance, the Thunderbolts exited the truck and defeated all of the O.X.E. agents.
Valentina Allegra de Fontaine spoke to the team over the intercom, inviting them up to confront her, so the Thunderbolts entered the elevator and headed for the top floor. The Thunderbolts surrounded de Fontaine as she greeted them individually, with her simply stating it was nice to see Starr, but she did not respond. The Thunderbolts then witnessed Bob Reynolds join them, only now he was wearing a gold and blue suit and went by Sentry. Starr commented on Sentry's new look, specifically that he had dyed his hair blond.
De Fontaine explained her plan to use Sentry to defeat the Thunderbolts, which she would spin to support her in her impeachment trial. De Fontaine ordered Sentry to apprehend the Thunderbolts, and a fight broke out. Ghost and U.S. Agent went to fight Sentry together, but they were instantly knocked away. Ghost attempted to attack Sentry again while invisible, but he was able to detect her, and once again defeated Ghost, along with the rest of the team, forcing them all to retreat into the elevator.
Starr retrieved Bucky Barnes' arm that had been detached during the fight and handed it back to him as they exited the Watchtower. The group debated what to do next, with Alexei Shostakov reminding them of the team's name, which Barnes did not understand, so Starr explained it to him. Belova stated that they were not a team and proceeded to insult the group, saying that Starr was not a hero or even a good person, which bothered Starr. They all then went their separate ways.[5]
When the Void attacked, chaos ensued as debris fell from the sky, so Ghost rushed to help the civilians in danger, and she saved a man by pushing him to safety from a crashing helicopter. Ghost helped the rest of the Thunderbolts push over a giant piece of debris, and they were all applauded by the civilians for their heroism.
The Void continued its attack, vanishing multiple civilians, so the Thunderbolts ran away, helping as many people as they could get to safety. The team witnessed as Yelena Belova allowed herself to be vanished, so Ghost decided to go after her, but Winter Soldier stopped her, worrying there was no coming back. Ghost felt that Belova went in for a reason and might still be alive, leading to U.S. Agent revealing that he had been in the Void, so the Thunderbolts decided to go in to save Belova.
The Thunderbolts entered the Void, where they found themselves in their own shame rooms, reliving traumatic moments from their past. They all made their way through these rooms and found Belova and Bob Reynolds being chocked by a curtain, so Ghost saved them using Taskmaster's sword. Ghost embraced their team name, and they planned to escape the Void by finding the worst room. Along the way, they were attacked by a memory of Reynolds as a chicken mascot, but managed to escape.
The Thunderbolts found themselves in the O.X.E. Kuala Lumpur Research Facility where Reynolds was experimented on, and they were confronted by the Void. All of the Thunderbolts were restrained by the Void, leaving Reynolds to fight against his darker side. As Reynolds attacked the Void, the room began to fall apart, so the Thunderbolts broke free and rushed to Reynolds to stop him from being consumed by the Void. They all hugged Reynolds, which freed them from the Void, and the city was restored.[5]
The Thunderbolts found Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and went to apprehend her, with Starr expressing her desire to kill her. However, de Fontaine ambushed the team with a press conference, where she announced them as the New Avengers, which they decided to go along with. Now the New Avengers, the team were supplied with new costumes and transformed the Watchtower into their headquarters.
Fourteen months later, the New Avengers came into conflict with Sam Wilson, who was forming his own Avengers. The New Avengers discussed their situation, wondering which team would be the real Avengers, with Yelena Belova stating they were losing credibility, although Starr felt that they had little to begin with. The team were then alerted of an extra-dimensional ship entering Earth's orbit, so they used satellite footage to investigate it.[5]
Personality[]
"You're not gonna reach into my chest and crush my heart, are you?" "You're funny. I'm not gonna hurt you, Scott, unless I have to."
Ava Starr has been trained by S.H.I.E.L.D. to become an elite and ruthless stealth operative tasked with infiltrating and eliminating criminal organizations, terrorist cells, and other threats. She holds a grudge against Hank Pym for expelling and discrediting her father, inadvertently leading to the accident that killed him and his wife as well as afflicting her with molecular disequilibrium.
Due to the years of chronic pain Starr experienced as a result of this, she was desperate enough to do anything to permanently fix her condition, especially when she learned that she had only a few weeks to live. Starr's limited time to live, chronic pain, and desperate need to survive pushed her to act with extreme aggression and impatience. She was planning to extract Janet van Dyne's quantum energy despite the fact the process could potentially kill Janet and even considered kidnapping Cassie Lang as leverage to force Scott Lang to give her the Mobile Laboratory. Starr was unwilling to hear pleas of more peaceful yet uncertain means of curing her condition, as she was acutely aware of her limited lifespan. Having been promised a cure by S.H.I.E.L.D. that was not delivered made Starr distrustful of anyone who urged patience and vague plans for a cure to her condition. Although she shares a somewhat familial bond with Bill Foster, who assisted her in attempting to find a cure, she violently threw him aside when he tried to stop the quantum energy extraction.
Despite Starr's brutal exterior, she was not a heartless person by nature. While Starr's condition and imminent death caused her to act ruthlessly to survive, she still has a sense of morality, feeling shame for her actions as an assassin of S.H.I.E.L.D. due to the fact that the organization never had any intention of finding a cure and all she did for them did nothing to help her, showing she is able to feel remorse for committing actions that were not beneficial in her attempt to cure her condition. Starr has also proven to be capable of showing compassion and regard for others' well-being, particularly to those close to her. This is best exemplified when she urges Foster to abandon her, warning him that he will also be pursued by the authorities if he continues to act as her caretaker. Also, despite what the Pym family's actions caused her, Starr was willing to accept help from them and seems to be on much better terms with them after Janet returns and they begin extracting quantum energy to gradually cure her quantum illness.
Starr continued operating as a Black Ops agent under Valentina Allegra de Fontaine for some time after her truce with the Pym's, during her time working for de Fontaine she largely remained a ruthless assassin showing little concern for others beyond completing her assignments, though now that her condition is stabilized and she no longer faces constant imminent death, she is demonstrated to be more levelheaded and capable of critical thinking without showing any of her previous recklessness.
When stuck having to work with the rest of the Thunderbolts, Starr initially was dismissive to the group, and showed no sympathy for Taskmaster after killing her despite knowing that she had been tricked into trying to kill the others like herself was. Yelena Belova reprimanded Starr for her dismissive attitude towards Taskmaster by pointing out that all of them may be bad people, but all of they also had difficult upbringings largely outside their free will, after which Starr began showing more willingness to work with the Thunderbolts. Starr was frequently given chances to abandon the group and leave them to die, but she would always return for them, often making up excuses as to why she didn't run away. While Starr did not appear to have a choice in saving them from the incinerator, her decision to follow the plan to escape from de Fontaine and aid the rest of them in finding an escape vehicle was a display of deliberate compassion. Starr masked this by saying that their survival was necessary for her escape, a weak excuse as Starr could have easily escaped without them by that point. As their escape from O.X.E. progressed, Starr showed genuine concern when Bob Reynolds seemingly allowed himself to be killed so they could escape and even expressed a semblance of guilt over her role in Taskmaster's death when finding out about Belova's connection to Dreykov.
When the Void went on a rampage in Manhattan, Ghost alongside the rest of the Thunderbolts made a desperate attempt to save as many innocent civilians as she could, notably without needing any encouragement from others but by her own volition. After Belova had seemingly sacrificed herself to the Void, Starr was the first to express desire to go into the Void to go after Belova, even though she had no proof Belova was still alive. Despite having felt insulted earlier by Belova's outburst after the Thunderbolts lost to Sentry, Starr still expressed desire to find her and save her, showing her attachment to the Thunderbolts despite her attempts to appear unconcerned beforehand. Starr also accompanied the rest of the team to dive into the Void to assist Yelena in helping Bob overcome the Void's influence, understanding that violence would not stop Void's rampage but rather showing Bob compassion and empathy would.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
"They call it "molecular disequilibrium." A rather dull name, I think. Doesn't quite do justice to what it means. Every cell in my body is torn apart... and stitched back together. Over and over. Everyday."
Quantum Mutation: When Starr was very young, she was involved in an explosion of quantum energy that killed her parents. However, she survived with side effects that caused her molecular structure and equilibrium to become imbalanced. Her quantum conditioning allows her to partially break the laws of physics in a way that is still affected by gravity, since she still has mass. One example is when she jumped from one car to another on the side of the street. Her entire state allows her to phase through things and move faster when she is in phase; she can generate zero friction and resistance and is able to stay in this state for around a minute. Then, when she returns to her physical state with full force and mass, it enhances her strength. She was eventually found by S.H.I.E.L.D. and was turned into a weapon. She had to have a suit created for her in order to control the phasing, however, it didn't stop the pain caused by the condition. She retained her powers seemingly without the pain they caused after being cured, but requires her suit to control them.
Enhanced Strength: Starr is able to amplify the amount of force behind her attacks while phasing.[6] During one of her missions for S.H.I.E.L.D., Starr was able to eliminate an enemy soldier with just a spinning back kick, and later eliminated a sniper with a single punch, as a single kick was able to launch Ant-Man through several walls. She overwhelmed Wasp, with brute force on the street, and was able to fling Bill Foster across a room for attempting to prevent the opening of the Quantum Tunnel.
Enhanced Durability: Due to her condition, her body is tougher than that of an ordinary human, being able to withstand numerous injuries including blows from Ant-Man in his giant form and the Wasp. She later took a blast from the Wasp's gauntlet and was run over by Pym's quantum vehicle which threw her across the lab leaving her with only a leg limp.
Enhanced Speed: While phased, Starr can move at speeds greater than a normal human, she quickly phased and transported herself behind the Vespa to launch a surprise attack, moments later she quickly jumped out of a car and stole a moving motorcycle from one of Burch's henchmen.
Enhanced Agility: Starr possesses superior agility when compared to a regular human.[6] She quickly jumped onto a moving car, knocking down one of Burch's henchmen and landing on her feet. During the chase through the Mobile Lab, she gained momentum and threw herself backwards to duel Wasp again.
Intangibility:
Ghost phasing in motion
Starr can phase through solid objects and living beings at will. The use of her powers is accompanied by flickering, prismatic afterimages of her body as she quantum shifts through space. With the aid of her suit, she can choose whether to become solid or intangible, which allows her to quickly evade attacks and counterattack in tandem; for example, she became intangible to drop through a table while smashing Wasp into it, vaulted through a truck and used the momentum to knock one of Sonny Burch's henchmen off his motorcycle, and phased through Hank Pym's van before solidifying to kick Wasp onto the street during a chase. Solidifying herself while phased through solid matter has destructive effects, as she forced Pym to give her the lab by threatening to solidify her phased hand inside his neck. However, according to her, solidifying inside of material that is too dense will cause her to be crushed instead. Due to the unstable nature of her powers, Starr's intangibility was highly unpredictable, with her phasing in and out without trying. She also tried to open a door normally before phasing through it as she was unsure whether or not she would phase through it. After being cured by Janet van Dyne, Starr can only maintain her intangibility for roughly one minute at a time. Her ability can be cancelled out by high-frequency sound, like the ones that come from Stark Sonic Cannon. It can also be disabled by Chitauri Handcuffs.
Invisibility: Starr is able to pass in and out of the visible spectrum. She first used this power to spy on Hank Pym after they shrunk the Mobile Laboratory and fled. In fights, she was shown vanishing, then reappearing to launch a surprise attack against Wasp during the skirmish inside of Oui, and also appeared in the midst of Sonny Burch's interrogation to find out where the lab was from Luis. Starr turned invisible by stealing the remote control from Luis' office.
Abilities[]
Master Martial Artist: Starr had received extensive training from her time as an assassin for S.H.I.E.L.D.. Her fighting style combines moves from popular martial arts including muay Thai, kickboxing, judo, and Taekwondo. She was even able to fight evenly with both Ant-Man and Wasp with the use of her powers.
Knife Mastery: Starr has shown to be skiilful with using knives as she caught a knife flying mid-air and throwing towards a target. While using Taskmaster's sword, she used it to pierce through the wall of an elevator shaft, as well as slicing fabric material.
Master Acrobat: Starr is a highly trained acrobat, allowing her to vault over a car with ease. She incorporates this and also gymnastics into her fighting style to battle opponents.
Master Marksman: Starr received training with using firearms for covert missions. She has also proven capable of throwing knives from a distance.
Master Spy: Starr was trained by S.H.I.E.L.D., as a secret agent, she put an end to many criminal organizations, terrorists, and other threats that proved too difficult for conventional agents.
Master Assassin: Starr was taken by S.H.I.E.L.D. and was forced to become a very skilled assassin in order to do S.H.I.E.L.D.'s bidding. Over her time with the agency, she racked up many kills, becoming one of their best assassins.
Equipment[]
Weapons[]
WE Hi-Capa 7.0: Starr owns this weapon, and used it to assassinate Antonia Dreykov via gunshot to the head.
"It's not my butt, it's my suit." "Well, you need to get a new suit." "Pardon me for the inconvenience. I only spent my entire life in labs, hooked up to machines so I could create this physical cage to keep my material body from disintegrating at all times."
Ghost Suit: A full-body suit that was designed by S.H.I.E.L.D. to help her better control her powers. The suit allowed Starr to selectively phase through matter at will, allowing her to rapidly switch between intangibility and tangibility for both stealth and offensive purposes.
Quantum Energy Chamber: Created by Bill Foster, the chamber releases waves of quantum energy which temporarily stabilize Starr's disequilibrium.
In the comics, Ghost was an unnamed male anticapitalist saboteur and created a battle suit that allowed himself or any object he touched to be invisible or intangible. In some universes, Ghost is also an Inhuman.
A version of Ghost based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe version later debuted in the "Superior Avengers" comics in April 2025.
Ghost is the second main female antagonist in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film, the first being Hela.
Ghost was originally set to make an appearance in Iron Man 2. The character was going to be another villain tied to Justin Hammer, along with Whiplash.[9]
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