Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "ant-man"

The big news is about a Marvel Hero who can make himself little. Along with sequels for Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the first film for Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel is sending Ant Man to theaters:

Directed by Edgar Wright (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Shaun of the Dead”), the cinematic adaptation of the comic-book adventures of Henry Pym, a brilliant scientist who invents a substance that allowed him to change his size, will hit theaters on Nov. 6, 2015, according to Marvel.com.

Ant Man is not a well known hero if you're not a big Marvel Fan. His publication history has been spotty. He was the leader of the Avengers in Avengers: United We Stand which featured mostly secondary characters from the Marvel World. He made a few scattered appearances in other shows including the 1966 Captain America program and the recent Fantastic Four. He also appeared in the two direct to video Ultimate Avenger movies.

His comic book persona was known for having multiple identity crisis and guaranteed the end of his marriage to his wife Janet "The Wasp" by slapping her and thus sent both of their careers downhill.

From everything I've seen of him, he's the type of character that makes you long for the humility and stability of Tony Stark.

Whoever ends up with the role of Ant Man has a tough challenge. This isn't like playing Captain America. This is a character you really have to work hard to make the audience actually like him. As the comics portrayed him, it's going to be a tough job requiring Robert Downey type charisma to pull it off and then some.

Essential Astonishing Ant Man, Vol. 1 by Stan Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects stories of Ant Man/Giant Man and the Wasp from Tales to Astonish #27 and 35-69.

Henry Pym didn't start out to be a superhero. He was a scientist in a classic one-shot science fiction story in Tales to Astonish, a sci fi anthology comic. However, DC had began to roll out the Adventures of the Atom, so Marvel introduced its own shrinking superhero, Ant Man. The stories ranged from 12-18 pages when the book was at its height.

The art shows a wide range of styles, but most of it is good. Among the artists on this were Don Heck, Dick Ayears, and Jack Kirby.

While Stan Lee provided all but one of the plots for the first thirteen stories, other writers were responsible for the actual scripts and that difference shows. Until Stan Lee took full charge as writer in Tales of Astonish #49, much of Ant Man seemed like a bad DC book. The locale of Ant Man in those early days was indistinct. The character wasn't even given a reason to fight crime until Tales to Astonish #44 when we were learn that Pym's wife was killed years before by communists. But if that was the motivation, why was he content to be a research scientist until discovering the shrinking pills? The Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) was introduced in Issue #44 but again nothing much came of her until Lee took over.

With Lee actually writing this series, the strip became a lot more enjoyable. Pym eventually became the master of many sizes, able to grow to large heights as Giant Man. Initially, he could only reach 10 feet, then 12, then thirty-five, and finally into triple digit feet in height.

More than anything else, Lee developed the relationship between Henry Pym and the Janet Van Dyne. The relationship went from the pre-Lee writing days of, "Woman, stay away, I have science to do," to a very fun relationship, that's probably one of the better ones in the Silver Age in terms of realism and likability of the principles.

From Issues 49-58, the book also became home to a series of quick sci fi adventures told by the Wasp. These are funny Twilight Zonesque stories that really are a treat in this book.

Issue 59 featured a battle with the Hulk and then the Hulk became co-star of the book in Issue 60 which lead to the length of the Giant Man stories being shrunk to 13 pages, though I think the stories actually got better at this point.

Stan Lee left as writer after Issue #68 and Al Hartley wrote the last Tales to Astonish Ant Man/Wasp story in Issue #69 in which Pym used his shrinking power to save the day even though the previous issue explained he lost that power.

Overall, I liked the book. It had cold war intrigue and Pym may have fought communists more than any other silver age hero.

On the other hand, it had its flaws. Compared to other books, it's villains were generally weaker and less memorable than even Daredevil's early rogue's gallery, and certain less than DC's Atom. In addition, it certainly didn't have as imaginative of an exploration of what you could do with shrinking powers at the Atom. However, the book is par with the early runs of those series because of the early appearances of the Wasp. She's fun and occasionally frivolous but she really kept the stories interesting and made this a readable and fun collection.



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Ant-Man: Season One by Tom DeFalco

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Ant-Man Season One has a mix of good and bad on it as it tells a new version of Ant Man (Hank Pym's) origin story. On one hand, both writing and art are fundamentally good. Tom DeFalco is a legendary comic book writer and his work on this book is up to his usual standards. Horacio Domingues is a talented artist that brings a more European style to the book that looks great.

The story itself manages to be a modern day update of the Ant Man origin story with terrorists replacing the Communists as the culprits behind the murder of the first Mrs. Hank Pym. That event is given more weight and it feels less like the throw away death that the writers created as an excuse for Pym to become a crimefighter. The story imagines Pym as having a history of mental illness from the beginning which explains much of his checkered history as a superhero. There's some great action and Domingues' art really makes the story come alive.

The negative though is that the story is interesting and an okay read, but at the end of the day, it's nothing special. Year One or Season One stories call to mind the idea of an epic story of beginnings and origins and the story feels too small for this purpose. I've read two of the DC Year One books (which if we're honest Marvel was trying to follow) and both imagined an epic series of adventures and first meetings, as well as big over-arching thought. Here we have Hank Pym developing something and deciding to take on an evil bald corporate honcho and that's essentially your story. Again, this isn't bad or annoying. It's pleasing to read, but it's not anything more than average.



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