Book Review: Ant-Man Season One by T. Defalco et al.

Ant-Man Season One written by Tom Defalco and art by Horacio Domingues

In a modernizing reboot of the Ant-Man character, Hank Pym travels with his wife Maria to Budapest for a science conference. They are supposed to meet at a restaurant but Hank runs late and gets there just as a terrorist bomb destroys the building. The story jumps forward to Hank with a therapist trying to deal with his issues. He's had a bunch of mental health problems throughout his life, making him a bit paranoid. His overbearing father pulls him out of the appointment and bullies him into working for Egghead Innovations. They want to develop the technology that Maria was working on. Hank suspects the company of orchestrating her death and wanting to monetize her discoveries without giving credit. He's given a lab partner, Bill Foster, whom he suspects is a spy. Bill contributes to discovering how to use Pym Particles (which Hank wanted to name after his wife, but the company already announced it) to make things smaller and larger. After conducting a successful experiment, two security guards burst in. Hank is fired and the company wants all the materials, including the research. They wind up shrinking Hank, who manages to flee. But he is going to get revenge on the company and Elihas Starr, the evil corporate honcho who clearly has no good intentions (though his skull is indeed egg-shaped).

The story follows a very paint-by-numbers plot, which would be okay if other parts made up the deficit. Hank is sympathetically depicted but the other characters are much more two-dimensional, except when they need to provide more drama or a plot twist. These instances come off very unconvincingly, like when the security guards know how to use the miniaturization equipment on Hank, or when Bill betrays Hank but then instantly is back on his side. No wonder Hank has mental issues! The art is just okay and occasional jokes lighten the mood. Overall, this is not a satisfying reboot for Ant-Man.

The book also has the first issue of Avengers Academy, where Hank Pym gathers a bunch of young people with superpowers. They were all taken in by Norman Osborne who tried to develop their powers for his own nefarious purposes. Now, they are training to be heroes. They seem like an interesting enough set of new characters but I do not plan to read more about them.

Not recommended--there's nothing terrible here other than an impression of blandness.