Book Review: The Irredeemable Ant-Man Vol. 1 by R. Kirkman et al.

The Irredeemable Ant-Man Volume 1: Low Life written by Robert Kirkman, penciled by Phil Hester, and inked by Ande Parks

Eric O'Grady is a low-level S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who monitors a screen on their Helicarrier. In his off time, he plays poker with some friends and lusts after the female agents. His hometown friend Chris is a fellow agent. Chris is dating Veronica, also a fellow agent. When the Helicarrier is attacked, Chris and Eric are assigned to guard Hank Pym's lab. In the chaos, they accidentally knock out Pym. Chris tries on the latest Ant-Man armor prototype and gets killed. Eric takes the armor and starts wandering around the Helicarrier. The ship crashes and everyone is put on leave until repairs can be made. Eric and Veronica go back to his hometown for Chris's funeral. Eric starts worming his way into her affection as he also gets into more trouble.

While the premise is interesting, the execution is off-putting. Kirkman tries to make it more comedic but it just wasn't that funny. Eric is not some lovable loser or interesting anti-hero. He's just a jerk who is flying by the seat of his pants. He's too unlikeable as a main character to carry my interest. The other characters are okay but there's nothing else compelling about the storytelling or the art to make me read the next volume.

Not recommended.

Movie Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) directed by Peyton Reed

Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), aka Ant-Man, is living the good life after the events of Avengers: Endgame. He's written a book, hangs out with his family, and is a celebrity, though people mistake which Avenger he is. He likes the quiet life, though his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) wants him to work more at saving people. She's a bit of a social protestor and has wound up in jail almost as often as Scott. She's also scientifically gifted. After a family dinner, she shows off her latest project, a machine that is mapping the Quantum Realm, the microscopic reality seen in previous films. It's broadcasting down and getting a signal back. Janet van Dyne (the original Wasp played by Michelle Pfeiffer) is very worried. While she was trapped in the Quantum Realm for thirty years, she met some unsavory types and does not want to renew their acquaintance. The family (including Hope van Dyne, the new Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), and Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man (Michael Douglas)) have a short argument and try to shut down the machine. A feedback happens and they are all sucked into the Quantum Realm, though they are separated. Scott and Cassie are by themselves, facing fantastically weird creatures with inexplicable agendas. Hank, Janet, and Hope manage to find one of Janet's old friends who is less helpful than they hoped for. The Realm is slowly being conquered by a mysterious person (Jonathan Majors) who has more than a passing interest in the new human arrivals.

The movie is a special effects extravaganza, with the strange creatures and landscapes from the Quantum Realm. The personal relationships between the Langs and the Pyms provide some grounding, but perhaps not enough to make this a serious film. The Ant-Man series has leaned into the comedy, partly from Paul Rudd's natural talents and partly from the less believable superpowers. The filmmakers put a lot of fun and entertainment into this film, and I did enjoy watching it. But there's not a lot of substance underneath all the razzle-dazzle, just enough to keep the plot moving forward. It's fun in a bat-poop crazy way and ends with lead-ins to more content coming from Marvel. Major did a good job playing the villain and apparently has a lot more to do in future Marvel movies and television shows.

Mildly recommended--there's plenty of laughs and entertainment without anything offensive or deep. This is summer popcorn filmmaking.

Book Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Lost and Found by M. Waid et al.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Lost and Found written by Mark Waid, art by Javier Garron, and colors by Israel Silva

Second Ant-Man Scott Lang and second Wasp Nadia Pym are forced to team up when she tries to quantum-port him from deep space back to Earth for his daughter's birthday. The precise timing is messed up when Scott grabs the present he almost forgot to take back to Earth. Scott and Nadia wind up in the sub-atomic world, where standard physics don't apply. Bizarre creatures and random happenstances abound as they try to figure out how to get back to their home.

The book is an interesting mash-up of creativity and pseudo-scientific ideas and jargon. Scott has his usual problems with being a good dad. Nadia is Hank Pym's (the original Ant-Man) long-lost daughter who took on the Wasp role when she returned to America and Janet Van Dyne (the original Wasp) took care of her (her dad was already dead). Nadia is a lot smarter than Scott and solves most of the science problems. He's better at practical problems. The micro-verse or quantum realm is an opportunity for the artists to try out all sorts of things. I am not sure the science really holds together, which is a minor problem since it drives the plot to some extent (if physics doesn't apply in the micro-verse, why are observations and theories about quantum particles accurate?). The ending felt very formulaic, also a minor problem.

Mildly recommended.

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.

Movie Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) directed by Peyton Reed

Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has only a few days left on his plea-bargained house arrest after he got in trouble helping out Captain America during the events of Civil War (i.e. the big fight at the German airport). He's kept himself busy starting up a new company with some ex-con friends (including the delightful Michael Pena), playing with his daughter, and taking lots of baths. His latest bath includes a weird dream where he was Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer). Janet was partners with the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). She was lost in the Quantum Realm twenty-some years ago. She's also the mother of Hope (Evangeline Lilly) who has been working with her father Hank to save Janet from the Quantum Realm. Turns out his dream wasn't just a dream, because father and daughter opened a portal to the Quantum Realm just when Scott had the dream. The dream had details about Janet that Scott didn't know. Hope and Hank kidnap Scott from his house arrest so that they can finally get their loved one back.

The only problem is the FBI, who want to bust Scott for breaking the agreement. And the black-market tech dealer, who wants to steal Hank's equipment to make a huge profit. And the mysterious quantum-phasing person, who is also after Hank's equipment for unexplained reasons. Make that three problems.

If you think I used the word "quantum" too many times in this plot summary, this movie is not for you. They throw the term around like a magician saying "presto" or "abracadabra." This unexplained science is basically no different from magic, which is fine if you are just going along for the ride. The movie is very fun and imaginative. The fights and chases use the shrinking/growing power of Ant-Man and the Wasp to great effect. The on-going truth serum gag also works surprisingly well. The fake science is well-handled to advance the plot and infuse lots of fun jokes.

This movie also has to be the huggiest superhero movie I've ever seen. A lot of comforting and happy reunions happen (which I guess is a spoiler, but not really). Every character with the exception of the tech dealer is at least two-dimensional. The movie shows sympathetic sides of the bad guys and unattractive sides of the good guys. The movie is not morally complicated but does introduce enough gray shades to give it the right amount of depth. Viewers actually care about the characters, which is important when there's a lot of mumbo-jumbo and CGI going on.

Marvel delivers another fun action/comedy movie--Recommended.

Book Review: Ant-Man/Giant-Man: Growing Pains by S. Lee et al.

Ant-Man/Giant-Man: Growing Pains written by Stan Lee, Steve Englehart, George Perez, and Christos Gage with art by Jack Kirby, Don Heck, George Tuska, Jeff Moore, and Tom Raney

This anthology of stories focuses on Hank Pym, the scientist who discovered Pym Particles and was the original Ant-Man. The first story reintroduces him as Giant-Man--he uses the particles to make himself bigger rather than smaller! In the second story, he renames himself Goliath. In the third story he's going by the moniker Yellow Jacket. In the fourth and fifth stories, he's back to being Giant-Man (with occasional moments of being ant-sized if not Ant-Man).

In case you didn't deduct it, Hank Pym is both a brilliant scientist and a man suffering from a massive insecurity complex. So he has to fight both super-villians and his own feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt--often at the same time. The balancing of the two is hard to do from a story-telling perspective. The fourth story is the longest (a four-parter, the rest are single stories) and most successful at telling a story that combines outer conflict and inner conflict. Hank is working with a partner to use a variant of Pym Particles to end world hunger. Some side-effects cause monstrous insects to appear and various other characters exposed to Pym Particles (like The Wasp and second Ant-Man Scott Lang) to have serious difficulties with their powers. The overall problem is labyrinthine and eventually Hank Pym figures it out, but not until he's gone through a lot (including a stint in a straight-jacket).

Mildly recommended-the book is interesting but full of hits and misses.

Book Review: Ant-Man: Astonishing Origins by T. DeFalco et al.

Ant-Man: Astonishing Origins written by Tom DeFalco with art by Horatio Domingues and color art by Chris Sotomayor

Two stories are told in this book. First is a new origin story for Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man. Second is a story about Scott Lang, the current Ant-Man.

The first story reads like a modern reboot. Newlywed Hank Pym loses his wife to an apparent terrorist attack in Hungary where she was about to present at a science conference. Hank is a bit paranoid about it (Were they really targeting him or his wife? Were they sent by his American enemies/competitors?) and is quite self-aware about his paranoia. He doesn't trust his dad, who is unsupportive to say the least. He does get Hank a job at Egghead Industries, though Hank thinks its just a set up to exploit him. He's given an assistant who seems like a spy rather than a helper. Under pressure, he hides the best part of his work hoping to use it for his own advantage rather than the corporation.

I found the whole focus on paranoia less interesting and less compelling. It didn't make Hank more heroic, just pathetic. He doesn't come off as particularly clever either. On the other hand, he does have the courage and stick-to-it-ness that heroes need. Overall, I wasn't all that impressed.

The second story follows Scott Lang as he applies for a security job at Stark Industries. Scott has been Ant-Man for a while and his life is in shambles. He wants to reconnect with his daughter while avoiding his ex. He's living in a squalid New York apartment. And it looks like he'll have to play dirty if he wants to beat the other candidates for the job.

This story is much better. While his plight is mostly his own doing, Scott puts some effort in to make things better for himself and his daughter.

The book is a mixed bag, some good, some bad, making it a totally average book.

Dicemasters: Ant-Man OP December 2015

My son has retired from the Dicemasters circuit since his triumphant finale with the DC Trinity War storyline. So the next superhero event at our friendly local gaming store was a solo outing for me. This event was the Ant-Man Organized Play. We had a rainbow draft of the new Amazing Spider-Man set and built a team of eight based on the cards and dice that we selected. My team was all friends of Spider-Man, but the Wall Crawler himself was not in the group.

My team

I'm not up on all the recent Marvel history, so characters like Scarlet Spider, Spider-Girl, and Agent Venom (isn't Venom a bad guy?) are new to me. They have some great abilities that made them worth putting on the team. Scarlet Spider is a solid fighter at a low cost; Spider-Girl has a special ability where if the opponent has more dice on the field, when she's fielded she does three damage to one character. That ability came in handy several times. Firestar has a similar ability, but only does special damage to villain characters, so she was handy against villain teams. The most potent card I had was the super-rare Black Cat. She would force an opponent to re-roll all fielded dice if she was fielded when the opponent has more dice. I only got to use the ability once but it was a golden moment, clearing away opponents so I could deliver lethal damage.

We had five people playing, which meant that every round one player had to sit out (which counts as a win but is nowhere near as satisfying). I played in the first round and was able to win with a combo of Scarlet Spiders and Spider-Girls. In the second round, my opponent didn't have any villains so Firestar never came out. The match was close since my opponent kept pinging me with Black Widows (who deal damage even when knocked out). I held out and was able to finish the job. I also played in the third round (so I never got to sit out) and was able to use Black Cat against Rhino and a side kick. Rhino re-rolled from level three to level one which was a big help. I managed to win the final round as well!

With my victory came a special Ultron card (Nanite Virus) only available from organized play and the participation card, a special art version of Ant-Man Biophysicist.

OP rewards!

It was an exciting day and I look forward to future events in 2016!

Movie Review: Ant-Man (2015)

Ant-Man (2015) directed by Peyton Reed

Dr. Hank Pym was a scientist back in the 1980s who discovered the Pym Particles which he used to power a super-suit. S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to buy his technology but he refused to sell. After this brief introduction, the movie jumps to the present day where Scott Lang is let out of prison after serving three years for a white-collar crime. He wants to go on the straight and narrow so he can see his daughter, but his ride from prison is not her mother--it's his ex-cell mate. The cell mate lives in a sketchy San Francisco neighborhood and has sketchy friends as well. Scott moves in temporarily till he can get back on his feet. Scott tries to get a decent job but can only get one by lying about his criminal record. That soon comes out and he considers pulling a heist with the guys. A friend of a friend of a friend let the cell mate know that a rich man's safe will be left unguarded while the man is out of town. They plan a heist that gets them into the safe, but the only thing inside is a crazy suit and jars of liquid. No money or valuables! Scott takes the suit anyway, then tries it on. He pushes a button and BAM! he's shrunk to the size of an ant. A voice starts talking in his head, encouraging him and providing guidance. Scott breaks back into the man's house to return the suit only to get busted by the cops. While in holding, a much older Hank Pym visits him and offers him a job--use the suit to rob Pym Technologies because his 1980s research is about to become public in a bad way. Another heist is in the works.

The movie has an amazing blend of drama and comedy that somehow works so well. Marvel has the sense to make movies with human drama and the triumph of good over evil without feeling dark, cliched, or unoriginal. Scott's problems as a dad separated from his daughter could have been painfully obvious and cliched, but they don't go there. The daughter still loves him; the mom isn't rabidly opposed to him as a dad but she recognizes he needs to straighten his life out before he can be a father to his daughter. The mom is dating a cop which makes for some awkwardness all around, especially when he arrests him while returning the suit. The humor works well and fits the story naturally. Some moments border on the overly melodramatic but are scaled back with a little humor. The script writers included Edgar Wright (of Shaun of the Dead fame) and Joe Cornish (of Attack the Block fame), so the overall quality is great.

Marvel has done a great job making genre movies out of their superhero movies. Captain America: The First Avenger was a period film/World War II film. Iron-Man was a classic redemption story. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a 1970s-style political thriller. Ant-Man gives us a comedy heist film with superheroes. I hope they keep up the good tradition.

This is great popcorn fun and well worth seeing on the big screen since the hero gets so tiny. We saw this in 2D and usually I notice a scene or two that look specifically designed to be seen in 3D but I didn't notice any in this film. So don't bother seeing it in 3D.