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Can someone explain Antman to me? what is the attraction in the story? the super power sounds as lame as they get, really.
As someone who never read any marvels comic and only know the universe through the movies and the TV show, I ask: who is Antman, and why do we care?
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Can someone explain Antman to me? what is the attraction in the story? the super power sounds as lame as they get, really.
As someone who never read any marvels comic and only know the universe through the movies and the TV show, I ask: who is Antman, and why do we care?
Basically Ant Man is another super scientist and one of the original Avengers in the comics. He invented the Pym Particles which allows you to shrink or grow as needed, and can do the same to other objects. He can get real small and hide, spy, and so on. Not sure if he has his full mass and strength at small size, but when he grows big he gets the usual super durability and strength package.
Like all comic scientists, he is an omni disciplinarian, and also created a helmet that allowed him to control ants (or maybe all insects). He also created Ultron, one of the biggies that the Avengers will be fighting in the new movie as I recall. So he's good with cybernetics/AIs as well as other science. I believe in one of his recent comics they called him the Scientist Supreme of the World.
The down side is that he has some psychological issues and one specific old issue had him slapping his wife around, which some fans cannot forget about and some writers keep trying to dredge up.
So they could use the character for weird and wacky science stories or to tie into the Avengers as a foil scientifically for Stark and Banner.
Other than the fact he's had a bunch of names (Ant Man, Giant Man, Yellowjacket, Wasp, etc) over the years and created a genocidal robot, he's your average Marvel super scientist. Usually gets shoved to the side so that Stark, Richards, Banner and McCoy can hog the spotlight.
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McCoy hogging the spotlight? That's rare.
Also, shrinking and talking to insects a lame power? That's not very imaginative- anyone who has ever been chased by a swarm of bees might feel differently. Insects are literally EVERYWHERE, can eat a surprising amount of matter we would not consider edible and can wreak havoc in an increasingly electronic world -one would have an army of spies and saboteurs anywhere, within moments. The guy's powers can be used an untold number of ways, shrinking (and keeping my level of strength and durability despite the change in size) remains a power I would love to have, provided I could control it.
Im interested in the film. I also liked irredeemable ant man.
I was never a fan of Antman and even less so later when they made his character a wife beater. But then I was never a fan of Ironman, Thor, or Captain America except I like the movies, well not Ironman 3.
Im not sure where the writers were going with the wife beater thing. I understand that they wanted him to be mentally unstable from size changing so much over the years, but they went in an extreme direction. Some of the writers went nuts with this idea and wanted to make him a brutal man, a mistake outside of the ultimates line imo. I really did enjoy the side of him we saw in the ant man team up.
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McCoy hogging the spotlight? That's rare.
Also, shrinking and talking to insects a lame power? That's not very imaginative- anyone who has ever been chased by a swarm of bees might feel differently. Insects are literally EVERYWHERE, can eat a surprising amount of matter we would not consider edible and can wreak havoc in an increasingly electronic world -one would have an army of spies and saboteurs anywhere, within moments. The guy's powers can be used an untold number of ways, shrinking (and keeping my level of strength and durability despite the change in size) remains a power I would love to have, provided I could control it.
Im interested in the film. I also liked irredeemable ant man.
I don't exactly think it's weak, just... lame. I mean, "super-bureaucrat" could possibly do more to the world than all the Marvel super heroes put together, but that doesn't like a cool superpower, does it? It's not about what could be achieved with the power (It's marvel and you're gonna win anyway) it's about how awesome you are while you're at it.
Plus, it's interesting to see how many of the Avengers are going to be scientists. I guess that's what happens when you let nerds come up with stories :)
McCoy hogging the spotlight? That's rare.
Also, shrinking and talking to insects a lame power? That's not very imaginative- anyone who has ever been chased by a swarm of bees might feel differently. Insects are literally EVERYWHERE, can eat a surprising amount of matter we would not consider edible and can wreak havoc in an increasingly electronic world -one would have an army of spies and saboteurs anywhere, within moments. The guy's powers can be used an untold number of ways, shrinking (and keeping my level of strength and durability despite the change in size) remains a power I would love to have, provided I could control it.
Im interested in the film. I also liked irredeemable ant man.
I don't exactly think it's weak, just... lame. I mean, "super-bureaucrat" could possibly do more to the world than all the Marvel super heroes put together, but that doesn't like a cool superpower, does it? It's not about what could be achieved with the power (It's marvel and you're gonna win anyway) it's about how awesome you are while you're at it.
Plus, it's interesting to see how many of the Avengers are going to be scientists. I guess that's what happens when you let nerds come up with stories :)
Interesting that in a not so recent dc storyline, someone with super bureaucratic powers almost took over the world and had to be killed in order to be stopped. Rule of cool often leads to redundant powers where you dont have to think to use them.
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Im not sure where the writers were going with the wife beater thing. I understand that they wanted him to be mentally unstable from size changing so much over the years, but they went in an extreme direction. Some of the writers went nuts with this idea and wanted to make him a brutal man, a mistake outside of the ultimates line imo. I really did enjoy the side of him we saw in the ant man team up.
The original incident of "wife-beating" was absolutely unintended and the result of a miscommunication between the writer and the artist and a lack of time to correct the mistake before it went to print (as written, Pym throws his hands out in frustration and accidentally catches Wasp in the face with a backhand. The artist depicted it as a backhand slap that looked intentional).
Since then (particularly the Ultimates universe), they have written that in as an actual character trait for the character.
Also, Pym is not the only person to take on the Ant-Man mantle. Since they are not having Pym be the origin for Ultron in the Marvel movies and since they are already strong on the super scientist front (with the Science Bros), I could definitely see Rudd playing the Scott Lang version of Ant-Man. Scott was a reformed thief who stole the Ant-Man tech as a last resort to try to save his dying daughter.
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Meh. I enjoy Edgar Wright's films, but I'm definitely not a Rudd fan.
I enjoy Edgar Wright's films, but I'm definitely not a Rudd fan.
Rudd strikes me as the least heroic (or even smart) character based on all his roles. If you look at his filmography, it's a collection of slackers and goof-balls in comedies and dramadies. But if Edgar Wright is your writer, then I guess the goal is snarky or comedic Ant-Man movie - with the hero as the "lovable loser" type. So - I guess Rudd is a good choice.
My guess is they are going to follow Robert Kirkman's Irredeemable Ant-Man story - who's tagline was "Introducing the world's worst super-hero." So probably no Hank Pym "super scientist" role; more likely mediocre SHIELD agent Eric O'Grady and his accidental use of the suit.
Mind you - Kirkman's series is a quite good, but the humor is some satire of Marvel and some Seinfeldian cruelty for humor's sake. Personally, the talking ants with the snarky commentary was great. Not sure that will translate well into a movie version - especially given how serious and dramatic the other Marvel movies have been. This has the potential to be as cringe-worthy as emo-Peter Parker in Spiderman 3.
I was wondering when they were going to get around to this. Considering that our good friend Ant-man, Tony Stark, and the apparently being rebooted Reed Richards were the co-creators of Ultron, I was curious if they were just going to give Ant-Man the shaft, or bring him properly into the picture.
This gives me hope that they're rebooting the Fantastic Four properly and bringing them into the story instead of leaving them separate.
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Fox owns Fantastic Four film rights, so they will obviously not be integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is rumored that they will mesh the F4 and the X-Men, however. Too bad Days of Future Past is looking to be such an absolute clusterf--k, that would be a very good way to start that, by having Franklin in the future.
Fox owns Fantastic Four film rights, so they will obviously not be integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is rumored that they will mesh the F4 and the X-Men, however. Too bad Days of Future Past is looking to be such an absolute clusterf--k, that would be a very good way to start that, by having Franklin in the future.
Love Marvel to bad they sold the rights to others like Sony and Fox! Would love to see an improved FF4 with Galactus. Or Siderman and Wolverine with avengers.
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I've always liked his potential. He regularly fights at over 60 ft. tall, and yet, unlike generic growing characters, can also shrink to molecular sizes, and control 99% of the life on the planet (insects).
And when he's mildly put out, he can use his Pym particles on others, including the aforementioned insects under his control, and send a pack of bus-sized giant ants after invading aliens or whatever.
As for the 'wife-beater' trope, he joins Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and Mr. Fantastic in having slapped or struck (or even spanked!) a wife or girlfriend or non-powered civilian woman, and, unlike the above four, has actually had to suffer consequences for it.
After seeing him at the end of Dr. Horrible's Sing A Long Blog stomping on Captain Hammer in his lab-coat and goggles, I was hoping for Neil Patrick Harris to get the role.
I have no idea who this Paul Rudd is, but he's the star of more movies than I can count, and therefore, I presume he can act.
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Spidey works best alone or paired with ONE other hero. I've never been a fan of him as a member of the Avengers.
Wolverine....meh. I could stand it, as long as he was a member of the gorup, and it didn't become yet another Wolverine solo movie, where he deigns to let the Avengers have cameos instead of the X-Men.
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I was never a fan of Antman and even less so later when they made his character a wife beater. But then I was never a fan of Ironman, Thor, or Captain America except I like the movies, well not Ironman 3.
I thought "wife beater" ant man was really during the time that the Skrull were impersonating him? didn't they set things right when he was the first one to come back from space during the Secret Invasion storyline? (i.e. "after years of captivity in a Skrull starship")
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I'm actually kind of glad X-Men and Fantastic Four are separate from the Marvel Studios stable. The comics universe is convoluted enough with them all sharing the same world. A movie featuring all of them together would have to be 4-6 hours long to have anything resembling a coherent plot and have a budget so high it could never hope to earn back enough to be called a success.
As far as Ant-Man goes, here's what Wright told Superherohype awhile ago:
"The idea that we have for the adaptation is to actually involve both... Henry Pym and Scott Lang. So you actually do a prologue where you see Pym as Ant-Man in action in the 60's, in sort of 'Tales to Astonish' mode basically, and then the contemporary, sort of flash-forward, is Scott Lang's story, and how he comes to acquire the suit, how he crosses paths with Henry Pym, and then, in an interesting sort of Machiavellian way, teams up with him."
I think that sounds awesome, and I hope they still use that idea, especially if they play up the Tales to Astonish Pym where he was this happy-go-lucky adventurer/scientist who battled mutant beetles and communist super gorillas as much for fun as for defending the world (I would be so happy if they worked in a Scarlet Beetle or Beasts of Berlin reference.)
I enjoy Edgar Wright's films, but I'm definitely not a Rudd fan.Rudd strikes me as the least heroic (or even smart) character based on all his roles. If you look at his filmography, it's a collection of slackers and goof-balls in comedies and dramadies. But if Edgar Wright is your writer, then I guess the goal is snarky or comedic Ant-Man movie - with the hero as the "lovable loser" type. So - I guess Rudd is a good choice.
I was pulling for Nathan Fillion or Simon Pegg, either of whom (IMO) could out act and "out comedy" Rudd.
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I'm actually kind of glad X-Men and Fantastic Four are separate from the Marvel Studios stable. The comics universe is convoluted enough with them all sharing the same world. A movie featuring all of them together would have to be 4-6 hours long to have anything resembling a coherent plot and have a budget so high it could never hope to earn back enough to be called a success.
As far as Ant-Man goes, here's what Wright told Superherohype awhile ago:
"The idea that we have for the adaptation is to actually involve both... Henry Pym and Scott Lang. So you actually do a prologue where you see Pym as Ant-Man in action in the 60's, in sort of 'Tales to Astonish' mode basically, and then the contemporary, sort of flash-forward, is Scott Lang's story, and how he comes to acquire the suit, how he crosses paths with Henry Pym, and then, in an interesting sort of Machiavellian way, teams up with him."
I think that sounds awesome, and I hope they still use that idea, especially if they play up the Tales to Astonish Pym where he was this happy-go-lucky adventurer/scientist who battled mutant beetles and communist super gorillas as much for fun as for defending the world (I would be so happy if they worked in a Scarlet Beetle or Beasts of Berlin reference.)
this is awesome... a bit along the lines of Watchmen, marvel-style. Just awesome.
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I think Paul Rudd is a great guy, great actor, and great overall for the Marvel brand. Anything that pulls in more Marvel fans is a win for Marvel. With Paul Rudd, you bet that the girlfriends would agree to tag along, girls that would otherwise deem anything by Marvel too "geeky" for them... (i'm looking at you, fitness / muscle girls... although the geekiest girls I know are muscle girls... hmmmm.... inverse geek love proportionality for girl jocks? interesting... i must go back to the lab...)
Yeah, definetely got to say I hope they don't add X-men in with the avengers. One of the biggest turn offs of comics for me is how they try to intertwine all of their different storylines into one universe that then loses all semblance of coherency.
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I'm not against big crossovers, but Marvel needs to f---ing lay off of them for at least 3-5 years. I can't remember the last time there wasn't a big crossover event happening. They've just fed one into the next into the next into the next for SUCH a long time now...at least a decade or so.
They need to just stop it for a while.
The idea of shrinking while still maintaining normal strength sounds like a cool power to me. There's so many things you could do with this.
Check out the book "Ant-Man: Season One" for an updated look at this classic character.
I thought "wife beater" ant man was really during the time that the Skrull were impersonating him? didn't they set things right when he was the first one to come back from space during the Secret Invasion storyline? (i.e. "after years of captivity in a Skrull starship")
Nope, it happened way back in the early eighties.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
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Yeah, definetely got to say I hope they don't add X-men in with the avengers. One of the biggest turn offs of comics for me is how they try to intertwine all of their different storylines into one universe that then loses all semblance of coherency.
Agreed. This is what led me to finally drop collecting comics last year around this time. After the whole cocked-up "A vs. X" crossover, which despite reading a bunch of the X-Men books and Avengers books turned into such a cluster that I couldn't really even follow what was going on in any coherent way, and afterwards they basically threw both teams in a blender and hit "frappe," on top of another relaunch/renumbering/etc. to pile on top of the earlier New 52 from DC...
After 35+ years of comics collecting, I decided I was done. Still love the comics universe and the characters and the movies, but I am out on collecting.
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Agreed. This is what led me to finally drop collecting comics last year around this time. After the whole cocked-up "A vs. X" crossover, which despite reading a bunch of the X-Men books and Avengers books turned into such a cluster that I couldn't really even follow what was going on in any coherent way, and afterwards they basically threw both teams in a blender and hit "frappe," on top of another relaunch/renumbering/etc. to pile on top of the earlier New 52 from DC...
Same situation. I picked a few up, and Rogue, who had lost her Ms. Marvel powers and was using her one super-powers (about time, IMO) was shown using Ms. Marvel's powers again, and Wanda, who had lost her reality-manipulating deus ex machina powers at the end of Children's Crusade (which had rendered her pretty much unusable as a character, much like Phoenix-Jean), was back to manipulating reality for no explicable reason. I gave up. If the writers at Marvel can't be bothered to care, why should I?
The only Marvel comics left on my list were X-Factor (which got cancelled) and Young Avengers (which ends in a few issues). Kind of bleak, for a guy who used to plonk down a couple hundred bucks a month.
I picked one up a while ago.
When Emma Frost talks smack to Thor, and then kicks his ass, you know a moron's written the story.
I wouldn't say moron as much as I would fanboy(or girl). I have found fanboyism and character hate are starting to create a detrimental effect on writing with respect to the big two.
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So, anywho, back to Ant Man. We've got a dude with scientific acumen rivaling Richards and Stark, the powers of Ant-Man added to the powers of (insert name of famous growing hero here, if there were one).
He's right up there with Batman for number of secondary / sidekick super-heroes that he inspired / created / spun-off. (Wasp (Janet van Dyne), Giant-Man 2 (Clint Barton), Black Goliath (Bill Foster), Yellowjacket 2 (Rita deMara), Ant-Man 2 (Scott Lang), Ant-Man 3 (Eric O'Grady), Stature/Stinger (Cassie Lang), Atlas (Eric Josten), the entire super-team, the Order (Anthem, Supernaught, Aralune, Veda, etc.), and the secondary heroes created by his 'son' Ultron, which include robot heroes, the Vision, Jocasta and Victor la Mancha.
He's had more legacy Avengers following in his footsteps than Iron Man (War Machine, etc.), Thor (Thunderstrike, etc.) and Captain America (USAgent, etc.) combined!
Taken seriously, his powers are visually impressive, allow him to hang with heavy hitters like Thor (since, at nowhere near his 'full growth,' a 'mere' 60 ft. tall, his bones and muscles have to be 1000x as dense and powerful to even allow him to stand without collapsing under his own 1000x weight!)
Studying insect 'hive minds' (in '60s-era comic book 'science' anyway), he figured out parallel processing in the Marvel Universe, and changed computing, developing the first artificial intelligence (which, granted, turned out to be a bad thing...), making him, unlike Stark and Richards, the Marvel Universe father of a real-world technology that's had a pretty significant impact on the world.
Dude's got some serious potential, and if the Marvel cinematic universe can make the Black Widow, Hawkeye and Captain America able to interact effectively and impressively with people like Iron Man, the Hulk and Thor, then there's really no excuse for them not to be able to make this character shine.
(Same with the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, who are impressive enough with even baseline powers, and not the crazy deus ex machine stuff that's made the Scarlet Witch pretty much unusable as a character for the last few decades. It's a pity that cameos for them weren't added to the end of the 'battle for New York' as part of an ultra-secret 'phase 2' team that Fury had in reserve, so that Marvel could jump the gun on DC getting a speedster on the screen. Just a brief appearance by Quicksilver, even a blur of motion sweeping some Chitauri aside or snatching their weapons (so that they can get away with recasting the actor, since nobody would clearly see him) could get fans to thinking of the upcoming Flash series as DC 'jumping on the bandwagon' of Marvel's brief speedster tease.)
Who should be the primary villian? I do hope we get to see him battling some insects in the early stage of the movie
Maybe Swarm could be the movie BBEG?