Unraveling Ant-Man: Scott Lang is the Best!
We recently took a look at Eric O’Grady, the third Ant-Man, and examined his fractured persona. The character is unvirtuous and filled with personal flaws. Not that unlike the original Ant-Man known as Hank Pym, when he was going through the various character flaws that he suffered through under the guise of Yellow Jacket in the 70’s. Pym is defined as a character fraught with personal issues, as he is seemingly always on the verge of a nervous breakdown. In recent years, Pym’s story has been that of a tale of redemption, which leads us to the second Ant-Man, Scott Lang. Lang represents the Ant-Man who is ultimately virtuous; the person that is noble and trying to fight against injustice. To straighten the complicated Ant-Man continuity before the film comes out, we are taking a look at various points in the legacy of the Ant-Man to give upcoming fans more context focused on the Ant-Man legacy.
While Lang is virtuous indeed, he sort of has the reverse origin of the two other Ant-Man heroes. He was sort of a ne'er do well until he had a daughter, and it was too late for him to continue to practice villainy as a single father. Many Marvel heroes initially started off as villains, including Hawkeye, whose narrative is incredibly complicated as well. After the birth of his daughter, Cassie, Lang served a lengthy prison sentence and began to finally turn his life around. This led to his second appearance in Marvel Premiere 47 which shipped in 1979. The tale is written by spider-author David Michelinie and drawn by John Byrne. Aside from being well written, the series is a great primer on the nature of Scott Lang, whose differences are more important compared to most of his superhero brethren. By and large the most important part of the character seems to be one important subject that is brought up over and over again--his daughter. Cassie is the crux of most stories involving Scott and is generally meshed deep inside of the DNA of Scott Lang. We saw that in FF, when Matt Fraction took over the character after his daughter had recently died. Fans will perceive similar understanding contained within this Marvel Premiere issue, where Lang is trying to help Cassie after a severe medical condition is continuing to affect her health.
The hero springs into action for the right reasons this time in pursuit of a doctor that is held captive a by the CEO of a large corporation. The tale has enough personal flourishes inside of it to really craft something interesting out of the narrative. Lang is easy to get behind, and the unconventional nature of his every day experiences really stick out as something special that isn’t often seen in superhero comics. The idea of having a superhero with a child is wildly unconventional. Having a superhero that functions as a single dad is downright invigorating. Another nice touch about the Marvel Universe is how Cassie continued to grow up throughout the years. In honor of her father’s memory, she even took on the Pym particles stolen by Lang in pursuit of the Doctor in this earlier story. She does this in order to take her mantel as Stature on the roster of the Young Avengers, someone who has most of the powers of Ant-Man without having to wear the helmet.
This history is likely going to change along with the character in the upcoming Marvel Studios Ant-Man film, but having the base knowledge of the character will inform the reader of the different directions that the filmmakers have chosen for Paul Rudd’s character in the movie. Due to some of the wacky directions that these stories are going in, it seems that the film may be more apt of the Ant-Man of Eric O’Grady as the lead, who has more complicated driving motivational factors. Due to the changes that we already know are taking place in the film, there are going to be more than a couple of fairly massive differences in the upcoming Ant-Man film. Marvel characters and properties are very complicated, but few have such a rich history with a legacy of different individuals in the same vein of Ant-Man.
Next week we will finish the series with a look back on the insanity of the first Ant-Man: Hank Pym, husband, wife-abuser, and Avengers founding member.
