Astonishing Ant-Man #1
ASTONISHING ANT-MAN #1
Capsule Review
Tries very hard — maybe too hard. Or maybe just too eager. Packs a lot into one issue — Scott Lang has moved to a new city, has a new job, has a cranky boss, has wacky sidekicks. He pines away for his estranged teenage daughter. There’s a mastermind villain, who meets with another mastermind villain, who unleashes a third villain on our hero, right when he is have a back-and-forth with a client and arguing with yet another supporting character. It feels like writer Nick Spencer is trying to do too much — which is a criticism I don’t often level at books in this age of decompressed storytelling — but when you have page after page of six-panel layouts, all laden with heavy word balloons in service of gonzo dialogue that doesn’t always land, it can feel that the story is in a hurry to get nowhere, fast. Follows on the tone of the Ant-Man movie, which is welcome and a good idea, but I’d trade all this book’s many supporting characters for one Michael Peña. Ramon Rosanas’ art is serviceable, when you can see it beneath all the word balloons!
Approachability For New Readers
There’s a lot to take in, but the scene is set and fans of the movie will be on familiar ground. It works.
Read #2?
Much potential here, but it falls just short of my pull list.
Sales Rank
Read more about Ant-Man at Longbox Graveyard
Read more capsule reviews of Marvel’s All-New All-Different rolling reboot.
Posted on November 17, 2015, in Reviews and tagged All-New All-Different Marvel, Marvel Comics, Nick Spencer, Ramon Rosanas. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
dangvozden
Paul O'Connor
Kris (not Chris)
markginocchio
miloapama
Dean Compton
Moya
ryanmcswain
Longbox Graveyard 
Is that… The Grizzly?
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It is indeed! And he is one of the things to like about this issue. I wouldn’t follow Ant-Man as a monthly but I will happily thumb through the collection (or swipe through the digital subscription version, as the case may be).
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I’m enjoying these capsule reviews Paul! That is a cool cover, especially with that Giant-man lurking in the background (If you can characterize an 80-foot man as a “lurker”).
Since when does Whirlwind have Gladiator’s wrist blades? And is that Wasp next to Ant-man? Who is Wasp nowadays I wonder … Janet would not be caught dead in a face/hairdo-concealing mask like that!
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Those wrist blades through me, too. When he showed up in the book, my first thought was, “What did they do to Gladiator’s helmet?” Always wondered how you avoided cutting off your own hands with those discs … but Whirlwind manages it … and he uses an iPhone in this issue, too! (maybe I was too harsh in my review …)
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