Astonishing Ant-Man #4 - A Review

Astonishing Ant-Man has one of the best title pages in the business. Not only does it offer a helpful recap of the series so far - it also makes you laugh! We should expect this sort of thing from Nick Spencer, of course, but it's still a nice touch.


Spencer understands what far too many Marvel writers failed to grasp about lovable loser heroes like Scott Lang or - until recently - Peter Parker. Namely that is isn't fun for readers to see a loser lose all the time. Keep dumping tragedies on a hero and you destroy any sense of fun.

Therein lies the irony of Scott's life and the secret to his likability in this series - he's good at being a superhero.  Unfortunately, being a superhero doesn't do much to pay the bills and Scott's heroic instincts are about the only thing he has going for him. He stinks on ice as a businessman, a father and a judge of character but you admire him more than you feel sorry for him... even if he has been reduced to working security for an ex-girlfriend and is parenting by proxy to keep his daughter safe.


Ramon Rosanas art is the perfect match for Spencer's script. Rosanas has a great gift for expressions and comedic timing.  The color art by Wil Quintana proves equally adept, with a variety of tints being used to subtly mark flashbacks and other special scenes.

The Astonishing Ant-Man #2 - A Review

So... yeah. Scott Lang is in prison. Again.

How did he get there?  We're not sure yet. What we are sure of is that Scott's life was pretty bad even before that happened.

Not only did the latest job for his hemorrhaging security company bring him back into contact with the ex-girlfriend he never got around to breaking up with (Darla Deering a.k.a. The Ever-Lovin' Ms. Thing) but now his employees are returning to super-villainy.  In the employ of his arch enemy's son and brother, no less! And - oh yeah - a spurned stage magician with real magic powers tried to kill him while his ex-girlfriend was in the middle of trying to kill him.

Put Mel Brooks in charge of writing and directing the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe film and you might get something as ludicrously brilliant as Astonishing Ant-Man. This series has been a laugh riot since - uh - the last Ant Man series by the same creative team. Yet despite this book being largely a comedy, Nick Spencer still makes Scott into a likable and sympathetic protagonist in spite of some of his problems being due to poor judgement rather than simple bad luck.


The scripts are well-matched by the artwork. Artist Ramon Rosanas draws everything in the usual Mighty Marvel fashion, with everything looking heroic and dynamic... even as Scott is being mauled by bunnies and doves.  And the color art by Jordan Boyd makes everything jump off the page.