Last year Marvel Studios took a gamble on a little known comic book property called Guardians Of The Galaxy and it payed off spectacularly. Guardians Of The Galaxy proved that Marvel could have a hit without the Avengers. In fact “hit” might be an understatement as Guardians final world wide gross was $772,655,258 or “All the money” as the kids say.Now Marvel is hoping for that success to spill over into Ant-Man, Disney’s next big franchise hopeful and like Guardians, another Marvel property that no one but the hardcore geeks has ever heard of. With the recent release of the first Ant-Man trailer, not to mention this weeks issue of Entertainment Weekly which features a huge Ant-Man cover story, Marvel has made it clear that they are starting the big push for Ant-Man’s July release right now at the start of the new year. All this exposure is to be expected but there are still many fans of the MCU who are no doubt scratching their heads wondering “Who the hell is Ant-Man?”.
Who Is Ant-Man?
Ant-Man has actually been a few people. The most famous person to wear the suit is uber scientist and original creator of Ultron ( more on that later) Hank Pym. Pym has been a mainstay in the Marvel universe since it’s inception, in fact he and his wife Janet (aka the Wasp) are founding members of the Avengers. Despite his longevity, Hank Pym has never really broken out into the mainstream. This may have something to do with his fickleness when it comes to identities . Hank Pym has been Ant-Man,Giant Man, Goliath, Yellow Jacket, and even took over his wife’s Wasp persona for a while (everyone knows that the best way to honor your dead wife is to dress like her and assume her identity because,comics). It may also have something to do with Pym’s notorious reputation as a wife-beater. Most parents don’t want their children wearing t-shirts featuring characters known for spousal abuse ( alcoholic Tony Stark is fine though). The second Ant-Man was Scott Lang, a burglar with a heart of gold who turned to crime only as a means of getting enough money to help his sick daughter. Eric O’Grady , the third Ant-Man is a lech and an all around terrible person who used his ability to shrink for all manor of unsavory deeds. The less said about him the better. The Ant-Man trailer makes it clear right off the bat that the Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going to be Scott Lang, arguably the most tolerable of the three. However the trailer also revealed that Hank Pym the first Ant-Man is also in the movie. So now Hank Pym does exist in the MCU?
Why Is Hank Pym Suddenly In The MCU?
When an Avengers film was first announced and there was no mention of Ant-Man or Wasp most fans assumed that Marvel had decided not to introduce Hank Pym into the cinematic universe. When the sequel to Avengers was revealed to be The Age Of Ultron it was further assumed that Ultron’s origin would be changed slightly from his comic book beginnings with Tony Stark taking the Hank Pym role as Ultron’s creator. It’s not much of a stretch as Stark has already been shown to not only have experience with creating artificial intelligence (Jarvis), but also with robotics (the independently mobile Iron Man suits in Iron Man 3). Now that Hank Pym IS going to be a part of the Marvel Universe , will it be revealed that he did have something to do with Ultron’s creation, and if so how big will his role be? Further revelations from Marvel involving Hank Pym may shake up the MCU a bit more. Apparently Scott Lang is going to be the SECOND Ant-Man. From what has been leaked so far it’s going to go like this: Hank Pym was a member of or worked closely with SHIELD at one point and was Ant-Man at a time when-as far as we know-there were no other active “super heroes” in the MCU. It was always sort of assumed that as far as the cinematic universe was concerned, there was Captain America, nothing for 60 some odd years and then the other Avengers all kind of came about around the same time. Now we have an example of, to quote Invader Zim, “Oh, uh, that’s MiniMoose, my, eh, OTHER sidekick, eh-hm. Yep! Been with me the whole time!”
But the idea of Hank Pym operating as Ant-Man for years before the Avengers was even a thought is just one of the changes to the Ant-Man mythos that Marvel has enacted. The Wasp is now going to be Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne’s daughter instead of Janet herself and the villain is going to be Yellow Jacket which as previously stated was originally one of Ant-Man’s alter ego’s. It’s no secret that comics often get changed quite a bit before they reach the screen, but Ant-Man seems to have an inordinate amount of differences from page to film which brings up the question: why ant-man?
What’s So Special About Ant-Man, Anyway?
If Marvel has to change around so much to make an Ant-Man movie work, why do one? Well for one thing, it’s no secret that Marvel has a limited pool of characters to draw from without the use of any X-Men,Fantastic Four,or Spider-Man characters. However, that still leaves dozens, if not hundreds of secondary characters just waiting to be plucked from obscurity and made relevant with a big budget movie outing. Why not make a Moon Knight movie? What about Wonder Man, Namor, Quasar, or Rage? Okay maybe not Rage… but still, why Ant-Man? Well it actually wasn’t Marvel’s idea, it was Edgar Wright’s. The director of Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim VS The World started trying to get an Ant-Man movie made back in 2001, years before there even was a Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was his singular vision, drive and tenacity that kept Ant-Man alive until Marvel was finally ready to make it. Why Ant-Man? Because one man had a dream … that we will never get to see.
Edgar Wright left Ant-Man two months before it was supposed to start shooting. So far Wright has been diplomatic about his reasons for quitting the project but what has been pieced together is basically that he wanted to do one thing and Marvel wanted to do another. Since his departure the Ant-Man script has been rewritten, and rewritten so many times that if it resembles the original Edgar Wright script in anything but name it’s purely coincidental.
So Will It Be Any Good?
Marvel eventually found their yes-man in director Peyton Reed who ironically directed (among other films) the Jim Carry movie Yes Man, and is hoping through his presentation of THEIR vision that you will line up on July 17th, money in hand , to make Ant-Man the latest Marvel blockbuster. But are they kidding themselves? Movies that go through such a troubled production are rarely successful, just look at Waterworld or Alien 3. Then again, Titanic went severely over budget and time and ended up being the highest grossing movie of all time (for a while). It could go either way really but the early responses for the trailer aren’t super enthusiastic. Couple that with the fact that Marvel has been riding high for quite sometime and they are bound to have a flop at some point. It happened to Pixar eventually, could Ant-Man be Marvel’s Cars?
Whether Ant-Man is Spider-Man 2 or Amazing Spider-Man 2, one thing is for certain : Avengers Age Of Ultron is going to make a TON of cash for Disney when it hits theaters two months before Ant-Man. Add that to the advance buzz for the other various projects that Marvel has in the pipeline and even if Ant-Man under performs, it will hardly make a dent in Marvel’s movie empire.
A bit of advice to Marvel though: Paul Rudd is primarily known for his verbal humor, maybe in the next trailer show him saying more than one line?