Warning: contains spoilers for Ant-Man #1
Marvel Comics finally decided to fix Ant-Man by letting Hank Pym step away from his long history of personal issues and drama. A new mini-series, launched for the 60th anniversary of the character, focuses on its rich history and legacy instead, and the first issue proves that the formula is working. However, it's hard to tell how long this will last.
Doctor Henry "Hank" Pym began his Marvel career as a perfect 1960's fiction stereotype: the "scientific adventurer" who uses his intellect and inventions to fight crime. As Ant-Man, Hank lived many of these bizarre adventures, together with his partner Janet Van Dyne, aka the Wasp, who added a romantic dynamic to their stories (albeit one plagued by many of the stereotypes of the time). After a few years, Ant-Man even became a member of the Avengers, but then he soon found himself overwhelmed by Marvel's new wave of popular heroes, who rapidly overshadowed him in of sales. Ant-Man never became one of Marvel's top sellers or got his own comic book, which led to creative decisions that, rather than making the character more interesting for readers as they were supposed to, ended up tainting him for decades to come.
In July 2022, Marvel Comics launched a four-issue Ant-Man mini-series, written by Al Ewing with art by Tom Reilly and Jordie Bellaire. In an interview with Ant-Man committing an act of domestic violence, building a robot to attack his friends, and suffering from bipolar disorder and suicidal tendecies. At that point, it was impossible to redeem him, so the creative behind the new series decided to bring back the original Hank Pym, the one who was happy being a clumsy scientist solving small crimes with his partner, before Marvel's editorial dissatisfaction crawled in. Judging from the first issue, where Hank and Jan face the "threat" of Ant-Man's greatest foes, who go by the silly name of "Ant-agonists", the operation was a complete success.
Ant-Man is a breath of fresh air for fans of the character. Ewing stayed true to his word and brought out that same sense of lightheartedness that permeated Hank Pym's earliest adventures. However, this is still a celebration of Ant-Man as a hero, so there is also a grander narrative that involves Hank being recruited by the Ant-Man of the year 2549, "to save the world of tomorrow from the deadliest menace of yesterday". The artwork is also absolutely on point. During the sequence in the past, Reilly and Bellaire perfectly capture the visual feeling of the 1960s, while the pages set in the future transmit the sense of an aseptic, alien world.
However, the positive approach of this series does not mean that Hank Pym's past mistakes can or will be forgotten, especially regarding his relationship with Janet. Considering that Ant-Men will only last four issues, it's very likely that once the experiment is over, this "innocent" version of Hank Pym will disappear. Despite that, the presence of time travel in the story means that, perhaps, it could have some influence on the present timeline, where Hank Pym is currently presumed dead at the hands of Ultron. Fans can still hope that Marvel's new Ant-Man series will fix the Hank Pym character once and for all, and open the way for his return.
Ant-Man #1 is available now from Marvel Comics!
