There’s a New Ant-Man in Town [Review]
Someone has stolen one of Ant-Man’s costumes! Hank Pym turns to Power Man and Iron Fist to help him find who’s behind the theft. Click “More” to read our review of the newest episode of Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes!, “To Steal an Ant-Man”.
S2, Episode 5: To Steal an Ant-Man
Hank returns to Avengers Mansion and Wasp is excited to see him return hoping he’s returning to the team, but instead, Hank is only there to clean up his lab and leave for good. He sees the footage of a bank robbery using his tech. He returns to his private lab to find his Ant-Man stuff is gone. Answering an ad in the paper, Pym enlists Luke Cage and Danny Rand, also known as Power Man and Iron Fist, as heroes for hire. Meanwhile, the burglar is having his own issues using the costume and Pym particles for his own goals of robbing banks. Luke and Iron Fist begin shaking down informants and come face to face with the fake Ant-Man. With the help of a Pym particle detector, Hank leads Danny and Luke to the thief. Hank recognizes the thief as Scott Lang, a former engineer, who’s stealing the money to save his daughter, Cassie. After saving his daughter, Hank hands over the moniker of Ant-Man to Lang and walks away. Behind closed doors, though, Hank, struggling with his own failures, is losing his patience and temper and is becoming a bit unhinged.
This episode was particularly good. I know one of my issues with most of these early second season episodes has been the lack of seeing the Avengers as a full group. Most of the time, the episodes have either broken up the team or used them as more of a backdrop to the main story. However, this one accomplished more than just what these episodes have so far this year. It’s clear the series is universe building and working toward the inevitable Secret Invasion story, and it seems Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Scott Lang as Ant-Man II might be smaller inclusions into this larger story, but the way this uses a much more personal story is different and really shows just how good the writing is for this entire series.
Scott Lang’s story of trying to save his daughter was actually touching and not necessarily just a schlocky vehicle to build another hero up. It’s actually quite classic in the way Marvel uses gray areas in characters’ lives, personalities, and actions to create their heroes. Plus, Lang’s back story in the episode follows the original story from the comics. Again, Chris Yost is really doing a great job of supervising the scripts to connect the audience to actual Marvel history. As a long time reader, I thank him for that. It’s not always necessary to tell good stories, but it’s definitely appreciated for the older viewers. It sounds corny, but if a dad and his kid watch the show together, it gives the older generation a chance to introduce the next to these characters and might just help those kids go to a comic shop and read some comics.
Cage and Iron Fist are perfectly characterized in this episode as well. These are two long time friends and you get that right off the bat. It gives them a chance to joke with one another, to kick some serious butt, and their personalities worked well in contrast to Pym and Lang’s more melancholic tones. Speaking of Hank, we get a little Easter egg included in this episode about what his possible future as a hero might be. We’ve long known him to be a guy who isn’t exactly well adjusted. He’s often changed his superhero persona to try to compensate for that maladjustment. One of those was the ultra-confident Yellowjacket that came along as he finally had a mental breakdown from stress. As he was losing his patience and temper with his current view of his scientific advancements, we saw a yellow jacket crawling about his lab. It certainly served as a great piece of foreshadowing.
While the episode only featured one current Avenger for about two minutes, the overall tone of the episode certainly made it one of the better written episodes of the series to date and the universe building going on, it was awesome to finally invite Power Man and Iron Fist into the fold of the series.
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Great tone and superbly written. Luke Cage and Danny Rand were perfectly characterized and Scott Lang’s story was perfectly woven into the mix. | None |
| Rating |
1 Comment
I really enjoyed this episode. I liked last weeks more, but this was a wonderfully written episode. I agree with how great of a job they’re doing connecting new stories to older stories from the comics. Even though the Avengers weren’t really present the interactions between Jan and Hank at the beginning were great. I actually started to see Jan as the leader she becomes, not just the spoiled brat having fun as a hero. Luke and Danny were depicted perfectly, so much better than what we’re seeing in USM. Can anybody name all the villains in Crossfire’s gang? I thought one looked like Harpoon, but he’s a Marauder so I’m not so sure about that. I’m loving that this show is about the whole universe, but I could have stood to have a little more from the Avengers.