Ant-Man & Wasp 1
Reviewed by Martin Skidmore 18-Nov-10
I am genuinely surprised that comics as bad in every way as this get published by a major professional company.
Story and pencils by Tim Seeley, inks by Victor Olazaba;
This is another random pick, and I’m reviewing it as I read.
The cover nearly put me off, in that the facial expressions of the two leads are not readable (their mouths are wide open, if that helps), the mug and ink bottle toppling in the background don’t make sense in that they are surely too far back for them to have just bumped them, but the huge splashing of ink is just rising. If the leads are angry and bumping each other, the apparent forward movement is hard to reconcile with the ink bottle moving away from us. A very poor start. Jesus, the cover is by a different artist from the interior – one Salva Espin. How bad must the insides be, that something like this is worth putting on the front?
Also, a recent commentary item makes clear that I am all for the sometime practice of giving over the first page to ‘story so far’ stuff. This instead gives that full page to credits. Now surely there is plenty of back-story here, not least why Hank Pym is the Wasp and Jan isn’t (fortunately I know this, as I read the Bendis Avengers titles, and even the Slott one with Pym in), and who this particular Ant-Man is. But no, we need credits at large size, it seems. It’s on exercise-book paper, with some ‘maths’ on it – it’s actually idiotic arithmetic, and does not lead in to the story.
And, dammit, it starts with Hank saying hello and explaining himself! Then he announces he is funding a bunch of refuges for victims of domestic violence, in Jan’s memory: now I like this if it is offered as an asshole attempting to redeem himself for past offences, but not if it is seen as doing so. Does that make sense? I don’t know if we will even see which way it goes… (Later note: we don’t.)
This is making me grimace regularly. The opening scene with the latest Ant-Man is painfully clumsy in its writing and art – idiotic, stiff, and the apparent jolly sexism after the scene above is questionable, but I’m still on the fence about this (later note: he pays for being an asshole). The interactions with a bunch of characters who are new to me (Veil, Finesse, Striker, Mettle) but are apparently Avengers of some stripe or other are equally hamfisted. The dialogue keeps being painfully contrived. The figures are, if anything, less expressive than on the cover. This is not even up to my idea of what constitutes professionally competent.
If anything, the story is worse. Hank working the villainous plot out makes no sense. His explanation of how they will get the stolen item back is even less coherent. The last line is Hank saying “I guess this is a job for Ant-Man and the Wasp,” while they pose in a pointless way, no feeling in body or face, some swirls around them for no reason I can work out.
I was hard on Superboy from the last week of new comics, but now I wish I’d been kinder, because this is vastly worse. It is idiotic, clumsy, incompetently drawn, lifeless, with a dumb and uninteresting plot and annoying characters. Before buying, I thought it might have been intended as a comedy, given the two loser characters, but I can’t see much that might have conceivably be intended as amusing. I am genuinely surprised that comics so bad in every way get published by a major professional company.
Tags: Ant-Man, Marvel, Tim Seeley, Wasp
I was thinking of offering a review of this for you last week, but I have to confess that I really couldn’t find the enthusiasm to do it. I appreciate that you don’t necessarily have to like what you are reviewing, but having already read it once, I would need to read it again to write references for a review. Hence my lack of enthusiasm.
I have always had a love for the various Marvel size changers through the years, despite them nearly always suffering from poor story material. About the only ones that shine out are the Scott Lang origin in Marvel Premiere and the Irredeemible Ant-Man series by Robert Kirkman where this incarnation debuted.
A number of the original TTA Ant-Man strips have a sense of fun, but suffer from the weak villains which plagued those stories (see also Thor, Human Torch & Iron Man).
The youngsters are part of Avengers Academy, a series which is a lot better than I thought it would be, in fact I think it’s pretty damn good.
Unlike the subject matter here. I mentioned the poor run of size changer mags and clearly this is keeping to tradition.
There are two main problems with this premise and yes, they’re the title characters. The new Ant-Man (I forget his identity) was an unpleasant character in his original series, but Kirkman put him in humerous circumstances (which usually involved his come-uppance). He has since had an interesting career, first in the Initiative, then Thunderbolts (where, due to his politically incorrect mentality, he seemed to fit in perfectly) and finally the Secret Avengers. Now there are two key developments regarding his time in the Secret Avengers: one he now sports a costume very similar to the original (and best) and the best Ant-Man costume since….well since Scott Lang relinquished his original costume that he nicked, funnily enough; and the other is that he is apparently a reformed man ! But no, in this series he is back to being Homer Simpson in tights ! (See my comments elsewhere regarding the lack of continuity between contemporary titles.)
The other problem is Hank Pym, or more to the point what has been done to him. I have hated this Wasp alter-ego from the word go. For gawds sake retire him if this is the best Marvel can do ! As for his appearances in Mighty Avengers and his rather suspect affections for Jocasta….
So no, I did not take too kindly to this issue and as for the plot, rumour has it that there might have been one.
I suspect that the first page was meant to emulate the summary pages of Hercules, but that only works when you know the characters – and like them. I also helps if you give a bit of background for the “gags” to hang on to.
In short: to be avoided !
So I did do a review of sorts after all !!!
I’ve found the way Pym became the Marvel Universe’s whipping boy very entertaining, whether it was the Secret Invasion tie-in where the Skrulls impersonating him kept killing himself, or Slott’s merciless ribbing of him in Mighty Avengers; if anything, my problem is with him becoming the focus of another boring redemption story (Daredevil soon to get the same treatment, of course). The main problem here, though, is that they’ve given the miniseries to the creator of the astonishingly mediocre Hack/Slash, a comic which doesn’t even work on the trashy sex and violence level its title and marketing suggest. He’s simply not very good.
I am really hoping this isn’t a redemption, as I said in re the funding of refuges. Then again, it makes no difference, since I have no intention of picking up any other issues.
Yeah, but it’s hard to deduce that sort of nuance with any certainty from a writer this weak. And it would still have a potential impact if it affects Pym’s portrayal in other titles. Slott had talked about wanting to redeem Pym, so I would have expected him to handle any such story himself – but now he’s the sole writer on Spider-Man, perhaps he simply doesn’t have time. Plus, he did seem to enjoy the merciless mockery quite a bit once he got into it.
Read #2 and whilst an improvement (I wont say that it couldn’t be any worse, because I’m sure they can try !) still wasn’t that good. There was a hint of a plot this time, but not much. You haven’t missed anything.
In hindsight, I should have referred to Ant-Man as Sid the Sexist in tights, rather than Homer Simpson.
I have the sneaking suspicion that this title is supposed to be a comedy. In which case, as in every other respect – such as entertainment – they have failed miserably.
Oh and this time the recap page consists of the two title characters represented as stick people. However the way the Wasp is drawn made me think initially that it was the Plantman.
I was kind of expecting it to be played for laughs, but I really couldn’t spot much in #1 that could conceivably have been intended as comedy, still less anything that was actually funny. There are people who imagine that doing things badly is the same as being funny, so possibly that is the ‘reasoning’…?
Well they say things come in threes and the third and final issue of this series is now out.
The one positive thing I can say about this series is that it was consistent. It was consistently crap.
One day someone will write a series for Mr Pym that is readable and even enjoyable. Possibly.