Series Disambiguation (Ant-Man): Page 7 of 8

Astonishing Ant-Man – (2015-2016)

With the multiverse restored, so was Scott Lang’s own series. This ongoing series was named “Astonishing Ant-Man,” an adjective which had been associated with Scott Lang's Ant-Man character since his first appearance, albeit informally. Spencer continued to write this series and would delve even deeper into the continuity of Ant-Man (all of them) than in the previous series.

Right away in the new series, Spencer wrote in two timeframes, labeled simply “Now” and “Then.” The “then” portion of the series basically picked up where the previous series ended. The “now,” however, started with Scott Lang once again in prison, provoking the reader’s curiosity as to how he got to that point. Aside from a few pages depicting his new life in prison, the rest of the series would lead up to this point, drawing ever closer to the revelation of this mystery.

Overall, the tone of the series continued to be whimsical and humorous, though simultaneously matched with Ant-Man and other heroes fighting supervillains. In terms of villains, industrialist Darren Cross continued to be the villain of the series, though a new one was introduced in the Power Broker, an old Marvel villain who made his money by giving other people (villains) superpowers. Inspired by real-world phone apps such as Uber and Lyft, the Power Broker had created the app “Hench,” which matched criminal masterminds with needed “henchmen.” Unfortunately for the Power Broker, Cross stole the idea and created a competing app called Lackey. The rivalry of their competing business ventures continued throughout the series.

In terms of his Lang’s personal life, Nick Spencer picked up on several ignored subplots. For instance, at the end of Fraction’s FF series, Scott had begun dating his teammate Darla Deering (“Ms. Thing”), though she had not been mentioned at all in Ant-Man (1st series). Here, Spencer disclosed that Lang had simply ignored her from then on, causing resentment on her side, which resulted in uncomfortable reunion when his new company was hired to provide security for her. Parallel to this, Lang continued an unofficial, friends-with-benefits relationship with Janice Lincoln, the second Beetle.

Lang’s daughter Cassie also received fresh nods to her past. While she had never once been shown to think back to her time as the hero Stature or as a Young Avengers in the earlier series, Cassie found herself envying her old teammates and the life that she once lived. Hearing about the Power Broker’s offer to give aspiring super-villains powers, Cassie embarked on a dangerous plan to accept this offer, fully intending to use her newfound powers to bring him down. Although this ruse did not fool him at all, the Power Broker nonetheless provided Cassie her new powers as the size-changing, winged “Stinger,” and pointed her toward their mutual enemy, Darren Cross. Unfortunately for Cassie, she was captured.

At this point, the various storylines of the series were brought together. During the course of the first seven issues, Lang had encountered and fought several former villains of Hank Pym's during his time as the first Ant-Man. Needing help to rescue his daughter, Lang used the Hench app to hire Whirlwind, Voice, the new Magician and the new Hijacker. Along with his own allies/employees Grizzly and Machinesmith and his not-really girlfriend Beetle, Lang and his team rescued Cassie. Unfortunately, the mission was technically still breaking-and-entering, for which Lang was arrested – bringing the “then” part of the series up to date with the “now.”

Fortunately for Lang, he had a good lawyer in the form of She-Hulk and an overzealous group of villains, Egghead and Darren Cross, who overplayed their hands and proved Lang’s innocence. In the end, all charges against Lang were dropped, and father and daughter began the next stage in their careers as the crime-fighting Ant-Man and Stinger. At this point, Nick Spencer seemed to have told his story and the series ended with #13.
 

Ant-Man & the Wasp (2nd series) – (2018)

For Free Comic Book Day 2016, writer Mark Waid and artist Alan Davis debuted a new character, an all-new, all-different Wasp. This Wasp was Nadia, the heretofore unknown daughter of Hank Pym and Maria Trovaya, who it turned out was pregnant when Pym believed she had died, and who evidently did not die right away. During her 8-issue series the Unstoppable Wasp (the first of that name), written by Jeremy Whitley, her backstory was explained as her being raised in the infamous Russian “Red Room” and trained to be an assassin. However, she escaped and eventually took the identity of the Wasp. Along the way, she had become fast friends with Janet van Dyne, the original Wasp, and took her last name as well, becoming Nadia van Dyne.

In the summer of 2018, Marvel was set to release the sequel to the first Ant-Man film, this one titled Ant-Man & the Wasp. With a new Wasp gracing the pages of Marvel Comics, it no doubt seemed logical to Marvel to have a miniseries with the same name featuring both her and the Ant-Man of the day, Scott Lang. Interestingly, although this was to be the second series of this name, neither of the titular characters were the same as from the first series. The original series had paired Eric O’Grady with Hank Pym, while this series featured Scott Lang and Nadia van Dyne. This five-issue miniseries was written by Mark Waid, creator of this new Wasp.

Since his Astonishing Ant-Man series, Scott Lang had appeared as a member of the resistance during Hydra's control of the United States during the Secret Empire crossover. When Hydra kinapped his daughter, however, Scott was forced to betray the resistance. Though he then helped defeat Hydra thereafter, Scott was so ashamed of his actions that he had stowed away on the Guardians of the Galaxy's spaceship and afterward had a series of adventures with them.

Wishing to return to Earth in time for his daughter’s birthday, Lang used a subspace communicator to call home and ask for a way home. Reluctantly, Nadia agreed to assist, using a “quantum-entanglement subatomic transport” to beam Lang from the Andromeda II galaxy back to Earth. Unfortunately, the inept Lang did not follow her instructions and the two were whisked away to the subatomic Microverse. The rest of the series dealt with their various adventures while looking for a way home. Fortunately for them, they succeeded and Lang returned in time for Cassie’s birthday and Nadia in time for her second Unstoppable Wasp series, which began the next month.

Ant-Man (2nd series) #1-5 – (2020)

In early 2020, Scott Lang received a new Ant-Man series, the second to bear this specific name. In this miniseries, writer Zeb Wells more-or-less picked-up where the Astonishing Ant-Man series had ended, with Ant-Man fighting crime along side his daughter, Stinger.

Although insects in general had been a perennial feature of the Ant-Man character, Wells wanted to explore more than what had been done in the past and the logical villain to feature as a foil started out to be Swarm, the former Nazi scientist whose consciousness had been transferred to a swarm of bees. It turned out, however, that this old villain of the Champions and Spider-Man was not even the series’ “big bad.” This turned out to be the Bug-Lords, immense, insect creatures living in the Savage Land, wishing to use their powers over the insect world to overthrow the “plague of apes” running the planet. When their thrall, a humanoid insect named Macrothorax, obtained a large cache of Pym particles, it seemed that this was just what would happen. Fortunately, Ant-Man and Stinger were able to track Macrothorax to the Savage Land and end the threat once and for all.
 

Ant-Man (3rd series) #1-4 – (2022)

The character of Ant-Man would only have to wait two years for a new miniseries. As this one would coincide with the 60th anniversary of Hank Pym’s first appearance, Marvel had something special in mind. This landmark story would feature not one of the Ant-Men characters, but them all. Over the course of the short, 4-issue miniseries, writer Al Ewing utilized time-travel, combined with a clear knowledge of tight continuity to weave a story in which each character to use that identity met each other in their prime.

The first issue of the series, logically, dealt with Hank Pym and was set in the period of time shortly after the beginning of his association with the Wasp. Cleverly, Ewing had Eric O’Grady make an appearance as an annoying youth disturbing Hank and Janet’s night at the movies. Later in the issue, the Wasp inadvertently ran into Scott Lang, who was on one of his early burglary jobs, prior to being arrested and incarcerated. Adding mystery to this was a time-traveler from hundreds of years in the future, on a curious mission of his own.

In the remaining three issues, the time-traveler’s mission brought him to visit first Eric O’Grady (during the time period of the Irredeemable Ant-Man series) and Scott Lang in the “present.” Unfortunately, despite attempting to avoid interfering with the timeline, the time traveler inadvertently freed the latest version of Ultron, who had merged with the memories of the deceased Hank Pym and wielded the powers of Asgard itself. Needing assistance, the time traveler gathered Hank Pym and Eric O’Grady from their points in the time stream and revealed to them and Scott Lang that he was Dr. Zayn Asghar, the Ant-Man of the 25th Century. Combining their skills, the four Ant-Men were able to defeat godlike Ultron.