3 out of 5

I certainly wasn’t the only one waiting to see what Nick Spencer would get up to after the majestic blend of comic pop goodness, humor and surprising character depth that was his celebrated ‘Superior Foes of Spider-Man’ series from 2013-2015.  And Ant-Man – though certainly part of Marvel’s ‘corporate synergy’ in leading up to the Ant-Man movie – seemed like a good title for him: a known but fringe character who’d been bopping around in various short titles that allowed for a bit more humor as Hank Pym gave up the name to some other Ant-Guys… including the lead of this series, once-thief Scott Lang.  The first issue certainly seemed to justify that pairing, as it was a laugh-out-loud job audition for Scott as Iron Man’s personal security consultant, a job Scott needed to prove steady income to his ex-wife and thus hopefully increase his chances of more time with his daughter.  Ramon Rosanas art maybe wasn’t as expressed as Steve Lieber’s on ‘Superior,’ but the big and streamlined style – paired with Jordan Boyd’s bold coloring – made for an eye-easy read, and the fans (myself included) absolutely responded to the divorced-cares-for-his-kid everyman approach.  The initial letters responses kept referencing Waid’s DD, and I’d say the comparisons were warranted: Wait took a similar tactic at the outset of that run by focusing on the character – and looking beyond a gloom and doom complicated past – instead of arch-enemy plotting.  But I stopped reading that series when Mark seemed to run out of angles to approach Matt Murdock and ended up turning to villain-of-the-arc stuff.  The book maintained its comicyness, but it felt much more like a standard title and less like a fresh take.  And unfortunately, the first arc of Ant-Man follows that same trend, condensed down to five issues.

While issue 2 maintains the tone on which Spencer started – Ant-Man turning down a job to head to California, following his ex-wife and daughter’s move there, and trying to start his own business, thus smoothly ‘rebooting’ the character with a new locale and fresh start – a cheeky run-in in issue 3 takes a slip into villainy over-plotting which hijacks the rest of the arc.  Lang’s banter because less personal and simply banter; the family concern is the MacGuffin for getting in a splash page scuffle.  And Rosanas’ art, well suited to the conversational style of the first two books, or when the action is taking place in the backseat, feels stiff and too digital when Ant-Man is versus big giant Darren Cross.  The good news is that Spencer doesn’t use this scuffle to set up some bad guy in the shadows, so this could just be a way of wiping the slate completely clean for the next arc.  The issues are still definitely an enjoyable, chuckly ride, but the clever balance of ‘Superior’ looms large, and definitely isn’t maintained all the way through here.  Still: it shows a lot of promise, and I have faith in Spencer finding his way to turn the book into its own special thing.