Who is Ant-man?

So, many of you would have seen the trailer for Ant-man by now and your perhaps wondering, if you’re not an avid follower of the Ant-man comics, who on earth is Ant-man?!

Albeit the name doesn’t sound much, as openly admitted by our protagonist, Paul Rudd, in the film, but despite this, were looking at a hero that can shrink himself down and take control of insects!

Ant-Man – European Premiere Wednesday 8th July Odeon Leicester Square, London – MarkMeets
Focusing on Hank Pym may lead us to the reason Ant-man has never made it to the big screen until now. Pym’s character has somewhat of a controversial story line and becomes something of a nutter, due to his mental breakdown during the 1980’s. In this unsavoury time of his life Pym takes on an alter-ego by the name of Yellowjacket, who was largely very aggressive. He did things like; accidentally create Ultron, the bad guy that Iron Man mistakenly created in the last Avengers film and plot against the Avengers in general.

In the comics, Ant-Man is a scientist who goes by the name of Hank Pym. Hank is a massively important character within Marvel as he is a founding member of ‘The Avengers, although as your probably aware, hasn’t featured in either of the avengers films.  Upon Pym’s retirement, Scott Lang takes over, and he’s the character featured in the film as played by Paul Rudd, Pym is played by the equally loveable Michael Douglas (Pictured further below). The loveable, laughable nature of Rudd’s employment as Ant-man goes a long way to suggesting Ant-man’s comedic approach to a superhero film.

Ant-Man Movie Review
Thankfully, Marvel Studios made the decision to focus on Scott Lang, who, to give him a little bit of context, is a burglar who works for Stark Industries for a period of time in the comic books. Later on he tries to use his powers to save his sick daughter. Although in the movie Lang has no relation to Stark Industries, he is still portrayed as a burglar.

Let’s turn now to Ant-man’s powers. Pym and his lab assistant/wife/girlfriend/ex-wife invent ‘Pym particles’ which enables a person to change their size and increase their strength at the same time. In the comics Pym also invents the helmet which allows him to communicate to insects, however in the movie, this power takes the form of a hearing-aid type invention and the helmet is used to give stability to Ant-man’s mental state as he changes his size at will. Ant-man’s suit certainly deserves a mention as one of his powers due to its pretty incredible ability to change size as Ant-man does!

Now that we’ve discussed the who, let’s focus on the why. Why have Marvel decided to produce the Ant-man movie now? By the looks of it, Marvel has seen a real opportunity to create a comical film. After Guardians of the Galaxy took the cinematic world by storm last year with its comedic designs, Marvel have taken up the gauntlet and jumped at the opportunity to poke fun at itself. Paul Rudd’s inclusion as the protagonist in Ant-man clearly emphasizes the light hearted nature of the film.