Who Is Ant-Man?

Marvel just revealed the first trailer for their new Ant-Man movie, but who actually is this unfortunately named superhero?

Marvel Entertainment unveiled their first trailer for their upcoming Ant-Man film, set to reach theaters July 17th. With the success of Iron Man, Captain America, and The Avengers movies exceeding everyone's expectations it seems that Marvel as a production company is here to stay. They have began to get out of the viewer's comfort zones as well, with the success of the lesser known Guardians of the Galaxy movie capturing the public's heart. Ant-Man will again be a movie based on a lesser known hero, so I take it upon myself to help educate our listeners with some background on a real interesting character.

Ant-Man is a very essential character in the Marvel Universe, and has been present since the beginning of comics. Ant-Man has some simple powers, he has the ability to shrink down to the size of an ant while actually doubling his strength making his a lethal ally. Also ironically enough, Ant-Man has the ability to grow to a towering height to take on even the largest enemies. The very foolish looking helmet that Ant-Man wears helps him communicate with insects telepathically, offers him a supply of oxygen, and is equipped with sound amplifying technology so his allies can hear him when he's a fraction of his size.

Three people have been donned the title of Ant-Man. Hank Pym was the original, one of the smartest men in the universe who actually created the "Pym particles" that allows humans to shrink in size. Pym is also known as the man who created Ultron, a terrifying cyborg who will be the main antagonist in the upcoming Avengers movie coming out this summer. After Pym's run as the masked hero the title of Ant-Man was passed to Scott Lang, the character that the movie will be based on. A former electronics expert, he turned his life to crime to try and support his family. His last crime involved breaking into Hank Pym's house to steal the costume in order to get a cure for his daughter's illnesses. Lang intended to return the costume, but Hank Pym allowed him to keep the costume if he promises to uphold the law. The final man to hold the title of Ant-Man is Eric O'Grady. O'Grady held the title very shortly, stealing the costume to lie, steal, and cheat to his advantage. He uses the title of "super-hero" to seduce women as well as humiliate and torment people he did not like.

I'm interested to see where Marvel takes this movie. Ant-Man can be seen as a corny super-hero. Scott Lang's character has a less dramatic origin story than those of Batman and Iron Man, but it seems that Marvel is playing into that idea. The summer release date makes me believe that this will be filled with awesome fight scenes with great special effects while still keeping a very witty comical vibe. I'm excited to see what Marvel will do with this character, and if this movie is successful without the support of the big name hero it will be exciting where they will go next. As much as I would like to see a sixth Spider-Man movie in the past fifteen years I would love to see Marvel's lesser known characters gain some fame. There's so many characters in the comic book universe with better characteristics than those we see in the movies today, and with the success of Guardians of the Galaxy and release of Ant-Man it seems we're taking one step closer.