Ant-Man: Scott Lang

Reprints Marvel Premiere #47-48; Iron Man #131-133, 151; Avengers #195-196, 223; Marvel Team-Up  #103; Marvel Two -In-One #87; material from Avengers #181, Iron Man 125
Written by David Michelinie, Bob Layton and Tom DeFalco.
Penciled by John Byrne, Jerry Bingham, Luke McDonnell, George Perez, Ron Wilson and Greg Larocque.
Inked by Bob Layton, Jack Abel, Mike Esposito, Chic Stone, Dan Green and Brett Breeding.

Scott Lang turned to burglary when his career as an electronics technician failed to pay the bills. When he is released from prison, Tony Stark offers him a second chance and gives Lang a job at Stark International. 

Lang's new job at Stark is going well and so is his relationship with his daughter Cassie. But Cassie suddenly falls ill with a rare heart defect. Her diagnosis is not good, but Lang has hope. Cassie's physician tells Lang about Dr. Erica Sondheim, who has recently performed the sort of laser surgery that could save Cassie.

But when Lang goes to Sondheim's office, he sees her being forced into a car. He tries save her, but she is driven away. Lang learns that the car took Sondheim to the Long Island headquarters of Cross Technologies. He decides to use his burglary skills to break into Cross, but he will first need to steal money to pay some "muscle" to help with the job.

His return to burglary has a surprising result. He breaks into the home of Dr. Henry Pym, the Avenger who has fought crime as Ant-Man, Giant-Man, and Yellowjacket. Lang discovers Pym's old Ant-Man costume and decides to try on the suit. It fits like a glove and he decides to wear the suit and use it to find Dr. Sondheim.

Lang quickly learns how to shrink to ant-size and how to control ants. This enables him to locate Sondheim, but then the new Ant-Man also encounters the villain behind the doctor's capture: Darren Cross, head of Cross Technologies.  

Cross has become super-strong due to a nuclear powered pacemaker. It works so well that it increased his strength and metabolism. Cross tells Ant-Man he's been forcing Sondheim to perform operations on unwilling donors so that he can use their organs to prolong his life. If Scott Lang can't stop Cross, it will mean the end of his daughter's life and the continuation of Cross' heinous crimes

After dealing with Cross, Scott meets Hank Pym. The Avenger tells Lang to keep the costume and a new Ant-Man is born!

Subsequently, Lang's boss, Tony Stark, is in trouble. He needs to talk to his old foe Whiplash, who is incarcerated at Ryker's Island prison. Stark asks Lang to assist him with this, since Lang had served time in Ryker's. Lang shrinks down to ant-size and pays a visit to Whiplash, getting information that could save Stark's life.

After that, Lang assists Iron Man in a project that could save the life of a former Avenger. Dr. Bruce Banner, also known as the Incredible Hulk, asks Tony Stark to use his technological know-how to help cure him of his Hulk-ness. Stark and Banner ask Lang to help them build a nuclear powered pulse regulator that will help Banner remain calm, preventing his transformation. Dr. Sondheim performs an operation that installs the pacemaker.

The operation is a success and Banner is cured...or so it seems. Unfortunately, the gamma rays that reside in the Hulks body act against the pulse regulator. Banner turns into the Hulk and it doesn't appear that he will ever turn back. Hulk goes on a rampage at Stark International.

Iron Man puts everything he has into stopping Hulk, maximizing all power his armor possesses. When the battle is over, Iron Man lies near death, his armor shut down. Ant-Man is forced to shrink and go inside the armor to repair it. If he fails, it will mean the end of Iron Man and Tony Stark.

Some months later, Ant-Man is contacted by Yellowjacket to help the Avengers. Yellowjacket's wife, the Wasp, is being held captive in the Solomon Institute for the Criminally Insane. But the Institute is really a front for criminal activity.

Yellowjacket and Ant-Man shrink down and sneak into the Solomon Institute. But they soon learn the institute is actually a "school" for criminal henchmen. It's operated by a man who calls himself the Taskmaster. He apprehends Ant-Man and Yellowjacket and tells them that he was born with the gift of "photographic reflexes." This ability enables him to watch a superhero or world-class athlete and emulate their actions.

The other Avengers are outside the Institute. Ant-Man contacts the team as only he can: by sending ants crawling into Iron Man's helmet.

Can the Avengers save Ant-Man, Wasp, and Yellowjacket from the clutches of Taskmaster?

Weeks after that, Lang receives a visit from Gus Sweezer, an old friend he knew in prison. Gus tells him that he's signed up with a criminal organization in Manhattan on Houston St. that pays well, and asks Lang to join him. But Lang has gone "legit" and wants nothing more to do with crime. When Gus leaves Lang's house, he's killed, hit by a car in a hit and run.

Simultaneously, at the offices of the Daily Bugle, editor/publisher J. Jonah Jameson tells photographer Peter Parker to investigate a block on Houston St that has been suspiciously crime free. As Spider-Man, Parker investigates a warehouse that makes his spider-sense tingle. It turns out to be a trap, and Spidey is attacked by the Taskmaster! The warehouse is another of Taskmaster's criminal academies. Spider-Man is taken captive and Taskmaster tells his trainees that this is proof that superheroes aren't all-powerful.

Ant-Man shows up at the warehouse and and sees that Taskmaster's goons are about to kill Spider-Man. Scott saves the wallcrawler by sending ants to his rescue. The two heroes learn where Taskmaster will strike next and set off to stop the villain!

Following that adventure, Lang is working at Stark International, making sure the computer network is working properly. Everything seems to be okay, but, suddenly, a drop of a strange green liquid seeps into the central computer.  

This causes the computer's security system to overreact and it threatens to destroy Stark's headquarters. Lang must once again become Ant-Man and go inside the system. If he fails, it could mean death for him and everyone who works for Stark.

Later, Ben Grimm, AKA the Thing, is assisting Reed Richards in an experiment. Ben ends up being teleported to the subatomic world known as Tok. Ant-Man gets a message from ants that the Thing needs his help.

He goes after Ben in the subatomic world and is shocked at what he finds. The Thing has become a pawn of Queen Pearla. She was aided years earlier by the Fantastic Four and ordered Tok's scientists to bring Ben to her kingdom.  

Pearla and her people are engaged in a war with the Lizard Men of Tok. Zorak, leader of the lizard men, says he will cease hostilities if Pearla appoints a champion to duel Zorak. The winner of the duel will gain control of Tok.

Ant-Man learns that Pearla has has an armada of spaceships ready to attack while Zorak and Ben are battling. Pearla intends to force Zorak to surrender. Lang overhears her plans and enlists the aid of Tok's insects in thwarting Pearla's plans. It's up to Ant-Man to free the Thing and bring peace to Tok.

Finally, Hawkeye visits a carnival in Long Island. He used to work there and the carnival's owner, Marcella Carson, has written to the archer seeking help. The Avenger discovers Marcella is being held captive by thugs.

Scott Lang is also attending the carnival with his daughter Cassie. When he sees Hawkeye running around the carnival, he decides it's time to don his Ant-Man costume and follow Hawkeye.  

It's a good thing he does, because the heroes discover that the man behind the scenes is none other than the Taskmaster! The villain has a bomb that could kill everyone at the carnival and only Ant-Man and Hawkeye can prevent this from happening.

Review:
Like the new Ant-Man movie, Ant-Man: Scott Lang is a lot more fun that I expected.

Story:
David Michelinie writes or co-writes (Bob Layton co-plots the Iron Man stories) all but one story reprinted in this tpb. It was interesting to have an ex-con become a superhero.  Michelinie does a nice job early on giving Scott Lang a distinctive personality.  

I enjoyed Ant-Man's frequent references to movies and TV shows. For instance, when he and Yellowjacket are trying to escape from the Solomon Institute, Ant-Man says they should "make like Clint Eastwood in The Eiger Sanction and head up to that air shaft."

Ant-Man, Wasp & Yellowjacket are held captive by Taskmaster.

Lang's relationship with his daughter Cassie is another nice touch that works. Comic book writers often fail to realistically capture dialogue between parents and children. But Michelinie nails it here. 

Ant-Man fixes his daughter's Rom doll.

Michelinie also makes smart use of supporting characters. Dr. Erica Sondheim appears in the first story. Then some time later, Sondheim is the physician that Stark calls to help perform the operation on Bruce Banner.  

The Taskmaster is an interesting villain and he appears three times in this book. I guess that makes "Tasky" the arch foe of Scott Lang. I'm also guessing Michelinie is rather fond of Taskmater, and rightly so. The Ant-Man/Hawkeye story is especially good, where Michelinie devises a clever way for Ant-Man to save the day against Taskmaster.  

Ant-Man rides one of Hawkeye's arrows in pursuit of a bomb!

Tom DeFalco wrote the Marvel Two-In-One story. It's not great, but it's a fun enough sequel to a Silver Age Fantastic Four tale.  

Scott Lang meets the Fantastic Four.

If there's any problem with Ant-Man: Scott Lang, it's that the book relies on the same concepts a bit too often. For instance, we get a story where Ant-Man must go inside Iron Man's armor to save the hero's life. Not long after that, he crawls inside a computer network to shut down the security system. Both stories rely on the formula of Ant-Man shrinking and going inside a small space.Perhaps this is just a hazard that one encounters in collections of comic book stories that weren't meant to be read in such close proximity.  

Another minor quibble: we join the Avengers story in the second part of a three-part story. Ant-Man doesn't appear in the first part, so I understand why it wasn't included, but Marvel should have given us a summary at the beginning to bring readers up to speed. Part 1 of this tale has been reprinted in Avengers: Heart Of Stone.

Art:
The art in Ant-Man: Scott Lang is mostly very good. The origin story is penciled by John Byrne with embellishment by Bob Layton. They were two of the finest Bronze Age artists and their art here looks fantastic.  

Layton also provides inks on the Iron Man/Hulk portion, with Jerry Bingham penciling. Their art looks great as well. Ant-Man's exploration inside Iron Man's armor is very nicely depicted by Bingham and Layton. It's likely meant to be an homage to a classic Ant-Man story that was drawn by Neal Adams.

George Perez drew the Avengers stories and his art is a great example of his Bronze Age abilities. Ron Wilson and Greg Laroque also provide good art in this tpb.

All of the artists give us cool renderings of Ant-Man shrinking and enlarging at super-speed, as seen in this image:

How Does It Look?:
Here's a panel from the original printing of Marvel Premier #48:

And this is how it appears in Ant-Man: Scott Lang:

Extras:
This book contains Ant-Man's entry from the Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe, plus a page of original art.  

Ant-Man: Scott Lang is a great introduction to the second hero to wear the Ant-Man costume and is recommended. But the similarities of some of stories prevents me from giving it my highest rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5


3 and a half Sals.

Avengers: The Trial Of Yellowjacket

Reprints Avengers #212-230
Written by Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, Steven Grant, Roger Stern, Bob Hall, J.M. DeMatteis and Alan Zelenetz.
Penciled by Alan Kupperberg, Bob Hall, Alan Weiss, Don Perlin, Greg Laraocque, Sal Buscema and Al Milgrom.
Inked by Dan Green, Brett Breeding, Chic Stone, Joe Sinnott, and friends.

As I was preparing this review yesterday, I learned of the passing of artist Alan Kupperberg, who penciled the first issue that is reprinted in this book. This review is dedicated to Kupperberg and I send my condolences to his family and friends.

The Avengers have recently formed a new team. Founding member and noted scientist Henry Pym, currently known as Yellowjacket, has rejoined the team and Tigra is an Avenger for the fist time. Pym is feeling insecure, feeling embarrassed about depending on his wife's money and also feeling that his powers are inadequate compared to his teammates. Pym appears to be losing his sanity. This is likely related to his changing from insect-size to giant-size and using multiple costumed identities over the years. This causes Yellowjacket to lash out at his wife Janet, who fights crime as the Wasp, and at the other Avengers.

In rural Northern Virginia, a woman named Linnea and a man named Gorn have decided to rejoin civilization. They have been living for thousands of years in a hidden glade and are surprised at what they find when they visit Washington, DC. Gorn gets into a bar fight and stabs a police officer. This gets the attention of the Avengers, who set out for DC.

More police arrive on the scene and shoot Gorn, killing him. Linnea is incensed and goes on a rampage. The heroes arrive and make the battle a brief one. Captain America is trying to talk Linnea into surrendering. Suddenly, Yellowjacket zaps her from behind with his sting-blast.

Linnea resumes her attack. Pym's teammates are angry with him for attacking Linnea when she had all but given up, but Yellowjacket believes he did nothing wrong.

The Avengers return to New York and prepare to court-martial Yellowjacket. Pym is convinced they will find him guilty, but has an ace up his sleeve. He's constructed a robot called Salvation One that will attack the team and then only Yellowjacket will be able to stop it. Pym believes this will once again make the Avengers see him as a hero. When Wasp confronts him, he slaps her in the face, giving his wife a black eye.

Pym's court-martial doesn't go well and he activates the robot, but it's more dangerous than he anticipated. Wasp is able to stop Salvation One and Yellowjacket skulks away in disgrace.

The team lingers about the Avengers Mansion, trying to come to grips with Pym's betrayal.

At the same time, Warren Worthington III, better known as the X-Men's Angel, is driving through New Mexico. He encounters Ghost Rider, who attacks the mutant. Angel's girlfriend Candy Southern calls the Avengers for help. They arrive, but Earth's Mightiest Heroes learn that the Spirit of Vengeance is not easily defeated.

Sometime later, the cosmically powered Silver Surfer arrives in New York. He encounters the super-villain known as the Molecule Man.

The Surfer discusses his time when he served as the herald of Galactus and helped the Big G find planets to be consumed. Molecule Man is inspired by this story and says he wants to "eat" the planet Earth!

Molecule Man surrounds a portion of New Jersey in a force field and creates a kingdom for himself.  The Avengers try to bring him to justice, but are easily defeated. Molecule Man kills them (or appears to), except for Tigra. The newest Avenger will have to go it alone, or it could mean the death of everyone on Earth! 

The team regroups after the battle with Molecule Man. The Avengers gather at the mansion for a meeting. Wasp calls for a new leader and nominates herself to chair the Avengers. The others agree unanimously and for the first time, the Avengers are led by a woman.

At the same time, Hank Pym encounters his arch foe Egghead in a New York diner. Egghead seems to have reformed. He's feeling guilt over causing his niece, Trish Starr, to lose her arm as a result of one of his earlier schemes. Egghead asks Pym to deliver a cybernetic arm to Trish, but it's all a ruse to frame Yellowjacket. The arm makes Trish go crazy and is actually under the command of Egghead.

With Trish's life in jeopardy, Egghead forces Pym to break into a military base. This gets the attention of the Avengers, who are forced to fight their ex-teammate. When Yellowjacket is defeated, he tells the heroes he was forced to aid Egghead, but Trish acts like she has no idea what Pym is talking about.  Yellowjacket is taken into custody and sent to jail. It seems that Egghead has finally succeeded in defeating his greatest enemy.

Next up, a young boy named Morgan Macneil Hardy shows up at Avengers mansion and meets with the team. But this is no ordinary child. He takes out a pistol and shoots himself, committing suicide.

Within seconds, he is reborn! Hardy tells the Avengers he is immortal and as old as life itself. He is tired of living asks the heroes to help him die. The Avengers are torn, since they've dedicated themselves to protecting people. Hardy takes things into his own hands and sneaks onto an unmanned rocket headed towards the sun. But instead of killing him, the sun transforms Hardy into a deadly fire monster!

Subsequently, the Avengers receive a video transmission from Drax the Destroyer. He tells the heroes that he and his daughter Moondragon have helped stop a brutal war on the planet Ba-Bani. Using her mental powers, Moondragon has kept the peace on Ba-Bani.

But the Avengers soon learn that Moondragon's powers have (quite literally) gone to her head. She has set herself up as a goddess and only the Avengers can stop her. That won't be easy, because Moondragon has taken mental control over Thor!

Shortly after returning to Earth, the Avengers meet and decide it's time to add new members. Tigra has recently resigned, leaving the team with only 4 active members. Wasp says the team needs "more girls". Jan invites She-Hulk and several other superheroines to join the team. She-Hulk and Wasp click immediately and the jade giant agrees to join the Avengers.

At the same time, Captain America and Iron Man pay a visit to Clint Barton, their former teammate known as Hawkeye the archer. Barton is still a bit upset over the way he was removed from the active roster a few months back and is angry that Cap and Shellhead expect him "to come crawling back to the almighty Avengers," but he nevertheless relents and rejoins the team.

The new team has little time to coalesce. Egghead has recruited several super-criminals to form a new Masters Of Evil team. The new Masters consist of Moonstone, Whirlwind, Scorpion and Tiger Shark. Egghead wants them to go after the Avengers, but only when the time is right. Plans get changed when Whirlwind pays the Wasp a visit. This leads the villains to the Avengers' mansion, where the new Masters Of Evil face off against the new team of Avengers!

Later, Hawkeye visits a carnival in Long Island. He used to work there and the carnival's owner, Marcella Carson, has written to the archer seeking help. The Avenger discovers Marcella is being held captive by thugs.

Scott Lang is also attending the carnival with his daughter Cassie. When Scott sees Hawkeye running around the carnival, he decides it's time to don his Ant-Man costume and aid the archer. It's a good thing he did, because the heroes discover the man behind the scenes is none other than the Taskmaster!  The villain has a bomb that will kill everyone at the carnival and only Ant-Man and Hawkeye can prevent this from happening.

While all of these events are occurring, Hank Pym remains in jail, awaiting trial. Tony Stark is paying his best lawyers to represent Yellowjacket. Ant-Man believes Pym is innocent and sneaks in to the jail (easy to do when one is ant-size!), intending to spring Hank. But Pym wants to stay in jail and prove in a court of law that he was framed by Egghead.

The mystical superhero known as Doctor Druid arrives at Avengers Mansion. He transports the Avengers back to the 12th century, where they find their former teammate Dan Whitman, the Black Knight. The Knight had been stuck in the past, fighting in the Crusades.

Whitman needs the Avengers help to confront the Fomore, an evil race of super-powered immortals.  The Fomore prove to be a tough opponent for the Avengers. The most dangerous Fomorian is the giant known as Balor!

When they return to the present, the Avengers have a new member among their ranks. Her name is Monica Rambeau, known to the world as Captain Marvel. Monica can transform herself into any form of energy, which gives her the power to fly across the universe in seconds. The Avengers devise a test for Captain Marvel's powers and are quite impressed with the results.

Captain Marvel joins the Avengers.

Finally, Henry Pym's trial date arrives. But shortly after it begins, the Masters Of Evil break into the courtroom. They claim to be acting on Pym's orders, but it's part of Egghead's plan to further discredit Hank. The Avengers battle the villains, but Pym is taken to Egghead's Long Island hideout.

Egghead forces Pym to help him, telling him that the Masters Of Evil are the closest thing to allies Pym has in the world. The Avengers are hot on Egghead's trail. But if Henry Pym is to survive and clear his name, he must engage Egghead in a one-on-one fight to the finish.

Plus, the would-be menace of Fabian Stankowicz, the Mechano-Marauder!

Review:
A momentous saga that features the end of Hank Pym's superhero career (for a while at least) and the end of his marriage to Jan. But on the whole, it's a mixed bag.

Story:
The big problem with this story is that Pym's fall from grace happens very quickly. He lost his mind three years earlier in "real" time. But after that, Yellowjacket recovered and he and Wasp had a solid relationship. But one minute Hank feels a bit disrespected, the next he's plotting treachery and smacking his wife in the face. Most of this book is written by Jim Shooter, who wrote some classic Avengers stories in the late 70s. The tales reprinted in Trial Of Yellowjacket aren't as good. The stories that depart from the Pym-centric portion don't add much. The Ghost Rider fight is a mess.

The book also would have been a slightly better reading if issue #211, where Pym rejoins the team, was included.

But it's not all bad. Shooter writes the Wasp as a very strong, powerful character. He deserves kudos for making Jan the first woman to lead the Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Wasp is forced to grow a lot in a short time and Shooter makes it believable.

Shooter's Molecule Man story is entertaining, even if we never believe the villain has killed the Avengers at the end of the first part. Silver Surfer's guest appearance also helps make this a solid tale.

The Black Knight story written by Steven Grant isn't great either. The Fomorians aren't very interesting and feel like one-shot villains.

David Michelinie writes the one-and-done Hawkeye/Ant-Man team-up. Taskmaster was always fun and Michelinie creates a memorable maneuver that Ant-Man uses to save the day. A highlight of the tpb.

J.M. De Matteis penned the Morgan Macneil Hardy story. It might not be essential to the Avengers' history. But it gets into some interesting topics when Hardy asks them to help him die. The heroes are torn, since they've spent their careers saving lives.

Roger Stern began his long Avengers tenure by finishing the Pym saga. He does a nice job wrapping things up, with Hank clearing his name. It would have been easy for Stern to blame Egghead's machinations for Pym's domestic violence, but that's not the case. The Wasp's maturation that Shooter began continues under Stern's pen.

Art:
The art here is all decent, but never rises beyond pretty good. My favorite art is found in the portion reprinted from Avengers #227. It features Sal Buscema embellished by Brett Breeding. The lack of a consistent artist (seven different artists provide the pencils) hurts the book. This tpb also includes several issues that are inked by committee, which means at times the art will look very different from one page to the next.

 
How Does It Look?:
Here's a panel from Avengers #212:

And this is how the reprinted version looks:

Avengers: The Trial Of Yellowjacket reprints a story that has had repercussions for years to come, especially regarding Wasp and Hank Pym. The story itself is not a classic of the Bronze Age, but the Wasp's growth, the Hawkeye/Ant-Man tale, and the final battle with Egghead make it worth reading.

J.A. Morris' ratings

.5