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Ant-Man
Guide to Ant-Man & Giant-Man – now available to the public!
I’m happy to announce that my Guide to Ant-Man (and Giant-Man!) is now available to all CK readers ahead of the debut of the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania trailer out next week! This guide exists thanks to the ongoing support of the Astonishing Patrons of Crushing Krisis.
This Guide to Ant-man doesn’t only cover the current MCU Ant-Man, Scott Lang. It covers all of Marvel’s Ant-Men, including Hank Pym and Eric O’Grady, plus Bill Foster as Giant-Man and Goliath! I’ve updated the guide to include every comic released through present day, plus collections solicited through the end of this quarter.
If you want to catch up on Scott Lang’s journey as Ant-Man in Marvel Comics, they’ve collected the vast majority of his solo series and major appearances in just three trade paperbacks:
Ant-Man: Scott Lang (2015 paperback, ISBN 978-0785192664 / digital) – This collection picks up Scott Lang from his first appearance in 1979 and collects the first few years of his major stories. This version of Lang is more of a former criminal screw-up and less of the lovable goof from the MCU.
The Astonishing Ant-Man: The Complete Collection (2018 paperback, ISBN 978-1302911324 / digital) – This collection includes both writer Nick Spencer’s run across two Ant-Man series. He writes Scott Lang very much in the mold of his MCU character. Many of these stories will feel like small-time capers he pulls between the Ant-Man films.
Ant-Man: The Saga of Scott Lang (2023 paperback, 978-1302950651 / digital) – This collection includes three unconnected miniseries from 2018-2020, plus a pair of one-shot stories. If you are less interested in ongoing story continuity and just want some fun, stand-alone adventures, this is a fine book to sample!
New For Patrons: The Definitive Guide to Marvel’s Ant-Man – every one of them!
Today’s new guide for Patrons of Crushing Krisis covers one Marvel’s first Silver Age superheroes who was among the last to get his own ongoing series – and that series featured the third iteration of this hero…
Ant-Man & Giant-Man – The Definitive Reading Order and Collecting Guide
This is one of the handful of Marvel guides that have been stymieing me for months now. I think you’ll soon understand why.
The original Ant-Man was Hank Pym, who debuted in a late-Atlas-era monstrous one-shot story in Tales to Astonish just as Marvel’s Silver Age superhero universe was gaining traction.
He was quickly brought back as a superhero (rather than a mad scientist) to anchor anthology stories in that title as well as to found the Avengers, though he was immediately super-sized in Giant-Man while Wasp held on to the miniaturizing powers of the couple.
Hank Pym would go on to be one of the Marvel characters to hold the most different superhero names in the course of his career – Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket – later he even took Janet’s name of The Wasp!
When Pym abandoned the Ant-Man name for good in the late 70s, Scott Lang took over. (There was a precedent for this – Pym’s lab assistant Bill Foster nabbed the Goliath name in 1975 when Pym and Hawkeye were through with it. He’s in the guide, too.) [Read more…] about New For Patrons: The Definitive Guide to Marvel’s Ant-Man – every one of them!
Ant-Man & Giant-Man – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order
The definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for Ant-Man and Giant-Man comic books and omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated January 2023 with titles scheduled for release through April 2023.
Ant-Man was one of Marvel’s first Silver Age superheroes and a founding member of The Avengers, although the character has taken a vastly different path than his enduring Silver Age compatriots Iron Man, Thor, and Hulk.
Three different Marvel characters have worn the Ant-Man helm, and the only common thread between them is a slightly dubious set of ethics kept in check by their superhero mantles.
The original Ant-Man was Hank Pym, a scientific super-genius who discovered a means to shrink to the size of an ant and control his insect companions. He debuted in a one-off anthology story in Tales to Astonish in keeping with the pulpy sci-fi adventures that preceded the Silver Age in Marvel’s Atlas Era, but quickly made his return when he fit in with Marvel’s new Silver Age super-hero direction.
That made Hank Pym (and his smart and sassy assistant Janet Van Dyne) a perfect founding member for Marvel’s Justice League analog, The Avengers. One insect-size hero was enough, as Pym was quickly upgraded to be “Giant-Man” with the ability to grow super large (and tank for the team in the place of the quickly departed Hulk). Pym anchored the team for its first 16 issues while continuing in Tales to Astonish.
When he later returned to the Avengers, it was with the more hip name of “Goliath” but also in his capacity as a super scientist. It was in this phase that Pym invented Ultron (and, by extension, Vision). However, Pym was also increasingly capricious – frequently changing identities and coming and going from The Avengers.
After Pym abandoned both his Ant-Man and Giant-Man identities, other heroes carried them on. Hawkeye was the first to swipe the Goliath title while Pym was called Yellowjacket. Later, Pym’s assistant Bill Foster would become Black Goliath (and also occasionally Giant-Man).
Scott Lang, an engineer and former criminal, emerged as the second Ant-Man in 1979. He became the primary Ant-Man for a new generation of Bronze Age and Modern Age readers, who knew Hank Pym as an increasingly unreliable and egotistical mad scientist. Lang was never a full-time Avenger, but an occasional hero trying to make up for past wrongs while working for Stark Industries and raising his young daughter Cassie.
Lang would later join the Fantastic Four and become a Hero for Hire, but he never broke out as a solo star past a handful of features in Marvel Comics Presents. That made him a prime candidate to sacrifice to the meat-grinder of Brian Bendis’s Avengers Disassembled in 2005.
In Lang’s absence, another criminal took up the Ant-Man helmet. Eric O’Grady wasn’t much of a scientist, nor was he much of a superhero – he was more motivated by using his power to get out of trouble and harass women. His dubious morality saw him joining Norman Osborn during Dark Reign, but later get his chance of redemption via Steve Rogers in Secret Avengers.
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While Avengers vs. X-Men marked a major status quo shift in the Marvel Universe in 2012, a big change in Ant-Man happened alongside it. O’Grady was out (via the final arc of Secret Avengers) and Scott Lang was back (via Avengers: The Children’s Crusade). That allowed Lang to return front-and-center in Marvel Now as part of Matt Fraction’s replacement Fantastic Four in FF and in Jason Aaron’s Original Sin.
With a feature film on the way for this Scott Lang, who had never even had an entire story arc to himself, Ant-Man graduated to his second ongoing title (and Lang’s first) in 2015. It was quickly cut short by Secret Wars but restarted immediately after.
The present-day Scott Lang Ant-Man is virtually an all-different character from his early 1980s incarnation. He’s much less of a capable engineer and reliable father, and much more of the lovable screw-up portrayed by Paul Rudd in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. [Read more…] about Ant-Man & Giant-Man – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order
Marvel series still awaiting an omnibus from the Masterworks Era (1961 – 1980)
This is the final post in our series time-traveling backwards through Marvel’s era of comic books to see what books would make fantastic omnibuses, and this is a big one – it’s what I’m calling “The Masterworks Era.”
After this post, you should have more than enough ammo to fill out your 2017 Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot, which is due by Sunday at midnight! I’ve suggested over a hundred possible votes!
What exactly is “The Masterworks Era,” aside from something I just made up? It refers to the period of comcis that Marvel has covered with their deluxe, standard-size hardcover Marvel Masterworks reprint line. The Silver Age portion of the line begins with Fantastic Four #1 in 1961.
The end is a little fuzzier. The Silver Age is understood to end in 1970-71, but with a handful of exceptions Marvel has already pushed past that point with every line of Masterworks collections. In fact, their newest two Masterworks lines are The Spectacular Spider-Man (1976), Spider-Woman (1978), and The Savage She-Hulk (1980)! 
Yes, that’s right – Masterworks now cover comics that began in the 1980s! That’s like when the oldies station of my youth started playing Madonna songs. Plus, the farthest outlier, Uncanny X-Men, has reached all the way up to issue #188 in 1984.
When it comes to classic Omnibuses, until this year Marvel followed a specific formula almost every time – one omnibus contained three Masterworks volumes. We’re now seeing them deviate from that formula with Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Thor, all of which contained more than the customary three volumes.
To figure out what comics are due for potential omnibuses to feature in this post, I had to first figure out both what has been covered by Masterworks volumes and what has been skipped! That’s not really a part of this discussion, but if you’re interested, I’ve shown my work.
A list of titles that are eligible for Masterworks treatmentHow am I defining “due” here? It’s any superhero universe series that the Masterworks line has skipped entirely or any Masterworks line with three or more un-omnibused volumes.
Any comic with a Masterworks line that’s in-progress with only one or two volumes is not included: Ka-Zar, Luke Cage, Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One, Not Brand Echh Vol. 1, Rarities Vol. 1, Rawhide Kid, She-Hulk, Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Woman.
I also didn’t include the one-and-done Masterworks volumes Champions and Deathlok as potential omnibuses, since the omnibus would be the same as the Masterworks!
Are you ready to travel back in time from 1980 to the beginning of Marvel’s Silver Age in 1961? Here we go! [Read more…] about Marvel series still awaiting an omnibus from the Masterworks Era (1961 – 1980)