Avengers: Doomsday Spotlights, Part 23—Ant-Man

When brilliant scientist Hank Pym realized that his research—shrinking live subjects—would be replicated and exploited, he turned to the most unlikely man to help stop the crisis: former burglar Scott Lang. Scott had already done time in prison for hacking his company’s systems to return stolen profits to their customers, but felt forced to return to crime to get re-involved in his daughter’s life. This is when he unknowingly participated in a complicated test by Pym, during which Scott broke into his house and stole his Ant-Man suit. After Pym convinced him to join his mission, Scott trained until he mastered the suit’s capabilities and stopped the bad guys, and the rest is history. 

Origins

Overall, Scott’s story in the comics plays out very similarly to the MCU version, except with a bit of extra tragedy mixed in with it. Despite his skills in electronics, Scott struggled to provide for his wife and daughter, so he turned to crime but got caught and arrested. Thankfully, for good behavior, he was released and tried to truly dedicate himself to being a better husband and father. But of course, life is never that easy, even in the world of comics. Scott’s daughter, Cassie, contracted a deadly heart disease, and to make things worse, the surgeon (Dr. Erica Sondheim) mysteriously disappeared one day. Therefore, despite his strong desire to stay reformed, he returned to crime once again to find more money for Cassie’s medical procedures. This is when he decided to break into Dr. Hank Pym’s house, hoping to find equipment or other valuables he could sell for a lot of money; instead, he switched tactics after finding and stealing Pym’s Ant-Man suit. 

Rather than selling that suit or using it to rob banks or anything, he realized it could be used to solve the real problem at hand: finding Dr. Sondheim. After finding out that Cross Technological Enterprises was linked to her disappearance, he successfully infiltrated the company building to discover her whereabouts. But to his surprise, he found out that Darren Cross, the CEO of the company, was the one who abducted her because he needed help with his own heart. Regardless, Scott used the suit to rescue Sondheim so that she could save Cassie. Then, after Sondheim successfully operated on her, Scott gave up the suit and turned himself in to the authorities. However, this would not be the end of Scott’s story. Much like his solo film, Hank Pym himself decided to visit Scott, revealing that he had secretly observed the former burglar the whole time (shrunk and hidden as his Yellowjacket persona and followed him afterwards) and allowed him to keep the suit for heroics. From there, he would fight alongside many heroes and even found his own company, Ant-Man Security Systems, and continue striving to prove his worth to Cassie and Pym. 

Powers, Abilities, and Weaknesses

Scott was already an incredibly smart and formidable man, but inheriting Pym’s tech helped expand his potential. For instance, a long time of thievery and crime gave him advanced skills in infiltration and espionage. But now that Scott has the Ant-Man suit, he’s a much more dangerous threat. Harnessing the Pym Particles stored within the suit, Scott can shrink himself to the size of an insect, or even microscopic if he needs to. Not only does this make him essentially invisible to most people, but even if they do realize he’s there, they’ll have a much harder time spotting him unless he’s full-size. Further, the Pym Particles also allow Scott to keep his strength even when he’s very small, meaning he can leap and punch with just as much force as if he wasn’t shrunk at all. But if it comes down to it, Scott can also use the suit to make him grow to gigantic heights, making him stronger and more durable. However, altering his size isn’t the only thing the suit can do. Thanks to his advanced helmet, Scott can also communicate with and control ants or any other insects. This opens many doors for practical uses with these bugs: surveillance, reconnaissance, transportation, and even combat via swarming and biting opponents. While commanding birds to do similar things like what Sam Wilson does, using ants is arguably better since no one will even think to look out for such small creatures until it’s too late. Further, with countless ants or other bugs at your disposal, there is no shortage of allies in your time of need. 

But make no mistake: the suit does not define the man, and Scott is no exception. As previously mentioned, Scott was a professional with electronics, technology, and engineering long before he became a superhero. Also, his criminal career gave him crash courses in stealth, infiltration, espionage, on-the-dot problem-solving, and hacking complex computer/security systems. While none of these traits make Scott smarter than Hank or any of Marvel’s other big brains (not even close), they do demonstrate how prepared he was by the time he donned the suit to rescue Dr. Sondheim. In fact, especially after obtaining the suit, Scott’s intellectual prowess truly shines. Despite dealing with technology and substances that defy the laws of physics (and logic in general), Scott quickly picked up on how they work. Not only that, but after understanding the suit’s capabilities, he expanded the practical uses of the particles to the point where even Marvel states that he’s more adept with his powers than Hank. Further, being exposed to the Pym Particles for so long gave Scott the ability to command his size-alteration powers with a mere thought, without the assistance of the suit. This means he can now shrink or grow on a dime, much faster than if he activated the ability with the suit, forcing him to think faster and more tactfully. 

However, despite how overpowered these abilities sound, they come with just as many weaknesses. Even though Scott can shrink while keeping his natural strength, it cannot be understated or forgotten that he’s now a really tiny person. This means that almost anything can kill him if he isn’t careful: getting stepped on, punches/kicks, environmental factors, small mammals, and the list goes on. Even if Scott makes himself gigantic, there are still a great number of caveats: he risks making himself a bigger target, now has difficulty maneuvering effectively, and the biggest one is that he exerts a lot more effort in this size and leaves him exhausted afterwards. Also, while he doesn’t need the suit or helmet to alter his size, fighting without the tech can leave him pretty vulnerable. Without the helmet to command the ants or effectively navigate his environment, this could prove seriously detrimental depending on the situation. And finally, despite adapting and mastering the Pym Particles, they can also be very unpredictable. From unprompted size changes to biological alterations, there have been many instances where the Particles have hindered more than helped, but thankfully not enough to affect either Hank or Scott’s capabilities as heroes (although Hank’s case could be well-argued, considering his own mental instability). 

Greatest Feats

Normally, this section would include incredibly heroic, inspiring, or otherwise impossible feats that the character has done in comic book history. However, this is a rare case in which this event is memorable for a very tragic reason. It all started way back in 2004, when the Avengers (including Scott) had established themselves as a solid team over the decades and were at their peak. But everything would change once fellow Avenger Wanda Maximoff finally snapped. Years ago, she created her own children with magic, but didn’t know she had used Mephisto’s soul shards to do so. Therefore, when Mephisto took the shards back, Wanda’s kids were erased from existence, and Agatha Harkness had to suppress her memories to keep her from going insane. Of course, this wouldn’t last long, as she finally remembered and suffered from a grief so intense that her reality-warping powers subconsciously attacked her teammates. Unfortunately, this is where Scott Lang comes into the picture, as he would be the first casualty. When the presumably deceased hero Jack of Hearts (who sacrificed himself to save the Earth) arrived at Avengers Mansion and exploded, Scott was caught right at ground zero and died. But since no one knew Wanda was behind this, the resurrection and second death of Jack, alongside the death of one of their teammates (a reformed criminal and father, no less), shook the team to their core. But things only got worse from there, as Wanda would inadvertently cause Hawkeye’s death, Vision to attack and destroy the Mansion, Tony Stark to discredit himself before the world, and She-Hulk to go on a rampage and injure most of the others. Although Scott would be resurrected via complicated time travel antics, the damage was already done. In a twisted sense, Scott’s death is so iconic because it kickstarted the end of the Avengers as we knew them and set off a domino effect that led all the way to events like “House of M” and “Civil War.”

Thankfully, Scott’s legacy wouldn’t stop at dying from the actions of a former teammate, but tragedy still followed him all the same. Years after Scott first became Ant-Man, Cassie actually grew up to become the hero Stature, who then joined the Young Avengers. But after Scott’s supposed death during “Avengers: Disassembled,” the group tries to save Scott’s past self during the aforementioned time travel shenanigans. After Scott is ultimately brought back, Stature soon finds herself in an encounter with Dr. Doom himself; an encounter that ended with her own death. Consumed by confusion and grief, Scott went on a warpath. Assembling his replacement Fantastic 4 group known as the FF (because the real team was in another dimension to help Reed with his fading powers), which consisted of She-Hulk, Medusa, and Miss Thing, the group took the fight directly to Doom. With Doom being one of the smartest people on the planet, extremely skilled and powerful in both science and magic, and not to mention the leader of his own country, Scott’s desire to avenge his daughter feels like a suicidal plan that was born out of desperation and anger. Regardless, the team charges in and fights him. At some point during said fight, Doom fires off an immense energy blast at Scott, but it seems like the beam passes through him. In actuality, however, Scott shrank at the moment of impact and grew back within a fraction of a second, making it appear as if the beam passed through him as if he were intangible. Not only that, but Scott used this lightning-quick size alteration again, harnessing the momentum of his movements and the powers of the Pym Particles to grant him super-strength while human-sized. With tactics like this, alongside exemplary teamwork from his FF associates, they ultimately defeated Doom. Granted, this was nowhere near Doom’s most powerful (he absorbed the Beyonders’ powers and ripped out Thanos’s skeleton for crying out loud), but even so, Doom is near-impossible to beat even at his weakest. So for a ragtag team of replacement heroes to defeat Doom is a feat truly worthy of recognition. 

However, I believe that this final event is where Scott truly proves himself as a hero and the key to everyone’s victory. During the events of “Secret Empire,” Captain America’s past was rewritten by a Red Skull-controlled sentient Cosmic Cube, where he was now a HYDRA sleeper agent, helped take over the United States, and imprisoned or incapacitated many superheroes. But instead of imprisoning Scott, HYDRA forced him to serve as a mole in the Underground resistance group when they kidnapped a resurrected Cassie. Once again, the desire to protect his daughter drove his actions, and he tipped off HYDRA to one of the team’s exploits. Surprisingly, despite Cassie’s life on the line, Scott couldn’t go through with this deceitful act and confessed everything to his teammates. While everyone was rightfully angry with him, Scott more than made up for it by assisting with an extremely daring plan. After the gang obtained the last few Cosmic Cube shards, Steve obtained ultimate power (with a new suit of armor and even lifting Mjolnir), defeating the remaining heroes and forcing Sam Wilson to surrender and give him the last shards along with Rogers’s old shield. But unbeknownst to Steve, Scott had shrunk Bucky, who smuggled himself into the shards and infiltrated the Cosmic Cube, and then finally brought back the real Steve Rogers to defeat his HYDRA counterpart. But because he still couldn’t cope with his betrayal, he joined the Guardians of the Galaxy to leave Earth for a while. Regardless, while Scott is not a perfect hero, the most important thing isn’t just that he pushed back against his guilt or against a regime. It’s the fact that he made a mistake and owned up to it, and in doing so, provided the key to saving the world from HYDRA. 

Conclusion

Unfortunately, due to the jokes, sarcasm, and bumbling attempts at heroism, Scott never seems to be anyone’s first choice as an ally. Luckily, people like Captain America noticed the true heart of a hero beating underneath it all when he went to Germany. But even though Ant-Man survived Thanos, who knows if fighting against Doom will go similarly or differently compared to the comics. Either way, I’m excited to see Paul Rudd continue his iconic portrayal of the former criminal-turned Avenger.