By Zack Quaintance — I’ll just get right to it — I liked Marvel’s new Ant-Man #1 (written by Zeb Wells, illustrated by Dylan Burnett, and colored by Mike Spicer) so much, that upon finishing it, I found myself wondering why Ant-Man was such a lightly-used character. Now, to be fair, I know his powerset is a tough sell. It’s a weird one. He gets smaller or bigger, which maybe doesn’t lend itself to dramatic binds or kinetic illustrations on a comic book page. Oh, and also he can talk to bugs.

It’s all very Silver Age and maybe a bit incoherent (shrinking makes sense but bug man getting giant-sized less so). There’s also a complex legacy to the character, given that his powers were invented by an idealized 1960s super scientist who has now gone evil (and become half robot, if my sense of continuity is correct) but still the current Ant-Man has the powers. Yet, in spite of all this, Ant-Man #1, which is the first of a five-part miniseries, is an excellent read, really clever in a way that will make you chuckle to yourself and also able to do all the superhero basics.

The cleverness is really what’s for sale with this book. Wells gives the Scott Lang Ant-Man a self-deprecating stream of consciousness narration that pairs well with a set of well-meaning character motivations. He’s working with his daughter now and telling her not to use profanity...while at the same time struggling so severely with his finances that he has to live in an ant hill. This is all fine conceptually, but what’s really impressive is that Wells is able to write dialogue in a way that lets Ant-Man tell us everything he’s thinking and feeling as an aside, putting us right there with his protagonist as readers.

Is that bee suit of armor he eventually dons super gross and scary? Of course it is, and with Wells scripting, Ant Man is able to say what we’re thinking in a way that doesn’t feel preening or over-wrought. This, of course, owes significantly to Dylan Burnett’s illustrations, too. He uses schlubby facial expressions and talking out the side of the mouth to visually convey Ant Man’s status as a struggling every man, and it’s all really effective. I especially like some of the side gags Burnett illustrates, like the face of an earnest reporter with huge glasses telling Ant Man these days all they use are smartphones to take pictures. You can practically feel the guy blink as the joke takes a beat to settle in.

The end effect of this book makes it seem like Ant Man in 2020 is a writers best friend, enabling the creators who handle him to wink at comics past while drawing on themes like being broke but wanting to do right by family in a way that makes it feel modern. We don’t tend to think of Ant-Man as a character that’s overly friendly to writers, but maybe it’s time for that to change.

Overall: This is an entertaining read from start to finish, using a self-deprecating stream of consciousness narration style that makes Ant-Man relatable as he pokes fun at his Silver Age roots and odd power set. 9.4/10

Ant-Man #1
Writer: Zeb Wells
Artist: Dylan Burnett
Colorist: Mike Spicer
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
Solicit: Scott Lang is back and doing better than ever! Er, at least according to him, but his daughter, Stinger, and the anthill he's living in say otherwise. Desperate to raise his daughter's opinion of him, Scott takes a job from local beekeepers only to uncover a global conspiracy that could topple the world order! No time to call the Avengers, this sounds like a job for - ANT-MAN?! Join the explosive creative team of Zeb Wells (NOVA) and Dylan Burnett.

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.