Nerd Rant # 5 - 4 Reasons Why You Should Care About the new Ant-Man Movie ~ SugarSkull Industries

I don't know if you are a huge comic-book nerd like I am but I'm sure by now most people have a passing knowledge about the Marvel Universe and understand that The Avengers movie and their characters, Iron-Man, Thor, Captain America and Hulk, are part of the same world as the tv show Marvel Agents of Shield and the Guardians of the Galaxy.

You have probably seen the trailer for this upcoming Marvel Superhero movie called Ant-Man, and have thought one thing.

Who the f*ck is Ant-Man?

Ant-Man also goes by the name Giant-Man, Ant-Man's superpower that allows him to shrink down to the size of ant and also swell to the size of a giant. Honestly I think the movie producers were kind of stuck with two dumb sounding superhero names and I guess they had to go with the lesser of two evils.

Ant-Man is also one of the founding members of The Avengers, along with Iron-Man, Thor, Hulk and the Wasp.

I will admit I haven't read any Ant-Man comics. I didn't feel like diving headfirst into a character that at one point actually hit his wife back in the 1980's. Most of what I know about Ant-Man comes from the very recent animated series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2011-2013), which is an excellent series that distills every characters' extensive backstory into easy-to-understand story arcs.

That's Ant-Man in the back, because he can also turn into Giant Man. I know, this is weird already.

In the comics Ant Man was originally Hank Pym, a biochemist and genius scientist. He along with his socialite girlfriend Janet Van Dyne, become the superheros Ant-Man/ Giant-Man and Wasp. This is the same in the animated series. Hank, while brilliant, is also a very complex and conflicted character. He struggles with the futility of fighting crime every night and seeks to eradicate crime in the first place. Because of this, he walks away from the Avengers from time to time and even hands down his mantel to others, including a reformed thief Scott Lang. Apparently in the movie version, Hank Pym is played by Michael Douglas, Scott Lang is played by Paul Rudd, and Evangeline Lilly plays a character called Hope Van Dyne.

Despite Paul Rudd playing the Scott Lang version, Ant-Man is a very interesting and unique character in the Marvel Universe and here is why you should care about the new movie.

1. Ant-Man was a founding member of the Avengers and originally created Ultron, the A.I. villain of the The Avengers sequel coming out this year.

Remember when I said the original Ant-Man was a brilliant scientist and struggled with the futility of fighting crime rather than erasing the cause of crime in the first place? Well, because of that Hank creates Ultron, a staggeringly powerful A.I. robot that eventually decides The Avengers are part of the problem and sets out to exterminate them with the help of his robot minions. Ultron is kind of like the Terminator of the Marvel Universe.

So yeah, Ant-Man is smart. Smarter than Tony Stark, smarter than Bruce Banner. Super-scary smart.

2. The Ant-Man costume looks bad-ass.

Okay, so despite the dorky name, the film version of the Ant-Man costume actually looks pretty bad-ass. I did not think any filmmakers could make that funky helmet actually work but it looks pretty good.

3. Ant-Man and Wasp have better romantic chemistry than Black Widow and Hawkeye.

Let me take a second here to talk about this little lady, Wasp aka Janet Van Dyne.

She is a firecracker with a sense of humor that rivals Tony Stark. Janet is pretty much the heart and soul of the Avengers. She gets just as many one liners as Tony and goes after the scary big bads just as much as the Hulk does. She is amazing.

Now we know Iron Man has Pepper Pots, Thor has Jane, and Bruce Banner has Betty Ross. Outside of Hawkeye and the Black Widow, Ant-Man and Wasp are the only two actual superheroes in the Avengers with a relationship together.

They come from two different backgrounds, Hank from a place of scientific brooding, Janet from the world of old family money. Because of their differences you root for them and their relationship. Hank is the strong, quiet type, Janet is all full of sass.

I'm not a big fan of Black Widow and Hawkeye, because they are essentially the same person and it makes for a very boring relationship.