Saturday, October 29, 2016

Ant-Man: Second-Chance Man

Ant-Man, Vol. 1: Second-Chance ManAnt-Man, Vol. 1: Second-Chance Man by Nick Spencer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ant-Man looks for gainful employment. Hilarity ensues.

Confession time: Most of my exposure to Scott Lang, prior to the Ant-Man movie, was in various issues of Fantastic Four and FF. For some reason, I had a craving for his newer solo adventures and picked this up.

Second-Chance Man gives Ant-Man the "Hawkeye by Matt Fraction" treatment to a degree. Instead of Ant-Man fighting crime, he's fighting to pay his bills, first with a shot at working for Tony Stark, then in Miami, running a security business.

Spencer knows his way around an Ant-Man story. Prior to his recent adventures, I thought Ant-Man was right up there with Hawkman and the Atom in terms of lameness. Spencer took the ant-covered ball and ran with it in this one, pitting Scott against menaces like Darren Cross, the Taskmaster, and, most fearsome of them all, his ex-wife.

Scott's relationship with his daughter Cassie is the heart of the book. He uproots his life and turns down a job with Tony Stark to be with her. When she gets into trouble, he assembles an ace team to help get her back, a team consisting of Grizzly and Machinesmith, whom I hope factor into future volumes.

Good stuff. Second-Chance Man was an entertaining way to spend an hour avoiding housework. Three out of five stars.

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