Ant-Man #2: Upping the Ante

As in its previous issue, Ant-Man continues at a quick clip and never takes its premise too seriously. Zeb Wells seems fully aware of the absurdity of a Nazi scientist who has turned into a swarm of bees, and on some level fully gives into the absurdity (partially by making more hive-minded insect monstrosities). The bigger Big Bads aren’t (may never be) sympathetic. They are simply scary bug men lead by a bigger, scarier bug man, collectively trying to destroy the human race. It feels deliciously goofy. The comic’s transition between its bee-plot and its B-plot feels slightly abrupt, perhaps especially because it isn’t returned to. Still, Cassie’s heart-to-heart with her mother is a nice character-driven interlude.

Artistically-speaking, Ant-Man continues to excel. Dylan Burnett’s art moves fluidly between humorous facial expressions, dynamic fight scenes, and more grotesque, detailed moments. Spicer’s colors remain hyper-saturated, though occasionally move into duller tones for enemies. The cover, featuring Swarm towering over Ant-Man with dominant blacks, feels somewhat like a misdirect in terms of the story’s main antagonists, but it’s not too great a concern. While preserving some of Ant-Man’s saturated palette, it still does a great job representing the emotional tone within. 

To put it simply, with its fast paced action scenes, humor, melodrama, Bad Guys ^TM, onomatopoeia, and highly saturated colors, Ant-Man feels like comic books at their stereotypically comic-book-iest best. It’s not simply enjoyable to read, but fun.