COMIC REVIEW: Ant-Man and the Wasp #1 (Together Again... For the First Time)

Ant-Man gets trapped in the Microverse and it’s up to the All-New Wasp to rescue him. But does she really want to rescue the man who stole her father’s suit?

Ant-Man and the Wasp # 1
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Javier Garrón
Colorist: Israel Silva
Cover Artists: David Nakayama
Publisher: Marvel Comics

What You Need to Know:

Scott Lang is the second Ant-Man. He started out his career by stealing Henry Pym’s Ant-Man suit to help his daughter. Pym forgave him and gave him his blessing to be the second Ant-Man. Scott has been a member of the Avengers and the FF. He was recently in space with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Nadia Van Dyne is the All-New Wasp. She’s really not all that new anymore. She has been around for a couple of years. She is the daughter of the original Ant-Man, Henry Pym, from his first marriage. Henry never knew she existed. Nadia was raised by the Red Room. She was originally trained to be an assassin, but when they realized she was a genius level intellect, she was switched to the Red Room’s science division. Nadia cracked Henry’s Pym Particle formula and used it to escape. After arriving in America, she entered Henry’s own lab and made her Wasp suit. She soon met the Avengers and Jarvis introduced her to Janet Van Dyne, the original Wasp. Janet took the girl under her wing, and when Nadia got citizenship, she chose Van Dyne as her last name. Nadia began an all-female science division in her father’s old labs which Janet now owned. Nadia joined the Avengers and recently became a member of the Champions as well.

What You’ll Find Out:

Ant-Man is stuck in space with the Nova Corps after his mission with the Guardians. He contacts Nadia hoping that she can get him home. The two have never interacted before but are aware of each other. She asks him why she should help him since Scott stole from her father. He tells her that Henry eventually gave him the suit, but this doesn’t sway her. He manages to change her mind when he mentions he doesn’t want to miss Cassie’s birthday. Cassie is his daughter. He points out that Nadia and Cassie would be close in age. Nadia, who obviously has some father issues, agrees to help bring Scott home.

Nadia creates a quantum entanglement sub-atomic transport. Basically, it is a beam that Scott can ride back to Earth if he shrinks and rides it. She tells him that it has to be timed perfectly for her to catch him. So, of course, Scott drops his present for his daughter and stops to get, which causes him to miss the window of opportunity. He is able to ride the beam but Nadia is unable to catch him. She shrinks and flies after the beam and enters it.

Nadia finds Scott in the Microverse after she encounters some odd creatures that seem to be made out of light. Scott asks her what took so long. For him, it has been two weeks and for her, it has been two minutes. Nadia explains time moves slowly in the Microverse. Scott explains about the Thetacorians. They are made out of light. He shows her that many of them are dying. He points out that the only color they don’t see in the Thetacorians is red. The red wavelengths are what the Thetacorians consider their soul and they think Ant-Man and Wasp are stealing them from them.

Nadia asks Scott why he didn’t just grow out of the Microverse and he said he didn’t know where he would end up. He didn’t want to get attacked by a space vampire or something. Nadia makes fun of him for that. Soon, as they are flying around the see a red creature attacking the Thetacorians and draining the life out of them. Nadia isn’t sure if they should interfere because everything is different in the Microverse and she didn’t want to cause more harm than good. Scott reminded her that the creatures are hurting and she agrees to help stop the “space vampire”.

The Wasp engages the creature and gets zapped by it. The creature advances on the Thetacorians. Scott reasons the best way to kill a vampire is to stake it. He decides the best way to stop the creature is to hit it with a different frequency of light. The duo rig up Nadia’s blasters to blast a ray of light and Scott enlarges the blaster. Nadia distracts the “vampire” and Scott blows a hole through it.

After the danger is past, Scott asks Nadia about going home. Unfortunately, Nadia didn’t have time to leave a beacon for them so they will have to find a way home. Nadia is also having a problem with her eyes. She asks Scott to look at them and they seem to be filled with red energy.

What Just Happened:

This mini is timed just right with the Ant-Man and the Wasp movie being released in a month. Nadia is very different from the movie version, Hope. They have different mothers and backgrounds. Also, Hope is older. To learn more about Nadia, read The Unstoppable Wasp series from last year.

Other than a continuity error on the first page, I thought the story was well written by Waid. The error was that Henry and Janet were married when they first became the original Ant-Man and the Wasp. They were actually married years later. This didn’t really affect the story, so it mas a minor issue. The point of the first page was to point out that the original duo was a romantic couple. The same could not be said of the second group. Scott is in his thirties and Nadia is a teenager. Nadia calls him Mr. Lang because he is so “old”. Also, Nadia does not like Scott very much, but she is willing to help him. Nadia is usually a very cheerful character, but Scott seems to make her be exactly the opposite. Time will tell if the new duo works out. The art and the colors by Garrón and Silva were nice. The pages sort of jumped out at you.

Rating: 8/10
Final Thoughts: The mini is off to a great start. It is cool to see these two characters who are meant to be partners work together for the very first time. I can’t wait for the next issue.