With the release of the first teaser trailer and a number of new pictures from the film, we’ve seen a lot of ‘Ant-Man’ star Paul Rudd in his size-shifting superhero suit. However, Scott Lang wasn’t the first person to take up the mantle of Ant-Man and don that suit as its creator Hank Pym was a hero in his own right back in the day. Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing Michael Douglas suit up when the film hits theaters this summer, but we’ll still get a small taste of that action thanks to Marvel Comics.
Just as they had done with ‘Iron Man 2’ and ‘The Avengers’, Marvel will be publishing prelude comics set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe to set the stage for their upcoming 2015 films. For the ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ story, we’ll see how Baron Strucker came to possess Loki’s scepter at the end of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier,’ but the two-part ‘Ant-Man Prelude’ goes even further back in time to give us something that we won’t get to see on the big screen.
Though is was confirmed back in September that Dr. Pym wouldn’t be the hero behind the helmet in Peyton Reed’s upcoming Phase Two film, Will Corona Pilgrim has written a comic that shows us the scientist supreme as a younger man during the Cold War when he did jump into the fray himself. In an interview with Newsarama, the Marvel Studios Creative Research Director talks about his extracurricular activities as a comic book writer and what we can expect from his Ant-Man story featuring the artwork of Miguel Sepulveda:
“The Cold War played a pivotal role in the post-World War II world and shaping what would become the agency we all know as S.H.I.E.L.D. but when you’re talking about a global conflict that spanned decades, there is definitely a distinction between Peggy [Carter]’s Cold War era, which would have been around the time of the Truman doctrine and Hank’s, which would have been closer to when Gorbachev was leader of the Soviet Union. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s evolving position in the world during all that time plays a big part in defining Hank Pym’s role as the Ant-Man.
Pym finds himself on a field mission that pits him against a major distinguishing landmark of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. As a kid growing up near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, I had the opportunity to check out a fantastic exhibit there, which recreated a tunnel so you could crawl through and experience what it would have been like for those people who attempted to cross such a monstrous barrier. They had the sirens going, the spotlights, all the sounds of gunfire, dogs barking, and guards yelling at you, it was such a trip. And when I learned that Pym would have been doing field missions during that particular point in history, I couldn’t think of a more formidable and exciting foe for our hero to go up against!”
Pilgrim also confirms that there will be a couple of MCU cameos that fans should be excited about. Could it be the Howling Commandos? What about Howard Stark? Or maybe even Agent Carter herself? You’ll have to head to your local comic book shop next month to find out.
What do you think about ‘Ant-Man Prelude’ featuring a flashback story with Hank Pym as Ant-Man? Do you plan on picking up Will Corona Pilgrim’s stories to see Michael Douglas’ character in his younger days suit up during the Cold War? Let us know in the comments below.
