Comic Review: Ant-Man & The Wasp #3

Ant-Man & The Wasp #3

Marvel Comics

Writer: Mark Waid

Artist: Javier Garron

I was a big fan of Nick Spencer’s Ant-Man and Jeremy Whitley’s Unstoppable Wasp series. I remember reading about this book when it was announced. “Of course there’s a cheap tie-in for the movie. It’s going to be so bad.” Now a few months later, and three issues deep, I’m eating my words. Ant-Man & The Wasp is a very fun, well-written book.

To briefly recap the story so far, Nadia Van Dyne (The Unstoppable Wasp) helped Scott Lang (The Astonishing Ant-Man) get home from space for his daughter’s birthday. Scott becomes lost in the microverse, and Nadia follows him for a rescue mission. Nadia loses her sight and gets captured by a microverse army.

Now, in this third issue, it’s up to Scott to free Nadia. How does Ant-Man do it? With the help of some microverse ants, of course! Using the ants, Scott is able to use a universal translator to recruit the army scientist into helping him. In the meantime, Nadia uses her scientific knowledge to break out of her cell. Escaping from the Army General, Scott and his new scientist friend reunite with the escaping Nadia.

The general plot, from writer Mark Waid, feels a little generic. It follows the steps you’d expect to see in a story about an alien world. Even so, the dialogue and writing in this issue are top-notch. Characters speak naturally, and the comedic lines all hit their mark. The ants Scott Lang commands have personality. Both Scott and Nadia feel like the same people they were in their respective previous series.

Back in costume, The Wasp begins to multiply into multiple copies of herself. Explaining that they’ve become living quantum particles, she’s able to see all possible outcomes of her actions. Scott, also multiplying, fights the microverse army while Nadia leads the escape. Bringing Burr Dalen, the scientist, with them, they escape into a “crack” in the multiverse. We see on the other side that something’s inverted Scott.

This isn’t the best art ever drawn, but it works, and it works well. Artist Javier Garron does a great job at matching the humorous tone of the series. The creatures of the microverse are all unique and non-humanoid. The species that make up the army has a uniform, non-humanoid look to them. Sporting multiple sets of jaws and teeth, and eyes that took me a few seconds to find. The ants Scott is commanding aren’t just a simple color swap. Instead, they look more full-bodied, kind of like a horse/germ hybrid.

Where I was expecting a more movie inspired look, Scott and Nadia have their regular red and black costumes. But it contrasts nicely with the otherworldly design of the microverse. The inhabitants of the microverse are expressive when they need to be. Even with the multiple sets of jaws he has, Burr the scientist looks like he’s having fun when he’s flying. Most of the backgrounds look bare. But the ants look amazed when they change sizes.

My first impression of this book was wrong. I literally judged it by its cover. But I’m glad I was wrong. This is a fun book, starring two characters I like. Mark Waid and Javier Garron have made a, so far, very entertaining mini-series.