Is ANT-MAN 'Breaking Bad'? Marvel’s Probably Just Messing With Ya

by Michael DoranDate: 26 June 2015 Time: 03:54 PM ET 1548 11Reddit0Submit0

CREDIT: Marvel Comics View full size image

CREDIT: Marvel Comics

View full size image

The L.A. Times’ Hero Complex has a first look at the Mark Brooks cover to the post-Secret Wars relaunch of Ant-Man, and it appears as if ex-con Scott Lang might be returning to his outside-the-law ways, flanked by supervillains Whirlwind, Porcupine, a new Beetle and Grizzly. But look closer. While the black & white shading and the seeming team of villains suggest a changing role for Lang in the Marvel Universe, Marvel actually wants you to looks more closely at the image.

“We’re hinting at a major development for Scott. Scott is an ex-con, he’s a guy with a criminal past,” explained series writer Nick Spencer. “This teaser hints that he may not be quite as reformed as we might have thought. This is our first big hint that Scott’s going to find himself back in his old world, back in a criminal life.”

However ... editor Wil Moss also pointed out a very specific element of the image. “The key thing to take away from the promo images is, if you look at Scott’s hand that he’s holding behind his back, he has his fingers crossed.”

Or in other words - no truthsies.

Marvel is keeping the details sparse for now, but did say Lang’s new status quo is influenced by his daughter Cassie, and their father-daughter relationship that was adriving force in the last volume of the series.

“But over the course of the events of the first arc, he actually puts Cassie in a lot of danger,” revealed Spencer. “So he’s come to reassess what he thinks his place in her life should be. When we begin this new story, it’s a very different relationship than it was before.”

The new series will focus on their damaged relationship and whatever happened in the eight-month gap all Marvel titles will feature leading up to Ant-Man #1.

As to Cassie herself, Spencer wouldn’t bite if asked whether a return to get own superhero alter ego Stature was in his plans.

“You know I can’t say anything yet,” the writer said. “But I’m a big Cassie fan. I’m a big Stature fan, who knows what might be in the future.”

Speaking about the villains - several of whom were featured in Spencer's Superior Foes of Spider-Man series - the writer would only reveal Grizzly has a job in Lang’s new Ant-Man Security Solutions company. “I’m having a blast writing him,” said Spencer. “He’s just a big, loyal guy who is trying to go straight. Trying to be a good guy, and not doing the best job of it.”

Though not in the image, Darren Cross – the main villain in July's Ant-Man film, and an unnamed classic Marvel villain whom Spencer teased as "'80s-tastic," would also be a part of the series’ supporting cast.