Hank Pym and JVD Join the Ultimates

[shakalooloo]

Issue one of the new Ultimates series, already with half a page of backstory to catch up with on the title page - not a good jumping-on point.




Here, as with Spider-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp missed out on their super-hero origin stories thanks to the Maker. Instead, they became a married couple running an exterminator business. Six months ago, Tony Stark gave Hank Pym the 'superpowers in a ball' similar to the one he offered Peter Parker, but it was never cracked open...









Writer: Deniz Camp, Artist: Juan Frigeri, Color Artist: Federico Blee, Letterer: Travis Lanham

Comments

[chalicother]

Please don't tramua bomb Hank
Please don't trauma bomb Hank
Please don't trauma bomb Hank

Also let Hank and Jan don't go into any abuse storylines...

[numeronone]

There is a fair bit of story potential in this concept of "Metavengers" - i.e. "we know what we were SUPPOSED to be, so what do we become from knowing that?" - which I hope Camp builds on.

[thehood]

The panels here show Hank clearly wants to avoid that.

[chalicother]

That's how you make tragedy.

In his attempts to change his fate, he ended up following it...

[numeronone]

Considering Marvel are also dabbling in publishing Red Band editions of books, it feels a little disconcerting to have a 13-and-above book where Jan's inaugural romp as the Wasp is cemented by her flying through a guy's skull and throwing up about it. You can see his eyeball pop out! What is this, "The Boys"?

[super_fly]

I imagine because they're wearing a helmet and you don't actually see a bare human head being perforated they let it slide

ok i didn't even see the eyeball first, idk

[shakalooloo]

But, see, there's NO BLOOD, so it's A-OK. That horrid red fluid is the line that shall not be crossed, and everything else gets a pass.

That red stuff covering Jan in the aftermath? Completely unrelated. You can't prove it came from inside that dude's cranium!

[numeronone]

They're like the broccoli-men from 616, but in this universe they were made out of chillis. That's why Jan's horking! She's allergic! It makes sense!

[scorntx]

I thought most of this was a fine starting off point...
Except for bringing up Hank's history so he can angst about it. Again.
(Why would Reed even include that in a database? Why did Teen Tony decide to show this Hank that?)


Well, that and the casualness with which Jan and Cap murderise those goons.
Not even a "well, they'll kill us first" handwave.

[numeronone]

Having only recently caught up to "Across The Spider-Verse", it is notable that Miguel only seems to approach potential new members of the Spider-Society *after* some of their canon events have happened - with the implication that they'll be more vulnerable to accepting the canon event theory after.

Seems like a better tactic than "here's what your trauma COULD have been. Now don't do that! Naughty!".

[scorntx]

I'm not entirely sure "this horrible thing really did have to happen, and exactly like this" is true, no matter how much Marvel keeps saying it.

But with Hank Pym, we do have some proof that telling him not to do something disastrous will just make him try and do it anyhow.
(But then, it's the same with Tony Stark and Reed Richards...)

[cainofdreaming]

"Now I'm going to invent a killer robot even harder!"

[shakalooloo]

Well, I guess the database is necessary so that Pym can find out how to get those particles he's so famous for, since without that knowledge he's a bit screwed. Where the team got the Pym particles that they put into the orbs in the first place, who knows.

[scorntx]

Since they knew about Hank from the database, Doom-Reed used that to find or make a supply of Pym Particles from somewhere.

[cainofdreaming]

Hopefully they didn't also make a "Mad Scientist's First Robot Making Kit."

[scorntx]

Hank might've already beat them to it.
It's not in the scans here, but Hank's equipment? Looks pretty familiar...

[alliterator]

Too late: the Bug Killer that Hank is toting around this issue looks exactly like Ultron-1. It's pretty funny.

[mazway_75]

I misread the header and got excited Jean Claude Van Damme was joining the Ultimates.

[shakalooloo]

I can well imagine that at some point in the Marvel Universe there was a 'JCVD wears JVD' advertising campaign.

[cainofdreaming]

At least it wan't Victor Van Damme.

[numeronone]

Reminded of one of the only good jokes Cinemasins ever made: the suggestion that in the first Fantastic Four moviw, the headline "DOOM FOR VON DOOM" could be replaced with "VAN DAMME FOR VON DOOM"