Astonishing Ant-Man #2 - Darla Deering's Return Part 2

[informationgeek]

And now we pick up with where the last issue left off and see the rest of the issue with Darla Darling, sort of.



Due to a limited number on pages, I'll quickly sum up the middle. Darla tries attacking and beating up Scott, but the two end up getting distracted with a magician villain shows up and attacks everyone at the auditorium, putting many people in danger. However, the two of them distract the bad guy and take him down.

In the aftermath, we have this scene...










You know, I was turning around on the issue when it got to scene and I was happy they were making up.... then Nick Spencer decided to crap all over Darla's character. Willing put people in danger to further her own career by hiring a villain, crapped all over Scott yet again by lying to him, and barely showing remorse for doing so. Wonderful, just wonderful.

Comments

[laughing_tree]

I don't know about "putting people in danger." In superhero comics, fights are only ever as dangerous as the writers want them to be. For every one that emphasizes "Look, these civilians are really in danger!" there's one where it's just played for laughs, and everything between those poles as well. Whatever suits the needs of the story and tone. And my read of those last panels is that Darla is starting to feel some regret.

[matrix_dragon]

*Facepalm* Dammit dammit DAMMIT... every time I see something that makes me think of getting this series, it's followed up with a reminder of why I shouldn't.

[bizarrohulk]

I'm not really sure I get the "crapping all over Darla's character" complaints. Darla was only introduced three years ago and has never been given much of a background or personality beyond "pop star" and "Johnny's ex-girlfriend", so she's pretty much still a blank slate as far as her character is concerned. This isn't exactly on a par with turning Iron Man into a fascist or Cyclops into a terrorist.

[punisher007]

She has a fair amount of development in Fraction's FF, and becomes a character that I actually quite like. So to see Spencer throw pretty much all of that out for, this crap, is irritating.

[silverhammerman]

I will say that it looks like Darla is going to make a heel face turn her, judging by that last facial expression, but I'm still not to hot on this. We've seen more than a few scenes recently of Marvel leading men whining and moaning about their inability to have adult relationships, and I wasn't interested the first time. Moreover, I'm not inclined to "wait and see" where Darla's character goes: this series has had real problems with its female characters from the start, and if a comic is sold in single issues, I'm going to judge what's in those single issues.

[thehood]

If you mean she might go bad, that's a face-heel turn, not a heel-face turn, which is bad guy going good.

[silverhammerman]

I meant heel-face: the character's role in the above pages casts her in a manipulative and mildly villainous role, so having her feel guilty and alter her plans, as suggested by the final panel, would be moving her back from villain/jerk to hero.

[thehood]

She's not really villainous and her grievances aren't unjustified, something Scott also admits.

Being a jerk doesn't make you a heel. Plenty of faces have been jerks. Stone Cold being the best example.

[beyondthefringe]

The more they push Scott Lang as fuck-up, the more I remember when he used to be competent enough to be on speed-dial for half the teams in town, including the Avengers and FF.

I like Nick Spencer's work, but I just don't get why Scott had to swallow an idiot pill in the process.

[coldfury]

Oh, we all know why.



Edit: I apparently have no idea how to post images in comments.
Edit Edit: Apparently it's just imgur, not me. Yay?

[mrstatham]

Except the character wasn't even that much of a pitiful fuck-up there. Scott was actually pretty damn cool in the movie after a point, and while he was a screw-up, that was like.. First act only.

[wizardru]

Motto. Scott in the movie was a guy who'd made a mistake (or did the right thing but did it the wrong way) but who was competent and talented (and showed the qualities of a hero when it mattered). He didn't sit around and mope for the entire movie and his arc had him improving his life and getting better, much like his original character intro back in the day.

Spencer's Scott Lang is like mopey Peter Parker's spirit animal or something.

[thanekos]

He skipped Chapter Three, so he's compensating by doubling down on Chapter Four.

[punisher007]

Again, am I supposed to LIKE Scott here, because I REALLY don't? And if this leads to Darla going bad, then I'm going to be REALLY annoyed.

Hey Mr. Spencer, Scott was kind of a screwup in the movie, but not this bad. And he was FAR more likeable/sympathetic there as well.

[jcgamer78]

Ah Ant-Man. The comic where the only likable characters are/were super villains. I don't mind Scott being down on his luck, but jeez its hard to sympathize with him if he's such a jerk.

[thehood]

The guys from Hench haven't killed or harmed anyone yet though. The app wouldn't be legal otherwise.