The Good
ANT-MAN is more that a quirky super-hero book. It's a series about a man with a shaky past trying desperately trying to redeem himself and his name, step by step. Being the hero you think you're meant to be isn't an easy task and neither is raising a child. It's not all going to happen over-night and this book truly reflects that. Each issue is a baby step towards redemption, and while this whole opening paragraph makes this book seem super-serious and "all business," it's not and that's the best part.
Nick Spencer is crafting something special here, utilizing essentially what is a joke of a character, who is about to appear in a summer blockbuster. Spencer uses the age-old Marvel formula of a hero with real life problems, but adds a little bit of humor to it and a lot of personal redemption to create this incredibly intriguing book that's wonderfully engaging, even when very little happens in the issue.
Scott tries to get back on track here with his new security company, guarding a warehouse of paperclips. With the help of his ant army and his own ingenuity, he gets things done pretty well. There's something endearing about being really excited by how a page comes together where someone is setting up security equipment. From there, of course, Taskmaster eventually shows up and the two battle it out.
Prior to the two duking it out, we get this page of everytime Scott Lang was involved with Taskmaster, whether Taskmaster knows is or not, and it's a great looking page set up by Ramon Rosanas featuring some muted colors from Jordan Boyd. It's a nice flashback page that is straight to the point. Rosanas, as a whole, does some skillful work here and the art and writing are in-sync with each other, which is great to see.
Artist Ramon Rosanas nails the "dumb drummer" face that Cassie has while playing the drums in this issue. I would know because I make far worse faces than that while playing.
The Bad
I'm not the biggest Taskmaster fan, so his role in all of this is a bit foreign to me, since I don't know too much about him. The whole idea of being excited to see this fan favorite character isn't there for me, but I'm sure Taskmaster fans will really appreciate him here.
The Verdict
While I'm not a Taskmaster fan, his appearance doesn't hinder the book at all. ANT-MAN three is just an incredibly crafted book that is more than a few cheap laughs here and there. ANT-MAN is this fun, quirky redemption story that is a blast to read. It's weird to see anyone in the Ant-Man costume doing something memorable again, since I can't think of a time we had a good Ant-Man story since Eric O'Grady was in the costume. Regardless, jump on ANT-MAN and check it out. You will not be disappointed.