I've been reading reviews of the DC Rebirth comics on the off-chance that I discover a title that makes an impression as strong as the Marvel series I've enjoyed recently. Aside from the Batman 66 limited series, Prez and Dr. Fate, DC has had nothing to offer that grabbed me the way these books have: Waid's Daredevil, Fraction's Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Patsy Walker aka Hellcat, Ewing's Mighty Avengers and some of its spin-offs and the delightful Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.
The latest authorial voice I've discovered is Nick Spencer, through his Astonishing Ant-Man series. Spencer has taken flaky schlub Scott Lang from last summer's hit movie and dropped him into an hilarious parody of Elmore Leonard. ( see also http://somefantasticplace-dougie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/go-to-ant-thou-sluggard.html)
Anxious about losing touch with his daughter, Lang relocates to Miami and goes into the security business with his equally washed-up partners Machinesmith and Grizzly. Scott then has to go through a nightmarish but mordantly funny replay of his late- 70s Marvel Premiere debut. Spencer wittily comments on comics' "Revolving Door of Death" and skewers the stories he clearly knows and loves- Taskmaster is a "ghost-pirate-Captain America clone with a cape" and Lang himself is "Ant-Man the Lousy Sequel".
The second volume introduces the super-villain-for- hire apps Hench and Lackey; new iterations of Hank Pym's 60s woeful antagonists Porcupine, the Voice and the Magician and the new gay Asian Giant-Man. My favourite element was the introduction of Valhalla Villas, the superhero retirement community and cameos of the original Golden Girl, Human Top from the Kid Commandos and Sun Girl.
Ant-Man has disastrous relationships with the new Beetle and Miss Thing ( a character I didn't really know and one who uses the infamous Thing Rings, in an homage to Hanna Barbera!) Throughout the second volume we know Scott is back in prison but that story will hopefully be revealed in the next trade.
Spencer's Scott Lang is inept and downtrodden but his striving and dopey optimism make him hugely identifiable. He's the Minder of the Marvel Universe.
Spencer honed his voice for bantering incompetent villains in The Superior Foes of Spider-Man where an arithmetically-challenged Boomerang assembles a new Sinister Six. Their shambolic attempts to get the big score is very funny ( and in the case of their target, the Owl, also gruesome). We discover the truth about MU urban legends, the Head of Silvio Silvermane and the True Face of Dr. Doom and eavesdrop on a Supervillains Anonymous meeting. There are two more volumes of this caper book (featuring a thorough knowledge of Marvel's most hapless crooks with a touch of darkness) and I want to read them too. Recommended.
Coming soon: Conan the Barbarian in the 1990s
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