AntMan: 5 Things You Should Know for the Movie

With Marvel's new Antman movie in theaters July 17th, it's good for one to know the comic background of this little bitty superhero. His name, what exactly makes him possible, and how he came to be. All for good comparison to this movie adaptation. So here is a list of 5 things, you need to know for the Antman movie.

1: Who is He for sure?
It's a bit confusing, because as far as I was concerned Antman was first and foremost Hank Pym only. This movie sees Hank Pym giving up his mantle as Antman to Scott Lang, (whom I had originally thought to be an MCU creation.) But it turns out there is comic evidence backing Scott Lang. Much like what we've seen from the movie trailer, Scott Lang stole the Antman suit while trying to provide for his struggling family. Hank Pym, the original owner of the suit pursued him under the disguise of Yellow Jacket to see what Scott would do with his suit. Hence we have the story of the movie.

Scott Lang, portrayed by Paul Rudd.

Hank Pym, portrayed by Michael Douglas

2: The Wasp?
The Wasp is kind of like a sidekick to Antman. The Wasp, or Janet Van Dyne, is not only the companion to Hank Pym as Antman, but also Hank Pym's wife. Will we see The Wasp in the upcoming movie? Possibly. If she is indeed Hank Pym's wife she would be at least as old as Hank Pym is in this movie, and we haven't seen any old Wasps in the trailers. What we do know is that Evangeline Lilly will be portraying Hope Van Dyne the daughter of Hank and Janet, who may be Marvel's way of reinventing the character as a love interest for Scott Lang. So it may be Hope Van Dyne is the Wasp instead of her comicbook portrayal as the Red Queen (arguably less cool and more obscure).

The Wasp, from Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Hope Van Dyne, portrayed by Evangeline Lilly.

3: Ultron Tie-in.
According to the comics and multiple other sources that came about before Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, it was not Tony Stark and Bruce Banner that created Ultron, it was in fact Tony and Hank Pym. Ultron was originally a kind of jailkeeper for the facility used by the Avenger's to imprison their enemies. It wasn't until a software patch was downloaded to Ultron that he broke free and became the utterly evil foe that they face today. Will there be a tie-in to the Age of Ultron in this movie? Part of me doubts it, but it would be fun to see.

The Creation of Ultron

4: Giant Man
This could be potential "Sequel" material for the Antman franchise, but it could be great material for some form of easter eggs. Hank Pym created the Antman by using what he discovered and calls, "Pym Particles" these can make a person shrink or grow to any size they want, which is how we get the Antman. But Hank Pym is also famous for using the Pym Particles to grow and become Giant man, greatly turning the tables on the previous situation.

Giant Man

5: Agent Carter and Howard Stark:
Something I find very intriguing is that Peggy Carter and Howard Stark will appear in the movie. Either as part of Hank Pym's past, or perhaps this movie is set in the early 70s and is being very sneaky about it. We know it's later in Peggy and Howard's life because the actor who plays Howard in the movie is not Dominic Cooper, who portrayed young Howard Stark in Captain America, but rather John Slattery, who we see portraying Tony's dad in Iron Man 2. It will be interesting to see how they play into the movie and tie all the other movies together.

Howard Stark, portrayed by John Slattery

Agent Peggy Carter, portrayed by Hayley Atwell

Consider yourself ready for the movie, either to knowledgeably catch the references, or critically scream at the movie for completely ignoring the comics. When I first saw that it was going to be a movie I thought, "Really? An Antman movie." I felt that they had missed their shot by not having him cameo in the Avengers or something. But after seeing the trailers I see the potential of this being a comedic heist film. Besides, it's Marvel, they aren't going to make a bad movie.