There are certain issues I find myself having about the upcoming Ant-Man movie which I hope Marvel addresses at some point. While I am not expecting the movie to do as well as the Marvel Phase 1 movies, I hope Marvel is able to address these particular concerns to ensure the movie’s success.
Are you awaiting the Ant-Man movie?
Popularity
Marvel did a good job in including Hank Pym as Ant-Man in “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes,” but they have not done a bang-up job of keeping him as important in the Marvel Universe as possible. As of this writing, we are a few months into Marvel NOW, and Ant-Man has yet to make an impact. If Marvel wants current readers to get excited about “Ant-Man” the movie, the company needs to give at least morsels to get the reader’s mouths to water.
The Average Person
While comic book reader would love to admit that “we” did it, the Marvel movies did not become the blockbusters they are without the help of the people who would not be caught dead in a comic book store. Those people want movies created about characters they have at least heard of. We will have to wait for the premiere of “Guardians of the Galaxy” to know how much of an impact a non-headlining character can make at the box office. Of course, you might make the argument that the Green Lantern was not a top headliner, but at least he was a known name.
Wasp
Whatever Marvel decides to do with Janet van Dyne, there will be fans which will be angry. Some Ant-Man fans will argue that they would want to see the version of Hank who is in love with Wasp and argue that the two deserve to be together onscreen. Other fans are going to hope Janet’s death will be in the past in the movie and Hank has to struggle with getting by without her. Janet will be a touchy issue with many fans, and we will have to wait until Marvel makes an official announcement about the character.
Various Names
What is going to happen if Hank grows to a larger size in the movie? Is he going to change his name to Goliath or Giant-Man? Pym has had more character names over the years than Lady Gaga has oddly-shaped bras. Will this be addressed in the movie? Couldn’t changing names confuse viewers who were not familiar with the character before entering the theater? This is an important aspect in Pym’s overall personality and Marvel needs to figure out what to do soon.
“Ant-Man” is a long way off and Marvel has time to make adjustments here and there to the movie and the comic book market. As a Pyn fan, I hope the movie does him justice.
