Ant #3

[Craig Reade]

Ant #3 Image Comics - $2.99

Story and Art by:Mario Gully Script by: Marc Hammond Color by: Stefani Rennee Letters by: Payton Gauldin Published by: Image Comics

Review:
Written by Craig Reade

---

If you take a quick look back in the Still on the Shelf Archives, you will find a piece I wrote some time ago about a series called Ant, put out by Arcana Studio. This brainchild of creator Mario Gully got a great deal of attention, and his hard work was rewarded with a new Image Comics series for the character. Only things are a little different.

The series itself picks up several years after the last one ended. Hannah has grown up, and has actually taken on the persona of Ant, becoming the hero that she always wrote about. Or was the whole first series a figment of her imagination?

Issue 2 ended with Ant being dropped out of a flying car (driven by the Savage Dragon and She-Dragon), falling to the street below after a failed attempt to board the helicopter of Jessica Mime, who had just kidnapped her “tech guy” Steven Richards. She drops down to the street below, and finds herself face to face with none other than Spawn.

It is no secret that I was a huge fan of the original Ant series. Gully was a bit rough around the edges as an artist and writer, but the concept showed a great deal of potential. As such, I was very much looking forward to this new run. And the start wasn’t too bad. A bit heavy with the guest appearances, but it seemed that this was a way to make it clear that Ant was a part of the new Image-verse, and an incentive for long-time Image readers to give the book a shot. On top of that, I found Jessica Mime to be a pretty clever villain, and the general plot direction was interesting enough to keep me reading.

This issue though – threw it all out the window. Every step forward that was taken in the first two issues was forgotten and ignored.

The bulk of the issue is a fight sequence with Spawn that makes no sense at all. He knows her, she can't remember him. She falls in “his alley,” he doesn’t like it. Sensing his hostility, she attacks HIM. Cliche hero vs. hero fight ensues, he powers down for some reason, she clocks him. Suddenly she has a flashback in the middle of nowhere, then decides to travel to hell with Spawn to find her father.

Wait – huh? What about her friend, that Steven Richards guy? Wasn’t he kidnapped by Jessica Mime, so that he could upgrade her, making her pretty well unstoppable? What kind of hero abandons a rescue in favor of a personal quest of discovery? Steven Richards gets mentioned in passing this issue, but only barely.

On top of the nonsensical story turn, the dialogue is just terrible. Gully shares the story credit with newcomer Marc Hammond, who actually gets full credit for the script. At first I thought this was a great idea – as Gully is still a relative novice comic creator, bringing in a scripter so that Gully can focus on art only makes perfect sense. The problem is that Hammond displays even less scripting talent than Gully himself did on the first Ant series. Gully’s scripts had some problems, but generally showed promise and were still enjoyable to read. Hammond’s scripts are a muddle, and make almost no sense. Especially this issue. The banter between Spawn and Ant seems forced and really unnatural, and the motivations are totally unbelievable. To sum up Spawns reaction to Ant's appearance: "Wow! You are stronger than I remember. You fell from really high up there, I thought for sure you would be dead. But Grrr! You are in my alley, you must suffer!" I think maybe they should have worked a little harder on that excuse to have Ant and Spawn come to blows.

The art is strong, Gully has shown a lot of improvement in the storytelling department. His characters still have that same unique style that was off-putting to some readers of the first Ant, but the action is clear and easy to follow, and the characters are consistent. Gully and the rest of the art team deserve high marks on this issue.

I’m not ready to give up on this series yet, but as much as I love the concept of Ant and wish nothing but the best for Mario Gully, issue #3 was a huge step backwards. With luck, the story will get back on track in issue 4, back to Ant vs. Jessica Mime, with some exploration of Hannah’s past ongoing. The latter can be successfully spread out over many arcs, the former being important for the here and now. All of the guest appearances? Nothing but a huge distraction, hopefully that is the last we will see of them for a while.

---

Rating(out of 5):

_________________
Well, okay, but some of the comments I've heard about fans is that they're idiots. -Peter A. David

There is no such thing as a job Americans won't do. There are only jobs Americans won't do for slave wages.

[darkhawk]

Good review Craig...

Do you think it was possible that Image said "you must do an issue with Spawn" and that's why it took a detour?
_________________
Adding to the pointlessness of the internet - Off the Cuff: the blog

Gaming for those on the go - The Save Spot

[Craig Reade]

I am not so sure about that. Last issue had the feel of "You must do an issue with Savage Dragon" and the story moved along just fine.

In fact, the story may have totally derailed. As things stand at the end of issue #3, issue #4 should be her looking for her Dad. That is, if I read it right... it was really confusing...
_________________
Well, okay, but some of the comments I've heard about fans is that they're idiots. -Peter A. David

There is no such thing as a job Americans won't do. There are only jobs Americans won't do for slave wages.