Marvel Pick Of The Week – May 18, 2016

Pick Of The Week goes to Nick Spencer for taking everything he’s doing right with his Ant-Man series and dropping it into the near-perfect Superior Foes series we miss so much.

Spoilers ahead!

Pick Of The Week: Astonishing Ant-Man #8, by Nick Spencer, Brent Schooner, and Jordan Boyd

Ant-Man was a breakout delight in this month’s Captain America: Civil War, so the stakes are higher for Nick Spencer and his team when bringing the lovable little loser to comic audiences who want more. Luckily, Scott Lang’s adventures have never been a better read than they are now, and this week’s book is proof of that.

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So far, Ant-Man has relocated to Miami to be closer to his daughter, but because of his ex-wife’s restrictions, he has had to shrink down and spy on her instead of openly cheer her on from the basketball bleachers. When she found out, she joined up with a super-villain to become Stinger and sabotage a rival villain, and now Ant-Man is using social media apps to recruit some bad guys and keep Cassie from crossing some serious lines.

This issue is all about the thugs who answer Scott’s call: The Voice, The Magician, Whirlwind, and The Hijacker. Under Spencer’s pen, each of these lowlifes has a distinct voice and personality, be that Whirlwind’s aggressive dudebro posturing and use of his superpowers to swipe right through a Tindr stack or The Voice’s Shakespearean battle to get Siri to do his bidding. When they meet up for a quick poker game before the job, they offer rookie The Magician some friendly advice, like always pulling jobs in Spider-Man’s friendly neighborhood because he will leave you neatly webbed up instead of risking your life in The Punisher’s hunting grounds.

Nick Spencer is at his best when he gets to pull the humor out of the weaker elements we all see in ourselves. The way he writes ex-con Scott Lang is not too far from the way he’s put together four more candidates for Boomerang’s old Superior Foes crew, always funny but never wacky, never too silly. The jokes come out of the witty observations of modern life, especially social media. The first Ant-Man movie was very funny in a similar smart way, and anyone who liked the character in that one or Civil War can jump right into Nick Spencer’s series and love it.

Honorable Mentions:

Civil War II #0, because after a great issue of courtroom monologue, it’s nice to see Olivier Coipel let loose on Jennifer Walters’ entrance.

Old Man Logan #6, because maybe the only thing cooler than an intense Wolverine might be a cyborg with tank treads for legs, and the only thing cooler than that might be Logan shredding the crap out of those tank treads.

Star-Lord #7, because poor Sam Humphries’s Weirdworld series has fallen to undeservedly low sales, so he’s keeping it going as a tabletop game for Rocket and Groot. Rest in peace, you little gem.

Spider-Man #4, because I like that Ganke and Miles aren’t a couple, but I like that Goldballs has reason to ask.

Power Man And Iron Fist #4, because of course Wolverine would teach Power Man some moves while they’re Avengers together, and of course Danny Rand would rename it a Fistball Special.

Catch up on previous Marvel Picks of the Week here!