What Makes Ant-Man Worthy of a Solo?

[Iceman]

Recent years have shown that how popular the comic books characters were doesn't mean much when it comes to films. The first Doctor Strange movie grossed more than the first Justice League movie.

True, but part of that is also because the films for some of the more popular comic characters weren’t executed as well. Guardians was popular for eg because of how well done it was and if that same level of getting the most out of your property had been applied to JL, we’d be sitting on a monster.

 

[Rorschach2012]

I think it was a mistake to use Daredevil on tv instead of giving him a movie series. I like the show, but Daredevil is easily one of Marvel's best characters, and he has one of the best rogues galleries. A MCU Daredevil movie would've been amazing. I just hope they don't make that mistake again with Blade

 

[MasterCat]

Meh, Daredevil's action is cheap to film and he has shouldn't be an Avenger. TV was the right call.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Can I join you?

Sure.

I think it was a mistake to use Daredevil on tv instead of giving him a movie series. I like the show, but Daredevil is easily one of Marvel's best characters, and he has one of the best rogues galleries. A MCU Daredevil movie would've been amazing. I just hope they don't make that mistake again with Blade

One would think you'd be more appreciative of the character having more liveaction stories.

 

[jolldan]

Loved the first Ant-Man can't wait for the second.

In answer to your question and this is just my opinion I think this is Marvel's biggest purely fun family movie.

Take any Marvel movie you can find a couple scenes that are gonna scare most young kids, or a few scenes where you will lose there interest. This doesn't feel like it has very many of them. To me anyway it felt like this movie was made first for kids with adult MCU fans second in mind. And I don't mean its a bad movie by that it just has a slightly different feeling to the others.

 

[Moridin]

I mean don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the first movie, enjoyed him in Civil War, but still I don't get what makes him the street level hero worthy of a movie in the MCU? Is it because he was one of the OG Avengers?

You have characters like Luke Cage (which everyone should really give season 2 a chance, despite what the critics say), Daredevil and even Iron Fist, all with a multitude of characters and supervillains that are so deserving of a good movie then you have Ant-Man. Who kinda pales in comparison when he doesn't have elements like The Hand, Kingpin, Misty Knight/Colleen Wing in his storyline. Yet he's not regulated to a Netflix show.

I just don't get it.

Others have said it, it's down to Edgar Wright actually wanting to do it.

For a bit more context, lets remember back in the mid-2000's Marvel Studios was an upstart Independent company with no track record, not the powerhouse they are now. They were actually having a lot of trouble trying to get talent to sign on & make these films. So when Wright actually approached them about Ant Man, fresh off of Shaun of the Dead and prepping Hot Fuzz, they had a talented up and coming filmmaker who wanted to work with them = no brainer.

Beyond that, Marvel didn't get into TV until 2013 with AoS, and Netflix (and streaming in general) wasn't back then what it is now.

 

[Dark Raven]

Loved the first Ant-Man can't wait for the second.

In answer to your question and this is just my opinion I think this is Marvel's biggest purely fun family movie.

Take any Marvel movie you can find a couple scenes that are gonna scare most young kids, or a few scenes where you will lose there interest. This doesn't feel like it has very many of them. To me anyway it felt like this movie was made first for kids with adult MCU fans second in mind. And I don't mean its a bad movie by that it just has a slightly different feeling to the others.

I would agree there. The Ant-Man franchise almost seems like the most Disney-ish of the MCU movies so far. Of course, Fantastic Four has the potential to be that too, but Marvel don't have the rights yet.

 

[SPO2 Dalisay]

I saw Civil War with an audience full of small children. By far the biggest audience reactions were to Spider-Man and Ant-Man

 

[Chip Chipperson]

You wanna know why? I’ll tell you why.

Spoiler

ANTS.

 

[Rorschach2012]

Sure.

One would think you'd be more appreciative of the character having more liveaction stories.

He deserves a bigger budget. Also, I think both seasons could have been shortened by a lot. I just think he would've worked better on the big screen.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

I think it was a mistake to use Daredevil on tv instead of giving him a movie series. I like the show, but Daredevil is easily one of Marvel's best characters, and he has one of the best rogues galleries. A MCU Daredevil movie would've been amazing. I just hope they don't make that mistake again with Blade

That's what I'm saying. One one side you have Ant-Man, which I see what everyone means that he's a family friendly hero and had Edgar Wright backing him, but you have the frigging Hand regulated to Netflix!

Elektra Natchios and Matt Murdock deserve better and higher stakes.

You wanna know why? I’ll tell you why.

Spoiler

ANTS.

LMAO

 

[Detective Conan]

He deserves a bigger budget. Also, I think both seasons could have been shortened by a lot. I just think he would've worked better on the big screen.

Not really. Daredevil doesn’t really have much superpowers besides his augmented hearing so they can pull off Daredevil on a televison budget. Not to mention his stories in general are noir driven and very serialized, so he’s best served on the television format imo. He doesn’t need a bigger budget. Better writing/pacing he does need however.

 

[Detective Conan]

I kind of want to see Marvel take another stab at Blade and do their first R-rated movie with the character. While I wouldn’t mind a television show I feel the character deserves another shot at the big screen.

 

[MasterCat]

I want to see them make Tomb of Dracula. It can be rated R so long as that doesn't put Dracula in a ghetto where he can't cross over to the main MCU.

 

[NHawk19]

Development hell definitely played into when it came out and the final product. Works out well though because it expands the MCU in new directions, and offers new places to explore.

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

I mean, I get what you mean when you consider the alternatives. Captain Marvel/Black Panther/Doctor Strange are all (imo) more deserving of solo films than Scott Lang. But there's several important things to consider.

1. Edgar Wright is a genius filmmaker and had an active interest in making this for a while.
2. Ant-Man is a founding avenger and was probably planned for a pre-Avengers date at some point before being pushed back.
3. Ant-Man invented Ultron and was probably planned for a pre-Avengers 2 date at some point before being pushed back.

But more importantly than all that, i'd just like to say, I ****ing love the shrinking super hero concept. Ant-telepathy and domestication aside, I love the concepts of the quantum realm, the shrinking and growing action ("Okay Arrow guy lets do this," and "This is your conscience. We don't talk much."). It is a ****ing blasty blast.

Im actually quite excited for AM&W

 

[MasterCat]

Plus MCU Hank Pym is such a great character. He should be elected President so scientific superheroes can stop keeping America in technological stasis because they're afraid of what the evil government would do with their tech.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

I kind of want to see Marvel take another stab at Blade and do their first R-rated movie with the character. While I wouldn’t mind a television show I feel the character deserves another shot at the big screen.

I want to see them make Tomb of Dracula. It can be rated R so long as that doesn't put Dracula in a ghetto where he can't cross over to the main MCU.

Yes to both of those but do you think Disney would actually go for it?

 

[MasterCat]

Yes to both of those but do you think Disney would actually go for it?

Yes, because it's established that Dracula can be PG-13.
It's going to be hard to prove me right, though, because we're already looking at a GotG vol 3/Black Widow/Doctor Strange 2 lineup for 2020, then Marvel Studios will want to launch Fantastic 4, X-Men, Eternals and Nova before any other new franchises. Something darker like Dracula or Moon Knight will have to wait until like 2025, unless James Gunn is really passionate about doing the latter after GotG3.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Something darker like Dracula or Moon Knight will have to wait until like 2025, unless James Gunn is really passionate about doing the latter after GotG3.

That would be a shame. Moon Knight is another I'd love to see.

 

[Lantern Venom]

Ant-Man wouldn't have been my first choice for a solo film either, unless it was Hank Pym. But they didn't make a Hank Pym movie. They made a Scott Lang movie, and Scott Lang is NOT an OG Avenger.

Pym is a far superior character to Lang. I really wish Marvel Studios would have started the Ant-Man series with Hank as the main character, then show him passing the mantle to a much more likable Scott Lang. The movie worked because of the MCU framework and some good effects, but it could have been so much more.

 

[MbJ]

They were never gonna do a Hank Pym movie so I don't know why this is still an issue three years later. They ended up with a hit with Scott.

 

[Detective Conan]

In a way, the Ant-Man they ended up making was sort of like the Marvel version of 'Batman Beyond.'

 

[BaronZemo]

What makes you the expert of what character deserves a shot at a solo? Nothing, really. I will take Feige's judgement over yours any day of the week.

 

[Bayne]

Like most are saying, worthiness has nothing to do with anything. Ant-man was greenlit because of Wright and Ant-man 2 was greenlit because Ant-man was a reasonably successful movie that probably would've been even better were it not for the behind the scenes bickering between Wright and Marvel.

But I am very glad that Ant-man got made, even though I personally might not have picked him for a solo myself, because he brings a hugely entertaining visual variety to the MCU. There is no other MCU movie that looks like Ant-man, especially in terms of action, and that adds something truly important to the MCU. It makes the whole world feel less rote and more believable. And it makes the whole thing far more visually entertaining than you could ever expect from characters like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage or Iron fist. For all their great dramatic potential (which would be hard to compress down into a single 2 hr movie anyway, especially for Jessica and IF), they are visually just even more people who punch the bad guys into submission.