This is another one-shot that is important for one reason: It introduces a new Ant-Man.
It’s an anthology issue. There are other stories. In brief:
#1: Mac Gargan, formerly Scorpion and now Venom, joins the Thundbolts. But first, he fights some SHIELD agents.
And Radioactive Man and Songbird. They’re the new “it” couple, I guess. When faced with the choice of prison or being a “legit” hero…
He says “yes.” By Guggenheim and Yu. The new T-Bolts book will be by Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato. It’s unusual and not great that a different team is doing what is basically a short story to promote the team reboot.
#2 is the above-mentioned Ant-Man story. Very short character piece, completely skippable, but as I said above it’s the technically the character’s first appearance.
We first see him fighting with a pigeon over a piece of popcorn.
A Civil War conflict happens nearby and a woman is nearly killed by falling debris. He saves the woman and then flees the scene, and when she tells The Avengers, Hank Pym recognizes his stolen tech from her description. Creators Kirkman and Hester will be the team on the upcoming “Irredeemable Ant-Man” launch, so that’s a plus.
#3 is a Danny Rand Daredevil short story that really does nothing except tell readers that, hey, Danny Rand was Daredevil for a bit. He just sits and thinks about being Daredevil and how much he’d rather be Iron Fist. For completists and fans of the Immortal Iron Fist series (which should be ALL of you), this is the first Brubaker/Fraction/Aja story with the character.
The fourth tale has Tony Stark hiring U.S. Agent to help police the U.S./Canada border, where lots of superhumans are trying to escape the Registration Act. His first target is Purple Man, who has already crossed the border. Nobody likes U.S. Agent, and the fact that he’s used to launch the upcoming Omeaga Flight series bodes poorly.
Then we get a glimpse into what Howard the Duck is up to during Civil War. In classic Howard form, he doesn’t have to register because nobody will admit that he exists.
That gets this issue bumped up to a B-. Call it Duck Bias.
A new HtD series is also on the horizon.
The final story introduces a new character, a girl named Harley Davidson Cooper, but she’s never used again so…Ignore it. Strike that–she was used in an episode of Guiding Light! (here)
This issue is a fun read despite the fact that none of the stories take up enough pages to really matter. This should have been a promotional give-away and not an actual comic.