Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes
“To Steal an Ant-Man,” Season 2, Episode 5, 2012
Dan Says:
Earth’s Mightiest
Heroes was great for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the way it
adapted classic stories. Among the best examples is this animated take on
1979’s Marvel Premiere #47, in which
Scott Lang assumes the Ant-Man identity from Hank Pym.
The Ant-Man movie
goes back to this same adaptation well, with more than a few changes and a
wider audience, to be sure, but EMH
did it first and best. There’s a great montage in which Lang shrinks for the
first time and discovers what Pym’s tech can do, narrated over by Pym, that
serves as an example of how exposition can work without feeling forced.
As EMH episodes
go, it’s a quieter, self-contained one. Such episodes became more common in
Season 2, after the first year rolled out everyone from Loki to Kang to Ultron.
Pym, racked with guilt over having created a killer robot dedicated to wiping
out all humans, has given up superheroing and is in the process of moving out
of the Avengers’ mansion.
While packing, he catches a news report showing someone
using his shrinking technology to commit bank robberies: Lang. Rather than go
to the Avengers, given his current feelings about the team, he hires Marvel’s
best best friends, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, to track down the culprit. No
disrespect to Disney XD’s Ultimate
Spider-Man, but I much prefer seeing the animated adult Cage and Fist banter
over their teenage USM counterparts.
When Lang is uncovered by the Heroes for Hire, he launches
into the familiar story about how he’s forced to steal to save his daughter,
Cassie. In the end, Pym, Lang, Cage and Fist take down Darren Cross – more
generic crime boss than generic corrupt industrialist in this iteration – and
his goons, and Pym lets Lang keep the Ant-Man gear, providing the alibi that
Lang was on an undercover operation for the Avengers.
And Cage gets off the last line: “Yo, Pym, where should I
send our bill?” It’s no “Where’s
my money, honey?” but it works in a pinch.
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