Since they weren’t at Comic-Con, most of the media attention has not been focused on Ant-Man, Marvel’s next entry in their Marvel Cinematic Universe snowball, which shows no sign of stopping, and which becomes ever more complex and unfathomable with each movie. (Why do I suspect that ALL of the Phase Three heroes will become Avengers, including Doctor Strange?)
Of course, every Marvel movie has “credit cookies”, little snippets of film tucked into the final credits. Sometimes they are little oddball moments, like the Avengers having lunch, and sometimes they foreshadow upcoming movies, like Thor. They add a bit of excitement to the movie, as well as generating lots of free advertising as numerous websites post analyses and explanations on what was briefly seen.
Being a heist movie with some humor, and being the last Phase Two movie, I expect Ant-Man to include some of these. What might they be?
Well… Ant-Man can shrink. What happens when he shrinks too small? He ends up in the Microverse.
Where’s that? It’s a sub-atomic realm in the Marvel Universe, home of the Micronauts. Like G.I. Joe and Transformers, Marvel created a fictional universe for the toys, currently owned by Hasbro. (IDW will be publishing new stories soon.) But how can Marvel use these characters? Well, they can’t. But they do own the rights to three characters which appeared in the series: Arcturus Rann, Marionette, and Bug.
My prediction? “Bug” will make a cameo. Why would this be likely?
- The Microverse, home to these characters, is connected to Pym particles, as miniaturization allows one to access the dimension.
- “Bug” is a bit of a pun reflecting off “Ant-Man” and the other insect themes in the movie.
- Bug, according to the official Marvel Universe Wiki, is “an Insectivorid master thief and adventurer from the planet Kaliklak in the Microverse (a.k.a. Inner Space), a “sub-atomic” realm actually accessed via the energies of shrinking. Known as a humorous, lighthearted flirt, he is also a charismatic leader and adept warrior.” This reflects Scott Lang’s character nicely.
- Marvel can then use this teaser to develop “Ant-Man 2″, which would be a Fantastic Planet/Fantastic Voyage mashup set in the Microverse. (If Marvel is REALLY smart, one of the Infinity Gems is hidden there.) This would also allow Marvel to develop another dimension in the MCU, which can serve as a substitute for the Negative Zone, which is part of the Fantastic Four movie rights. (Marvel is already developing the Inhumans as a substitute for mutants and X-Men, and the Darkforce dimension will be mentioned in the next season of Agent Carter.) AM2 can also be used to spin-off the Microverse into a cartoon series, similar to He-Man (high-tech swords and sorcery). Of course, the irony would be that Hasbro would probably market the toys!
So, this doesn’t sound so crazy after all, does it? But I know this won’t happen, at least on Earth-1218. It’s too smart and perfect, and Marvel doesn’t think that hard. Heck, Marvel had two excellent opportunities to introduce Damage Control into the Marvel Universe via The Avengers movies, but hasn’t yet. (What’s Damage Control? They’re a corporation which repairs the property damage caused by superhero conflicts. Super-high-concept, right? Instant television series. Cold open with a superhero battling a supervillain and damaging something. Then segue to the office…)
So anyway, I’ll leave this here. Advance buzz on the movie is favorable (currently 76% at Rotten Tomatoes), so I probably won’t be disappointed watching the movie. Well, at least not while I’m watching the movie. Afterwards, I’ll probably nitpick it with a fine-tooth comb. (A little joke. Bon moths, if you will. Thank you, you’ve been a wonderful audience. Try the casu marzu.)
They ALSO should introduce Bug because he was a member of the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY!
Has marvel put out a bunch of reprints of a random character in the last few weeks?
That’ll probably be the cameo.
SURVEY SAYS: BZZZZZZZT!
Not even close, dude.
I think that we’re not going to see anything major about the Microverse in an MCU movie until Disney *finally* gets off its collective ass and buys Hasbro outright, like it should have done *years ago,* (aside to Marvel: What the hell is taking you so long?) and thereby reunite the two halves of Bill Mantlo’s Micronauts mythology. But I *was* hoping to at least see Psycho-Man and his Sub-Atomica area of the Microverse (in retrospect, I suspect that Psycho-Man is considered a Fantastic Four property), or heck, even a reference to Jarella and/or her homeworld, but I suspect that since they didn’t go there at all, just hints here and there in the super-shrinking scene that Scott may have been hovering over what looked like a civilized planet, pretty much declares outright that Marvel hasn’t solidified anything that it might want to do with the Microverse other than to go there whenever they decide to do the story of rescuing Janet.
Sorry, Antman is not in contention to attract my $12. The trailer was not compelling enough, I am not interested in this one. Okay, what is the next one?
Al@: $12?! Where do you go see your movies? Just go to a weekend daytime showing, non-3D. It’s worth seeing in the theaters. Solid B+, IMO, despite not taking advantage of the obvious story point in which the Microverse could be definitively referenced.
Scott being a newly-ex ex-con and the Legacy Hero theme join together in the storyline to keep it quite fun and a departure from the standard superhero origin story. I also liked the aspect of the story that had Hank being a superhero 25 years ago, as it marks the beginning of fleshing out the period in the MCU between the events of Agent Carter and the events of the first Iron Man movie and Incredible Hulk, which were the kick-off to the MCU.
Almost makes me wonder if they could be bouncing around ideas regarding, say, an Avengers 1959 miniseries or something involving say, a 1960’s-set version of Dominic Fortune or similar superspy. OTOH, I’d rather they added an adaptation of the Black Widow story Pale Little Spider (in which Johansson’s Widow turns out to be Yelena Belova to Stana Katic’s *real* Natasha) to the movie roster for 2017. They’ve really got no excuse for not adding a Black Widow movie quickly (but not as a quickee) now that there’s a growing swell of demand for one.
(And as an aside, the movie’s veiled reference to Spider-Man was amusing.)