The Importance of Pym

Why Ant-Man? That was a question that kept coming up in discussions about Marvel's line-up of films. Of all the people in the Marvel universe to introduce in films in the current plan, why Hank Pym?

Don't know who he is? He's the many-times rebranded superhero who can shrink himself down to the size of an ant, or grow himself to a hundred feet tall. Changes in mass accompany such size changes. He received his powers from messing with particles he later dubbed Pym-particles. He's a scientist. He's a genius. And he's a wife-beater. Let's see them explain that in a kid-friendly way in his big-screen appearance.

So, it's kind of handy having someone who historically has shown to be able to literally squash the enemy. Except, it seems like the only good thing he ever did was set up the Avengers. Yes, him. He was one of the founding members, and one of the ones who really made them work as a team, if I understand his role correctly.

But his significance goes beyond that. Let's look at it like this:

He created Ultron. That nasty piece of work is a self-improving, constantly growing mastermind Artificial Intelligence, as smart as Pym, as blind-sided as Pym, and with none of the conscience you would expect a hero to have. (Except, you know, wife-beater. Poor Janet.) But, aside from the big-bad that he created (and that he's always been necessary to stop), how important has he been?

Think Planet Hulk. Think the prison in Civil War. Think the interdimensional dome that appeared in what I believe was Messiah War. Every time they've needed scientists, he's been there. He's been a douche about it, but he's been there, he's helped, he's been important.

What about Ultron? Well, Ultron made Vision. Vision, another cyborg/android/biological-robot thing, had children. Actual children. With the Scarlett Witch. They died. Twice. The first time, House of M happened. That led to No More Mutants, which led to Avengers Vs. X-Men, which led to what we have with Marvel now. Including Xavier being dead...

But those kids of Vision's came back. Twice. The second time as actual people, and not just weird demon things (as it was explained to me). They were important parts of the Young Avengers, along with (wait for it) Hank Pym's daughter. She also found Pym particles.

So, Pym has been kind of important. One of the big-but-young teams in Marvel have him to thank for their existence. Many mutants lost their powers because of him. He's locked people up, thrown them into space, and created one of the most dangerous beings in the universe. Big deal, right? But what if he never existed?

SPOILER ALERT

They've started to explore this in Age of Ultron. Issue 7 shows a world in which Hank Pym had been killed before he created Ultron. The Secret Invasion went a little differently, but people seem to be okay by-and-large. Unless they've been killed and we just don't know yet. Also, Iron Man seems to be Vision. But still Tony. And he's in charge of the whole planet.

Things got weird, I'll admit.

Was Hank Pym so important that without him the Avengers form in a different way? They're not even the Avengers in issue 7. They're the Defenders. Rubbish, right? That doesn't sound so heroic. And they're not the same heroes, either. Captain America is there, yeah. But missing an eye for some reason. Wolverine is there. The Hulk is there. Janet - the Wasp, Pym's wife - is there. Doctor Strange is there. But then, Cyclops is also there. It's as if the X-Men don't need him anymore, and he can he join the Avengers. He probably hasn't killed Xavier.

I have to say, if I had to choose a world with Pym, or a world without Pym... I'd probably go for the former. But then we have to try reconcile the fact that Ultron has kind of broken the whole planet...

All in all... I can't explain why they're bothering to bring Ant-Man into the movies. All I know its, Hank Pym is important. One of the most important men in Marvel history. He just also happens to be useless to Marvel right now unless they can also get Reed Richards. Which they won't. (Reed is part of the fun Brain Squad of the Avengers - him, Pym, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner like saving the world as a mastermind group of super scientists.)

Marvel fans, what do you think? Is Hank Pym important? Should they be bothering with him in the films? Did I miss out on another really big event in his life that has a massive impact on the way we should look at him?

Oops?

I did a check: I follow 14 series of comic books. I'm fairly sure there's been some universe breaking along the way in every one of them. All of them Marvel. Hmm... Let's have a wee little look at them, shall we? (NB  this post will contain spoilers if you're not up-to-date with these stories.)

All-New X-Men: Let's put it simply. After Avengers Vs X-Men, the Phoenix Force blew up, and new mutants started showing up all over the place. Beast happened to also be affected, it seems, and was dying. So, he did the only thing he could think of: he went back in time to bring the younger versions of himself, Angel, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Iceman to the present to show Cyclops what a massive bag of douche he's being. Younger Beast saved him, so his whole "I need to do this one last thing before I die" story fell to pieces, and we still have five time-displaced X-Men wandering about.

Uncanny X-Men: Following aforementioned douche-bag Cyclops, in a post-"I'm going to change the world with reality bending abilities" life, things are still not quite as they should be. Even Cyclops's universe breaking before these comics, they're breaking the universe. I'm pretty sure Magik just exploded, or something, and Hellfire is loose. Yay.

X-Men Legacy: Legion accidentally killed the pseudo-mutagenic-alien-monks that were keeping him calm and not destroying the world. Now he's losing control of his abilities, because of a lack of self-esteem and a weird Xavier ghost in his head. Giant inter-dimensional monsters keep attacking him, and alien-police, and I'm pretty sure he's one bad date with Blindfold away from losing it all and accidentally ripping the universe a new one. So, uh...no pressure, Blindfold.

Cable and X-Force: Oddly, these lads aren't breaking the universe. However, they are breaking the law. Even if they are actually saving people. Bold Cable. Bold.

Wolverine: Hey look, someone who's not responsible for breaking the universe! Except, you know, the Watcher showed up. If memory serves, he's only there when there's some universe breaking going on. Something about the alien-tech blowing people up might explain that. But yeah...universe broken. Again.

Avengers: Where do I even begin? So, first Ex Nihilo decides to make a human, named Adam. And the Universe decided to personify. Again. And while she's not broken physically, the nexus that keeps all reality from collapsing seems to be in trouble. Add to this the fact that the Star Brand is up and running (and should only do this when the planet needs protecting) and he shouldn't be, because he's breaking things (like the Earth's consciousness). So...yeah...universe broken. Repeatedly. Last White Event and all that nonsense going on.

Uncanny Avengers: Despite her role in this series, the Scarlet Witch is not responsible for breaking the universe...yet. Instead, Kang the Conqueror is manipulating people and traveling through time, and now has a shiny magical axe with which to break stuff. And we can kind of blame Thor for that one, because he's arrogant and violent and he was seven hundred years younger, then.

Young Avengers: Um... remember that mention of the Scarlet Witch? Yeah, one of her sons is following in her footsteps. We'll ignore the fact that he's died and been re-incarnated twice and that he and his twin brother were born from two different women, neither of whom are the Scarlet Witch, and neither of whom are related to each other or the Scarlet Witch. No, this is all to do with Billy's powers, and how he seems to have brought an inter-dimensional parasite into existence that may or may not have created similarly parasitic copies of the Young Avengers parents and parent-figures (so...the Avengers), and Billy doesn't know how to stop her. Kid Loki does, but he's not strong enough, and it seems the only way to save the universe is to make Loki all-powerful. Also, Skrull Invasion. Yay.

Fearless Defenders: What happens when a Valkyrie gets lazy and doesn't do her job of recruiting Midgard's finest female heroes? She breaks the universe. Doom Maidens abound. Yay.

Guardians of the Galaxy: It's not their fault, but yeah... invasion. Massive invasion. At least they're trying, right? And no sign of... wait... hang on...

Nova: Watcher. Watcher right there. And this new Nova? Yeah, his dad seems to know Rocket Racoon and Gamora from the Guardians of the Galaxy. So... I think the universe is broken. Again.

A+X: They're short stories. There has yet to be any universe breaking. This pleases me.

Age of Ultron: This entire series is universe-breaking. Everyone is dead. Well, almost everyone. And now Nick Fury thinks it's a good idea to go to the future to fight Ultron. With just Captain America, Iron Man, and Red Hulk armed with Ares's axe. And I think they're going to die. At the same time, Wolverine wants to go back in time to kill Hank Pym before he makes Ultron. So, aside from the fact that there will be three stories going on simultaneously, we've also got to accept the fact that it seems the most use Hank Pym has ever been is in stopping Ultron over the years. Can we just let Wolverine kill him and be done with it?

Thanos Rising: He hasn't broken the universe yet, but I'm fairly sure this is all backstory. So, he's bound to break it at some point, sooner or later, and that's not including all the times he already has. Because Thanos.

By my count, about ten universe-breakings in fourteen series of comic books. Um, Marvel... I can't even.

Review - The Age of Apocalypse (X-Men)

One thing quite a few people know about me is that I have a lot of interest in comics. Truth be told, I know more about them than I have right to: I never really read them. I decided to change that, and ignoring my reading list altogether I read The Age of Apocalypse epic in the X-Men series of comics from Marvel, including the Prelude. Originally I had planned to review each of the four volumes in turn, until I realised that they were almost impossible to distinguish between.

They’re broken down into individual stories, following the likes of Cyclops, Havock and Sinister, Magneto and Rouge, Gambit and the Xternals, and a whole cast of characters taken from the comics and thrown into a new story. Everything changes in these comics, the logic behind it all explained in the Prelude. Introduce time travel and things are bound to change. And in the words of my fellow comic book nerd from college, ‘This is their masterpiece.’

How did you find reading comics to reading regular fiction?

It was...different. Essentially, the storytelling falls into two categories: the dialogue and the pictures. It’s literally a case of showing and not telling (except when dialogue and narration has to fill in the gaps for readers). One of the hardest things is getting used to looking at everything on the page in different orders – some scenes spread over two pages, the images being that big, so the whole layout of the comic changes.

As well as that, there’s the issue with reading dialogue and following what’s actually going on. It took me a while to get used to reading what was being said in the right order. This is no fault of the people who wrote the comics, of course; I’m just not that used to reading them. For me, the writing goes right across the page, no pictures.

What did you think of the story?

As I’ve said, this is their masterpiece. Each of the books (Prelude, and Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4) fills us in on the little details: what caused the Age of Apocalypse to come about, how the X-Men planned to stop it, once and for all, what Apocalypse was doing to the world, what was happening to the universe and how they ultimately hoped to stop that, too. I won’t drop spoilers. For fans of X-Men, this is the must-read series of comics. They break open the whole world of X-Men and answer the question: What would happen if Charles Xavier never formed the X-Men?

This really is the ultimate ‘What if...’ story, and it certainly let down a lot less people than House of M and its particular affect on the Marvel universe...

What was your favourite arc, and what was your least favourite?

My favourite would have to have been that which followed Rouge. She was always one of my favourite characters (I know, the outsider being my favourite character... har har har). Again, no spoilers, but there’s a whole new set of stories being told in this group (which still keeps the old favourites around, too, like Storm).

My least favourite... Wolverine. My experience with Wolverine – known in these comics as Weapon X, I might point out – is that he’s the angry, distant type. He fights and he’s looking for answers and God help anyone who tries to get in his way. Well, with certain changes that still follow his character’s general story, he’s a bit annoying in how much he gets down in himself. And he’s missing a hand. That may have attributed to it all (because, you know, his hand is supposed to grow back..?).

Whose story were you happiest with?

This one is difficult... Cyclops has an interesting story, but he still maintains a lot of his usual morals and all that stuff that eventually wears him out. Beast is even more...delightful, we’ll say. I think they did a great job with him in these comics, taking him to an extreme they couldn’t have gotten away with in a different reality. Best of all, though, was Nate Grey. I stumbled across Nate in my extensive reading about X-Men a few years ago and never really understood where he came into the story. Well, AoA answers the very important question of his origins, and goes into some detail on his powers, his life and his personality. And he’s one of the coolest looking characters that isn’t grossly mutated beyond recognition as a human. (The white flick in his hair and the glowing eye certainly did the trick!)

Saddest part of the whole series?

This one would call for a spoiler. No spoilers. Just wait until you get to Volume 4 and you’ll see it all happening. You just have to wonder what made them do it. Then you realise it’s genius, if a little too tragic. You’ll see!

Who would you recommend this series to?

A few groups... firstly, if you like X-Men but haven’t read this series yet: this is for you. Do I have to say it again: It’s their masterpiece! Secondly, to people who generally like comics and haven’t read this series, even if you’re not especially a fan of X-Men. Thirdly, if you like a good story and think you can manage the images (and, can I just say, the artwork is brilliant, so it’s totally worth it), then you should give this series a try.

What’s next?

Well, I can’t possibly answer that for Marvel... they have the most convoluted plots in the world that I will forever be out of my comfort zone with them. I can only hope to catch up on some of the amazing stories they tell. As for me, I’ve got reviews coming up of a children’s book, a graphic novel, a Young Adult novel and a book about writing for children, none of which were on my list. (I think the list is cursed, because I chose too many big books and started reading too many of them at once...)

This time last year

When I compare this summer to last summer, one thing is definitely clear: I am less crazy. Or more crazy and it just doesn't get to me as much. Definitely less bored, though.

This time last year, I was at my wit's end. It had nothing to do with my results going up online (or somebody telling me every minute that they were up, when they weren't!). It had nothing to do with anything, really, which was precisely the problem. I had nothing to do. At all.

This year... well, I've been writing Dignity, for a start, after several failed attempts to get anywhere in this story. The first attempt was terrible. Got barely anything done. The second attempt at it, I made my plan for the story (the plan in my head) slightly longer. The third time, even longer and I completely changed the perspective of where the reader was seeing all of the action from. This time around, I've gone back even further and I'm incorporating a lot more material from the alleged "real life" that has been led and doing something quite strange with it... I'm giving it a plot. Life doesn't have a plot. The things we do each day aren't a plot. If you wrote a novel detailing even three months of a character's life and having every day being interesting and worth reading, it'd be the most unrealistic three months ever. Or the most adventurous.

(Little secret, though: even grand road trips across America can be boring to do, because from the stories I've heard of them, most of the time there's nothing to do. That's why America has so many tourist attractions along the highway.)

Okay, so with Dignity well under way, it's even not enough to keep me interested all the time. Thankfully, I've been given a day extra work each week. Rather than just work the weekends, I work a mid-week day, too! It's very handy for making the weeks seem less boring. When you have breaks in the week of two days each, it feels like school used to before I started working, only with twice the weekends - school, weekend, school, weekend - only in this case instead of school it's working in a bookshop, and instead of a weekend it's Mondays and Tuesdays, and Thursdays and Fridays. The extra work is also great for having that little bit more money.

To fill the days I'm off, I've done a number of things. One of these was a road trip across the country, looping down south briefly before taking the N7 back to Maynooth, and a train home. This day was occupied with chats with the driver, the radio, rain in every county we drove through, rail-way superstitions, music from 1994 and the accompanying dance moves, a new love of The Saw Doctors, Supermacs in Galway (because we're fairly sure it's illegal to not have a Supermacs when you go to Galway) and a double-rainbow on the drive home. Other less adventurous things that have filled the days between shifts at work have been: trips to the cinema, a trip to Balbriggan to see a friend off to Switzerland for the summer, trips to the comic book shops and bookstores in Dublin and a gig, at which I saw The Shoos play, got their autographs and a photograph with them.

Between these miscellaneous adventures in Dublin and around the country and writing Dignity and working in the bookshop, I've been reading a bit. I've read children's books, books about writing, adult fiction (not erotica... I just mean the books that aren't children's books but are fiction) and comics (hence the trips to the comic book shops!) Of the comics I've been reading... well, they've all been X-Men. Because I'm that cool.

Last year... last year had some adventures of its own, the best being a 21st party, but it also had lots of boredom and a bit (understatement) of moaning down the phone at the same person who drove me around the country (and repeatedly called it a boring day). It was a truly unremarkable summer last year. I making up for it this year by writing the book I've been trying to write for over a year (and writing an ending to Meet Sam that I'm actually happy with!) and arranging different odds and sorts to occupy my time between working on the book and working with books (and people... there are people in the shop, too.)

Maybe, just maybe, this won't be as much a bad summer as last year. Maybe.

PS my favourite line I've written so far today:

The context: the main character is essentially referencing himself in the narration in third person, though he's not the narrator... that description makes it sounds weird... okay, it actually is weird, but the description is worse... I'll just give you the line.

"He was too good to be arrogant."