Ant-Man (2015)
Directed by Peyton Reed, written by Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, Adam McKay, Paul Rudd
With Ant-Man, it’s all about the time period. There have been four main bearers of the Ant-Man moniker in the comic books – the first of which was Hank Pym, whose partner was the female superhero, and co-founder of The Avengers, The Wasp. The story of Hank Pym is dark and complex, and he eventually handed the Ant-Man mantle to Scott Lang. The film adaptation of Ant-Man concerns itself with this handover but, while the characters of Hank Pym and Scott Lang remain relatively unchanged (with the exception of the founding of The Avengers, of course), it is the narrative of the female characters that is radically altered to accommodate the male arcs.
In the comic books, Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne had a daughter, named Hope Pym. She grew up to be the supervillain Red Queen, who lashed out at Cassie – daughter of Scott Lang – in a fit of jealous rage, regarding her relationship with The Avengers. In the film Ant-Man, the focus is on the modern day handover of the Ant-Man suit, from Pym to Lang, and Janet van Dyne is already dead.
This means she goes from being a capable superhero in her own right – who battles supervillains and an abusive husband – to being simply a plot device to explain why her widowed husband won’t let their daughter be a superhero. Similarly, Cassie is presented as a young child who serves as motivation for Scott Lang, and Hope Pym is re-written as Hope van Dyne – the estranged daughter of Hank Pym, who resents him for emotionally deserting her after the death of her mother, and who is continually prevented from action by the men around her.
By opting to present this story in this time frame, the female characters of Hank Pym’s stories – such as Tigra, Thunderbird, Yellowjacket thief Rita DeMara, and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Monica Chang – are erased, while there is also no need to include female characters from Scott Lang’s stories, such as Namorita, Spider-Woman, Jessica Jones and She-Hulk, yet.
Instead, the filmmakers have created a story that is entirely about the way in which women are held back from being leading heroes, without actually fixing the problem. Hope van Dyne is passed over in her father’s business – Pym Tech – in favour of his male protégé, Darren Cross, and is passed over for use of the Ant-Man suit, in favour of Scott Lang. She literally spends the entire movie asking to be a superhero, and is continually refused – until the end. “That’s the point,” wail the menfolk, “We’re acknowledging your oppression!” Well, gee, thanks. We don’t really need your acknowledgement, though. We need you to stop causing the problem.
So, at the very end of the film, Hank Pym presents his re-written, ‘pared down’ daughter with an unfinished Wasp suit – a gesture to which she responds, “It’s about damn time.” While this is clearly intended to be a knowing wink, for which we are supposed to be grateful, it is, for fans, a hollow moment. Having erased The Wasp back in 2008, and again in 2012, and again – twice – in 2015, Marvel are taking the essence of the woman who co-founded its most successful superhero team, and are re-inventing her as the child of a senior male character. When old white man, Hank Pym, finally deigns to give his adult daughter permission to be the hero she wants to be, it is the single most accurate depiction of the white-centric, patriarchal attitude that has thus far infected the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe – something that is built entirely upon the erasure of women.
