Small hero, big Ant-venture

Writer: Casey Lee

Are you ready for "Ant-Man"?

While Ant-Man is known as one of the founding members of The Avengers in the comics, Hank Pym was never seen, much less played a pivotal role in the formation of Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That didn't stop the tiny superhero was forgotten entirely and he is finally getting his own dedicated screen time.

Instead of Hank Pym, "Ant-Man" will be introducing us to his successor Scott Lang, who will need to master the Ant-Man suit to perform a world-saving mission, unlike any that the Marvel superheroes have done before.

So before strapping in and being prepared for a new view of superheroes, here we give our best five reasons why you should not overlook the tiniest superhero of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

By now if you have watched any of the trailers of "Ant-Man", you would know that the Ant-Man suit allows a person to decrease in size while increasing his strength. Shrinking yourself is bound to give you a new perspective of everything around you and that was what Edgar Wright had set out to achieve from the onset of developing "Ant-Man". Though "Ant-Man" has been through many hands since Wright departed from the project, but the sense of being small in a big world hasn't been lost in the process.

To recreate the vast surrounding, one of the technical innovations that we will see in "Ant-Man" is the combination of macro photography and motion capture, and the smaller ratio used to shoot it would put us shoulder-to-shoulder with him. That isn't to say that the stakes of "Ant-Man" would be any less insurmountable, but Scott Lang will have to rely on smaller and clever ways to resolve them in his new suit.

The world has already been saved with advanced technology and brute force a couple of times by The Avengers, but "Ant-Man" is not going to be doing that simply by learning how to throw a punch. When "Ant-Man" was first developed, Edgar Wright had set out to write what would be later be described as Marvel's first comedy that is centered on a heist. We've already seen Marvel taking unconventional risks by experimenting with different genres ("Guardians of the Galaxy", "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"), and they have paid off so far. Seeing as how Ant-Man's powers are a close fit with the heist genre, we expect director Peyton Reed would be able to deliver another exception to the rule of superheroes.

Ant-Man in the comics has had a very long history before he was an Avenger and while his aforementioned role in becoming an Avenger was sadly left out in the cinematic universe, but that doesn't mean that his history would be negated altogether. Executive producer and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has already revealed that an early bit of "Ant-Man" would be delving into Hank Pym and his discovery of the Pym Particle that gives his suit its power. This would coincide during the early days of S.H.I.E.L.D, where we will get to see the likes of Peggy Carter, Howard Stark, and Hank Pym in action.

Marvel may have missed the boat of inserting Spider-Man references into "The Avengers: Age of Ultron", but there was a wider window to do so in "Ant-Man" after Marvel and Sony had closed the deal on sharing the web slinger. There are unconfirmed reports that there would be passing mention of Spider-Man or references to his universe (including one notorious corporation), so perk up your ears and sharpen those scene scanning skills to see if you can pick up any first clues. While the expectation is not to see anything more than a mask, but it would be an appreciated nod to know where we can expect to see Spider-Man's debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be.

"Ant-Man" won't be just going into the past but would also have a role to play from here on, as the closing chapter of Marvel's Phase Two. Rudd has already signed on to make multiple appearances in the suit and it is already confirmed that we will be seeing him again in the opening chapter of Phase Three; "Captain America: Civil War". So expect Marvel to bridge that connection at the end of "Ant-Man" and don't leave your seats just when the credits roll, as all good Marvel movies should have trained you by now.