Irredeemable Ant-Man - Volume 1: Low-Life (v. 1) [Paperback]

Robert Kirkman (Author), Phil Hester (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Irredeemable Ant-Man | Publication Date: July 11, 2007

Introducing the world's worst super hero! When a low-level S.H.I.E.L.D. agent gets a hold of Hank Pym's new Ant-Man suit, you know the Marvel Universe is in trouble. He's not concerned with saving the world or helping others. He's concerned with getting through the day and getting a leg up on life. He's not going to use his powers responsibly, he's going to use them for the betterment of himself. He's Ant-Man, a new "hero" for the modern world. If you thought Robert Kirkman pushed the boundaries of what could be in a Marvel Comic with Marvel Zombies just wait until you see what he does in The Irredeemable Ant-Man! Collects Irredeemable Ant-Man #1-6.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Marvel (July 11, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785119620
• ISBN-13: 978-0785119623
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,046,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Kirkman is a New York Times bestselling author known for being the cultural zeitgeist of the comic book industry. He maintains one prerogative in every undertaking: quality. It is Kirkman's belief that good people who produce good writing and good ideas make comics people love. Kirkman was recently made partner at Image Comics, and continues to revive the industry with refreshing new characters. AMC is adapting his bestselling series, The Walking Dead, into a TV series (set to debut in October 2010), and his books are among the most popular on the iPhone and iPad's "Comics" app.

On the web:
skyboundent.com
kirkmania.com
twitter.com/RobertKirkman

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Irredeemably delightful, February 12, 2008

By 

Kevin Tam (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Irredeemable Ant-Man - Volume 1: Low-Life (v. 1) (Paperback)

Take a complete jerk, make him a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and then give him an Ant-Man suit, and what happens?

The answer is: THIS BOOK, and Robert Kirkman carries through with this premise very, very well.

At first, I thought Eric O'Grady, the man who eventually becomes the irredeemable Ant-Man would be completely unrelatable, and, just a giant jerk. Well. . . he IS a complete jerk, but the strange thing is that I found myself sympathizing with this guy. He may be selfish, and he may be greedy, but at the core of his character is just an average guy who's trying to make a way in life. There's a chilling repetition of panels that made me feel so sorry for him. The characterization is incredibly deft.

Everything is plotted very well, from Eric's life as a SHIELD agent, to his experiences with the Ant-Man suit, to the death of his best friend, and then his adventures as the Ant-Man. There's a great style of humor in the book. For example, SHIELD agents have to train to say "Blast!" instead of an "F***!", because they're going to be out there in the public with field work. There's also a great talking ant who appears in the beginning of every issue to recap the story for us. That ant is fantastic.

All in all, this is a great unconventional superhero book. If you're looking for a laugh with insightful and relatable characters, something that deviates from the norm of blockbuster comics and does it well, then this is for you.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Funny but irredeemably, November 30, 2007

By 

Ben Lacy "Author of The Dempsey Gambit" (Greer, SC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Irredeemable Ant-Man - Volume 1: Low-Life (v. 1) (Paperback)

A funny and different "hero". The new Antman basically stole the costume and then misuses it. Among the best moments is how he uses his powers to hit on women or spy on them naked in the shower. The kind of stuff a lot of real guys would probably do if they had those powers.

For the light overall tone, this Antman really is irredeemable as his actions help get his best friend killed and seriously injure another former friend. In some ways, that takes one out of the overall amusement from his bad boy behaviour, but it's still worth the read especially at the collection price.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Irredeemable indeed, May 29, 2008

By 

Nathan (Wilmington, DE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Irredeemable Ant-Man - Volume 1: Low-Life (v. 1) (Paperback)

This is a fun book, if overrated. The Irredeemable Ant-Man is indeed irredeemable, I'll give him that, but he's also, if amusing, somewhat boring: he doesn't change or grow at all throughout the story, so there's never a point after the first chapter where there's any real question about what he's going to do (which, once he acquires the Ant-Man suit, mostly involves spying on women in the shower). There are a several good moments, one of which that was particularly memorable involving his strength to size ratio and a domestic intervention. Mostly, though this book worked better for me as a sort of superhero Forrest Gump: this little guy getting into trouble, flitting from situation to situation, ending up unseen in other Marvel events. The fact that most of this story was in flashback helped facilitate this.

So the book is fun, but it's not without its flaws. The digest-sized binding occasionally made it difficult to read dialogue too close to the spine. Also, the art was serviceable but not impressive, and there wasn't much sense of Ant-Man's scale. From panel to panel it seemed to change: he'd be nearly the size of a shower head, and then the next panel be smaller than an ant (or are helicarrier ants just gigantic? If he's smaller than an ant, why not show him that way? If he's an inch or two tall, how is it possible more people don't see him?

Such things aside, this is a good book, fun and amusing and recommended to most fans of Marvel Comics.