Try and sell Ant-Man. After the basic idea of the character and perhaps a little bit of cast info, one of the go to facts is that he was a founding member of The Avengers. And it's that little factoid that really marks the problem the movie will have with convincing general audiences. If your character's biggest selling point is what they represent in the real world, then you have a problem. John Carter was the progenitor of anything remotely space fantasy, but when making a movie of it there needs to be something more. In comic book terms, Superman faces a similar problem. He kickstarted superheroes in print and on film, but despite some interesting comic runs he doesn't have as big a draw to modern audiences who are used to more complex heroes. D.C. keep going back to him just because thirty years ago he was the biggest thing out there. On the converse, look at Batman. He may be seventy-five years old, but he's remained consistently popular because he's interesting on his own terms; you don't think of his legacy, but of how enjoyable his films and comics are. Ant-Man existed because Edgar Wright liked the hero. The project wouldn't have come about in this way without him. And with him gone, the only justification (besides having sunk a lot of money into the project) is that Hank Pym was there when The Avengers began. It's not enough to get audiences on board. What do you think about the upcoming Ant-Man movie? Will it be Marvel's first flop or a Guardians Of The Galaxy-level success? Let us know in the comments below.
