With a major motion picture due out this summer, Marvel’s Ant-Man Scott Lang, is about to become a big time player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – which means he has also earned himself a digital exclusive adventure in the new Ant-Man Infinite series – Scott Lang: Small Time! But will this Infinite prequel to Marvel’s next blockbuster be a huge success or will it shrink into obscurity?

Publisher: Marvel Infinite Comics
Writer: Will Corona Pilgrim
Artists: Daniel Glova (Storyboard Artist), Wellinton Alves (Penciller), Manny Clark (Inker), Andres Mossa (Penciller), VC’s Clayton Cowles (Letterer)
Price: £1.99/$2.99 from ComiXology

The clunkily named Antman – Scott Lang: Small Time Infinite #1 is a prelude to Ant-Man’s big screen debut this summer and tells the story of how the MCU Ant-Man, Scott Lang, ended up in prison, stuck in a jail yard fight. Previously an electrical engineer, Scott was working for Vistacorp but, upon discovery that they were cheating customers, was forced out. Now, despite the misgivings of his wife Maggie, Scott plans to seek justice the only way he knows how; to rob this despicable company and return their funds to the people. However, though Scott knows how to commit the crime, will he be able to get away with it?

Unfortunately, this is about as deep and exciting as the book gets. The story is a very simple one, albeit with each page being a plethora of exposition, and given that this is a tale which will undoubtedly be referenced in film, it does make the whole issue feel very superfluous. As such Ant-Man Infinite is rather dull, and does little to entice readers to either the character or to the film.

As a movie prequel it does at least show us how the film will portray Lang, and his supporting cast. For example, certain canon from the characters history will be omitted (like the change of Scott’s wife’s name from Peggy to Maggie) and the depiction of Scott Lang himself seems consistent with the recent ongoing series, which shows a much less heroic, more arrogant version of the Lang character – more in keeping with our least favourite Ant-Man, Eric O’Grady.

Sadly, the art does nothing to improve on the story and could be considered adequate at best and, at worst, shockingly poor. Consistency has gone completely out of the window with panels which look both rushed and badly rendered. Although some panels do a serviceable job, such as the close shot of Scott hacking his former employees systems, the overall character depiction has taken a beating as, in multiple panels, facial features look seriously off, giving supporting characters a rather disfigured look. In fact, the only quality which can be found in this issue is the sliding tech of the Infinite format, and even that is below the par of books like Daredevil: Road Warrior or the previous Guardians of the Galaxy Infinite movie prequels.

“We can only hope that this lacklustre Infinite comic isn’t a reflection of the movie which is coming our way this summer. With a plot which has no sense and little urgency, and artwork which is in no way epic or exciting (and is at times downright poor), this rendition of the character is a real blot on the Ant-Man’s long 50 plus year history.”