We end our Ant-Man theme week with
the scummiest character to bear the name. Seriously, Eric O’Grady is one of
those terrible, awful human beings that doesn’t deserve half of what he gets.
He’s so bad that his initial comic series was entitled Irredeemable Ant-Man. They are saying in the title that this guy is
beyond help. Deadpool isn’t beyond help, and he’s one of the most sadistic psycho’s
I’ve ever seen. But enough build up, let’s get to it.
 |
Bad, bad, bad man. But an awesome
costume. |
Eric O’Grady began his career as a
low level SHIELD agent. How low? To use a live action comparison, he’s
essentially one of the SHIELD agents standing around during the first
Avengers movie. He’s a man of few, if any,
morals. He’ll lie, cheat or steal in order to get what he wants. Eric’s life
takes a major turn when he and friend Chris McCarthy were assigned by their
immediate superior, and friend, Mitch Carson to watch Dr. Hank Pym’s lab on the
helicarrier. A short time later, Pym comes out, and the two raw nerved SHIELD Agents
accidentally knock him out. They see inside the lab and find the prototype of a
new Ant-Man suit that Pym was working on. Chris actually dons the suit first,
and briefly disappears after shrinking down to an inch high. Eric uses Chris’s
disappearance to attempt to seduce Chris’ girlfriend, Veronica. Again, he’s a
very bad man. His attempts are thwarted by a HYDRA attack on the helicarrier,
and Chris is killed in the conflict. Eric doesn’t even wait for his friend’s
body to cool before he strips the suit off of him and puts it on. He uses his
new powers mostly to commit minor thefts and stalk women. Again, not a great
person. But he does occasionally save people from muggers and the like, so...he's not a good guy, but he's more of a shade of grey than outright bad.
SHIELD quickly realizes who stole
the suit and send Mitch Carson to retrieve it. He wears a hastily built copy of
Eric’s prototype to apprehend Eric. They fight while shifting size, as Ant-Men oft do, but Eric
is ultimately the victor. While they fought, Eric accidentally burned the left
half of Mitch’s face with his suit's jetpack. He got Mitch to an infirmary as
quick as he could, but Mitch’s face was left scarred, as well as blind and deaf
on his left side. He, obviously, swore everlasting vengeance upon waking up. Around
this time, Eric also succeeds in seducing Veronica, but there’s an unforeseen complication.
Of the reproductive kind. I don’t know how long Eric was planning on staying with Veronica, but her
pregnancy moved up his time table. Yep, after sleeping with his dead best friend’s
girlfriend and getting her pregnant, he runs for it. God, he’s such an ***hole.
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Robo-arms, for those times
when two arms aren't enough. |
While still running for responsibility
and SHIELD, he encounters the thief Black Fox. He’s a minor Spider-Man baddy
and cat burglar, for those who don’t know. Eric, again being an ***hole, steals
the jewels that Black Fox had stolen, and pawns them. When Fox hunts Eric down,
they manage to work out an agreement, and split the money. Huh, guess there’s a
little honor amongst thieves. A little while later he saves a little kid’s life
and then is offered a job by Damage Control. Damage Control is a major company
in the Marvel Universe. Their job, fixing everything that tends to get broken
during a superpowered smack down. They do really well. Eric takes the job, but gives them some fake
names, Derek Sullivan for his “real” name and Slaying Mantis as his
super-alias. He also starts seeing a woman named Abigail, but that falls apart
when he learns she has a kid. She tries to salvage their relationship, why I
don’t know, but is interrupted by a rampaging Hulk. Eric reluctantly helps,
attempting to attack Hulk from the inside but is defeated by Hulk’s incredibly
stomach and other internal organs. He’s shot out of Hulk’s nostril, found by
SHIELD, brought to an infirmary, and then arrested by Mitch Carson upon waking
up. Just a rotten day for this scoundrel. Can anyone say, Karma?
He’s brought to a secret room aboard another Helicarrier, where Mitch straps him down and starts torturing him.
Justifiable payback for destroying part of Mitch’s face and nearly torching his
career? Yes, but it turns out that Mitch is a sick SOB too. He reveals to Eric
that he’s a raging sociopath that’s been abusing his SHIELD position for years,
mostly to kill folks. So yeah, not really sure who’s worse here at the moment.
Mitch attempts to burn Eric’s face with the Ant-Man jet pack, but is thwarted by
Iron Man. Eric, again being a scumbag, attempts to frame Mitch for all of his
own crimes. He spouts the some BS about taking the suit to protect it from
Mitch’s evil clutches. He must have forgotten that he’s talking to Tony flippin’
Stark. For anyone who might not get it, you don't lie to a super-genius. It just looks silly and gets you in more trouble. Iron Man would have arrested him again, had Black Fox not stepped in.
After first trying to force them to release Eric with a ruse about bombs planted in the Helicarrier, Fox turns himself in in exchange for Eric's release. They bonded after their crime spree together, who'd a thunk it? Eric gets off scot-free, and
Fox is arrested.
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| Such great, tiny male bonding. |
Somehow, Eric got his old job back
with SHIELD, and also helped Fox escape prison. Again, a little honor amongst thieves.
Veronica also gets in touch with Eric, and for reasons I cannot fathom, tries
to work out an arraignment so that Eric can be a part of their child’s life.
Eric refuses, not because he’s a selfish, narcissistic, amoral, scumbag…no it’s
because of that. What I mean is, Eric knows he’s a bad person and believes that
he’d be the absolute worst influence on their kid. So yeah, he’s not
completely, totally awful. He’s given the Ant-Man suit, again, simply because
he’d shown that he can use it better than any of the candidates Hank had previously
chosen. The one major condition being that Eric join the Initiative, the
training program for superheroes that was created after the Superhuman Civil
War. So they can keep an eye on him. Pym and Stark aren't idiots. Eric agrees. He meets with Abigail one last time, and despite saying he loves her, he still opts to break things off. He does tell her his real name, though, and that he hopes that when they meet again he'll be a better person. On the first day as part of the Initiative, we see the chances of that happening are slim. Eric, in an attempt to
make himself seem less scummy, starts slandering the heck out of Scott Lang. He
pushes most of his most awful antics on his predecessor, claimed that Scott was
never a real Avenger, and that he’d mostly just hid out at the Avenger’s
Mansion during his time with the team. Scott’s daughter, Cassie aka Stature,
overhears and is decidedly miffed at the bold faced lies Eric was spouting. She
pretty much tried to kill him via giant sized stomping, but that only leads to
a titanic brawl between the two, and Hank Pym when he tries to break up the
fight. Three giants duking in out in the middle of Connecticut... yep, get Damage Control on the phone. The fight is finally broken up by Taskmaster, who disables the three
giants by striking their supersized Achilles tendons. While Eric does start to fit in a little, things are never great between him and Stature, or him and Dr. Pym after this incident. During a later Skrull
Invasion, he tries to wuss out and hide, but that ends up being useful. He
found out that the Skrull’s evil plan was to basically destroy the continental
US by throwing it into the Negative Zone. Solid plan. He is pretty giddy that the one tactic that the Skrull were unprepared for was the "one-inch tall coward." I guess you got to take your victories where you find them. He rallies the heroes and they beat back the Skrull. Again. The Skrull are one persistent group of lizard people. After this Eric is “promoted”
to the Thunderbolts, a government sponsored superhero team made up of mostly former
villains. He probably would have done well here if it wasn’t for the insanity
of Norman Osborn. He goes along with it until Norman's...instability inevitably causes the groups downfall. After the Thunderbolts fell apart, Eric is given a job as
part of the Secret Avengers. He mostly uses his “Avenger” status to pick up
women. Sigh… He also spends a bit of time working with his predecessor, Hank
Pym, now going by the codename the Wasp. While they come to something of an understanding, they are like oil and water throughout their short run together. Eric is ultimately killed by
supervillain known as the Father and replaced with a Life Model Duplicate
(crazy realistic robotic clone.) The LMD goes by the Black Ant, and is ultimately
defeated alongside the Father and his henchmen. A rather abrupt end to a scummy
but interesting character.
Eric O’Grady’s Ant-Man costume is
the most advanced to date. He has the usual Pym Particles that allow him to
shrink while retaining his “full size” strength as well as grow to colossal
proportions. He also has the insect control helmet that all Ant-Men have used.
He has a jet pack that allows him to travel much faster than his predecessors,
and that has a part of robotic extra arms that can be deployed. He also adds
Wasp-like stinger gloves down the line.
 |
Cover of his first issue pretty much sums
him up. |
Eric has only been used once
outside of the comics. He is given a cameo appearance as a SHIELD Agent during
the
Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes episode
“Nightmare in Red” when the Red Hulk attacks the helicarrier. Technically it
might not even be him, just a SHIELD agent that bears a resemblance.This doesn't really shock me. Since Hank's mental problems and marital troubles have caused him to be...glossed over more than once, is it any wonder that the Ant-man that is also a thief, scoundrel, peeping tom, and all around not a great person is also glossed over? I think not.
I think I’ve made it clear that
Eric O’Grady is a bad, bad man. He abuses his powers, his positions, and the
trust of others to get what he wants. Heck, the one thing that separates him
from most baddies is that he’s willing to admit that he’s a scumbag. And yet,
that might be what makes him interesting. He has his demons, he has his vices,
and even though he succumbs to them often, he does continually try to be a
hero. In many way’s I’d characterize him as the polar opposite of Scott Lang.
While Scott is a good man who’s trying to make up for a few seriously bad
mistakes, Eric is a bad man trying to occasionally make up for a long list of
seriously bad mistakes. It makes him a little more human than say, the ever
perfect Superman. And, unlike a lot of supervillains, he’s aware enough of his
own awful nature to protect those who should be closest to him. Heck, he opts
out of being involved with his kid simply to reduce the risk of his bad behavior
negatively influence the kid. Puts him head and shoulders above Norman Osborn,
aka Green Goblin, whose always trying to corrupt his kids. I don’t condone Eric’s
behavior, obviously, but it does make for an interesting character. He’s the
deplorable scoundrel, the despicable do-gooder, the oxymoronic…moron, Ant-Man.
Next time, something DC related. I promise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_O%27Grady#/media/File:ANTMAN001_colcov.png
http://marvel.wikia.com/File:Eric_O%27Grady_%28Earth-616%29_004.jpg
http://marvel.com/images/825226#0-825226
http://marvel.wikia.com/File:Irredeemable_Ant-Man_Vol_1_1.jpg
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