Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Irredeemable Ant-Man

Irredeemable Ant-Man
Robert Kirkman-Phil Hester

Finally a Robert Kirkman book I thoroughly enjoy with no qualifications. Irredeemable Ant-Man is about "the world's most unlikable super-hero". You know how I know this? Because it says so on the cover of the book.

But it's true. This is a book basically about the kind of schmutz who steals your girlfriend, who doesn't pay for dinner, lies about everything, and just in general only looks out for number 1.

Which makes him a fantastic hero.

The artwork by Phil Hester is a lot of fun. I've always been a fan of his.

One of the things that has really stood out to me about Kirkman lately is his sense of humor. It's not so much in his dialouge, but in the situations he creates. His books won't make you bust out of your gut laughing, but you will have a smile on your face while reading. Kirkman's work could probably be best described as "pleasant"...though I guess Walking Dead wasn't really "pleasant" but maybe in it's own way. I dunno. Just a lot of authors can come off kind of soulless, and whenever I finish with Kirkman, whether I totally like everything he's written or not, I come away with the notion that "here's a nice guy doing good work".

But yeah. Of all the Kirkman I've read so far, Ant-Man is the best. Though I haven't read Invincible which is supposed to be his calling card. I'm waiting for the 800 page Omnibus this christmas.

1 comment:

Mercurialblonde said...

I won't begin to assert that I totally "get" Kirkman. Often in the past my opinion of his work has been diametrically opposed to people who love his work. So it's entirely possible that Kirkman is successfully making O'Grady somewhat likeable.

I just liked him in the sense that he's pretty much an asshole and is pretty unappologetic about it, which to me is kind of fun. Though I suppose he's the type of hero, The Boys, would take out if he were in Garth Ennis book.

I guess if you are saying that his dickishness has a certain charm about it, I'd agree. But I wouldn't go so far as to say that he's capable of a selfless act of heroism.