Ant-Man (Eric O'Grady)

Eric O'Grady, who as of 2006 is the latest fictional Marvel Comics character known as Ant-Man, is a comic book antihero in the . Created by Robert Kirkman and Phil Hester, he first appeared The Irredeemable Ant-Man #1 (Sep. 2006).

Publication history

Eric O'Grady was the main character in the ongoing monthly series The Irredeemable Ant-Man, with the "Irredeemable" title given to the comic's title to indicate the character's immoral attitude and behavior. The series was canceled after issue #12, though no official cancellation notice was given (as Marvel Comics simply opted to not solicit issues of The Irredeemable Ant-Man beyond #12).

Though canceled, the series ended with Eric O'Grady becoming enrolled in the Initiative. As of Avengers: The Initiative #8, O'Grady has joined the title's cast.

Fictional character biography

Eric O'Grady is a low-level agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who stumbles upon Dr. Henry Pym's latest incarnation of the Ant-Man suit in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters. A man of very few morals and willingness to lie, cheat, steal, and manipulate in order to get ahead in life, Eric immediately steals the armor for his own selfish plans, which include using his status as a "super-hero" to stalk women and loot. Later on, he tries to become a better person and renounce what he's done.

The Irredeemable Ant-Man

Mitch Carson, whom O'Grady looks up to, is a S.H.I.E.L.D. security agent under Dum Dum Dugan. Originally picked out to be the wearer of the Ant Man suit O'Grady stole, he was forced to wear a hastily built prototype suit based on the armor O'Grady had stolen. When S.H.I.E.L.D. discovered that O'Grady had stolen the suit, Carson confronted Eric in the new experimental suit. In the ensuing battle, Eric disfigured his friend's face by accident with his suit's jets, burning the left half of Carson's face and leaving him deaf and blind on that side as well. Despite what he did, O'Grady took him to the infirmery nearby to help the injured Mitch, who later vowed revenge.

As his series progressed, it is revealed that O'Grady's best friend and fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. surveillance agent Chris McCarthy, was the first person who actually wore what would become O'Grady's Ant-Man suit. McCarthy was killed however, during a HYDRA attack when he was shot in the head by a HYDRA agent. Eric took the suit off of Chris's dead body just before the Helicarrier crashed. With his best friend dead, Eric sets his sights on seducing and bedding Chris's girlfriend, Veronica King. The attraction resulted in the two having sex, leading to Veronica King's pregnancy and Ant Man ultimately abandoning her.

Despite his attempts to seduce Veronica, Ant Man continuously uses his powers of shrinking to stalk women and watch them in various stages of undress, with Ms. Marvel of the Mighty Avengers being a popular target for his ever-increasing voyeurism.

Eric also encounters the thief Black Fox, and steals his possessions. Black Fox later shows up looking for the jewels. O'Grady, however, had already sold them to a pawn shop. The two work together, getting the $150,000 back and splitting the proceeds, with O'Grady keeping 15 percent.

After saving the life of a child, Ant-Man encounters Damage Control. This organization offers him a job and, after he obtains a fake ID under the name Derek Sullivan and comes up with a new superhero name (Slaying Mantis), he consents. He meets a woman named Abigail, who he starts dating. He leases an apartment under his new name and with Damage Control's help begins to establish a new identity while continuing to hide from S.H.I.E.L.D. However, as Abigail begins to fall in love with Eric, she reveals to him that she is a single mother with a son. This in turn triggers Eric dumping Abigail over her keeping her son's existence a secret from him while pursuing a romantic relationship with him.

During a later confrontation with Abigail, she reveals that she possesses the power to read people's emotions telepathically. She promptly then accuses Eric of truly loving her, through use of her powers to scan Eric's mind for his true feelings about her. Before he can answer though, the Hulk attacks Manhattan (See World War Hulk). Eric reluctantly joins the fray by attacking the Hulk from the inside of his body. However, the Hulk's stomach and innards proved to be just as tough and Eric ended up being discharged through one of the nostrils. He awoke in a S.H.I.E.L.D. infirmary, with Mitch Carson standing by his bed, stating that he was under arrest.

Carson takes Eric to a secret room aboard the helicarrier, and proceeds to torture him, using the Ant-Man suit to internally wound him. Just as Carson is on the verge of burning Eric's face with the suit's jet boosters, Iron Man arrives and subdues him. Eric decides to pin the whole stolen-suit fiasco on Carson, saying that he was only trying to stop him from using the suit for evil. Iron Man refuses to believe Eric though Iron Man is quickly sidetracked by the arrival of the Black Fox (who had become friends with Eric after their first encounter). Black Fox demands that Eric be released and claims to have placed explosives on the helicarrier in order to extort his friend's freedom. Eric refutes Fox's claims to protect him from Iron Man, leading to Fox being arrested.

Joining the Initiative

Several weeks pass and while Carson's fate is left unresolved, it is shown that Eric has resumed his post upon Helicarrier, having been offered his own job under unknown circumstances. Feeling guilty for Black Fox being in jail, Eric helps the elderly thief escape from the helicarrier, with Eric admitting that he was sorry for putting Black Fox through the ordeal of being arrested. Later on, Eric refuses Veronica's attempt to try and work out an arrangement for raising their child together, in part because of Eric's inner fear that he would be a horrible father due to his utter lack of morals or ethics. Meanwhile, despite their misgivings, Iron Man and Hank Pym reluctantly offer Eric his old Ant Man suit back on the condition of him becoming part of the Initiative, which Eric accepts.

Eric also has one last meeting Abigail and tells her that he does indeed love her. However, he tells Abigail that he will be leaving for a while and wishes to be with her. While doing so, he hopes that he can be a better person. Before leaving, he tells her his real name.

In spite of his vows to Abigail though, Eric continues his lewd and irredeemable ways upon joining the Initiative. He appears in Camp Hammond, as an official recruit for the Initiative, along with Crusader, Melee, Geldoff, Dragon Lord, Geiger, Red Nine, and Diamondback.

In particular, during his first meeting with the Taskmaster, Eric attempts to slander the name of his predecessor, Scott Lang by passing off stories of his lewd stalker behavior regarding Ms Marvel onto Scott, as well as claiming that Scott Lang was never really an official Avenger and that he was simply hiding inside the Avengers mansion during his tenure with the team and following the group around as a hanger-on. Unfortunately, Scott's daughter Cassie overhears Taskmaster and Eric laughing at Eric's lies and attacks by growing to giant size and attempts to step on the human-sized Eric. Using his suit to increase his size to fight the giant-sized version of Cassie, Eric tricks her into thinking she had stepped on and killed the hero Stingray, in order to knock her down with a cheap shot. This in turn causes Hank Pym to grow giant-sized and attack Eric, who upon defeating Cassie begins to mock her by yelling "Who's Your Daddy Now?". However, as their fight begins to attract the attention of people outside the Initiative compound, the Taskmaster brings all three of the giants down with his shield.

O'Grady is defeated by a clone of MVP, along with most of the recruits in his class. He hid under an uncounscious Geiger and survived mostly unharmed. He hid from the rest of the action along with the Taskmaster.

Eric is later seen having a counselling session with Trauma, who helped him with a repressed "naked Santa" memory from his childhood.

When the Skrull invasion occurs in New York city, the Initiative are ordered to fight. Eric decides to avoid this by shrinking down and hiding. He soon discovers, however, that the Skrulls have taken over Camp Hammond. He aids the Shadow Initiative in a failed attempt to assassinate Queen Veranke.

Powers and abilities

While wearing the Ant-Man armor, O'Grady has the ability to shrink to the size of an insect while retaining full-sized strength. He also possesses two robotic arms he can release from the back of his armor when he is shrunk. The armor's main mode of transportation is a jetpack that can be detached and used as a weapon by turning the jet's flames onto an enemy. He also has the ability to talk to insects while wearing the suit. However, he has not quite trained in this ability and is somewhat lacking in skill.

After joining The Initiative, it was revealed that O'Grady's armor was the prototype G.I. Ant-Man suit that could also increase O'Grady's size.

Collected editions

His series has been collected into trade paperbacks:

Title	Material collected	ISBN
The Irredeemable Ant-Man: Low Life	The Irredeemable Ant-Man #1-6	ISBN 0785119620
The Irredeemable Ant-Man: Small-Minded	The Irredeemable Ant-Man #7-12	ISBN 0785119639

Notes

References

• Robert Kirkman Talks Ant-Man (cached), Newsarama, March 18, 2006
• Picnic Time, As Brevoort Talks The Irredeemable Ant-Man, Comic Book Resources, March 18, 2006
• Kirkman Bugs The Marvel Universe In The Irredeemable Ant-Man, Comic Book Resources, March 18, 2006
• Getting Irredeemable with Robert Kirkman and Ant-Man, Newsarama, December 12, 2006