As I’ve said before, the only real knock I have against Scott is that Hope is so
awesome, I don’t get why he’s in the suit instead of her (yeah, I know, Ant-Man gives an in-story reason for it,
but still.) Aside from that, however, he’s proved a nice
addition to the MCU hero gang, and Civil
War shows he works well within the whole team (some basic spoilers for Ant-Man.)
To me,
the first thing that makes Scott stand out is the fact that he’s a father. Aside from a certain someone and their Secret
Family! reveal in Age of Ultron, none
of the Avengers or their satellites have kids.
Granted, he’s no longer with Cassie’s mom (so he’s free to acquire a new
love interest) and his ex has custody (so he doesn’t have to worry about who’s
watching the kid when he’s out superheroing,) so it doesn’t noticeably change
the way he functions as a hero, but it does change his motivations.
When we
meet Scott, he’s just coming out of jail after a stint as a
whistleblower-turned-hacker/cat-burglar (he Robin Hooded money from his shady
former employers and gave it to the people they’d cheated,) and getting back on
his feet has been tough. No one wants to
hire ex-cons, and his ex-wife has made it clear that he can’t see his daughter
until he proves to her that he can provide his share. At first, Scott’s instinct is to return to
crime in his desperation to see Cassie, getting the money he needs quickly from
a score off of some allegedly-unsavory character, and I’m guessing it’s a well
he would have gone back to as many times as he needed to, if it weren’t for
Hank Pym.
In
addition to paying him well for his assistance, Hank offers Scott something
else. Not just the money he needs to see
Cassie, but the chance to become someone that his daughter can be proud
of. He gives Scott the opportunity to
choose right instead of choosing crime, and that’s important to Scott. As much as Cassie loves him regardless of
what he’s done, he knows how other people judge him, and he’s not entirely
immune to judging himself, either. At
times, he probably feels undeserving of Cassie’s devotion (especially when
people keep reminding him what a screw-up he is.) By agreeing to Hank’s job, Scott has a chance
to make good.
Because
really, I think that’s the only thing that could convince Scott to go along
with it. His first excursion in the
Ant-Man suit freaks him out so much he tries to get rid of it, and once he’s
brought to Hank’s home, everything somehow gets even weirder. To him, Hank seems nuts and his science is
insane, and if it weren’t for Cassie, I doubt Scott would want anything to do
with it.
But once
he does get on-board, Scott takes to
being Ant-Man quite well. He has a great
knack for knowing exactly when to go from small to big to small again (his
fight scenes are so much fun to watch,) he does a nice job wrangling the ants,
and he’s good at thinking on his feet.
This last point is a skill he already honed in his cat burglar days,
having to improvise in the middle of jobs, and it serves him well. His criminal history is also a major help in
the planning of the heist. While Hank
and Hope think they’ve got everything worked out, Scott sees possibilities they
don’t. Not to mention, he knows when the
job is getting too complex and they need to expand their operation. Both Hank and Hope have a tendency to think
of Scott as a tool they instruct and use for their purposes, but he soon proves
what he brings to the table.
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