Like most everyone who reads their escapades, the characters who inhabit the Marvel Universe are shaped and defined by their families. Family members led marquee heroes like Captain America, Spider-Man and Daredevil down the righteous path and continue to guide their journeys. For others, family has meant salvation and a second chance for those wanting to turn their backs on past mistakes like a checkered criminal history. In fact, Scott Lang, the star of Marvel's current "Ant-Man" series and Marvel Studios' next big screen adventure, made the leap from two-bit thief to super hero in order to protect and be a better father to his daughter Cassie.

Writer Nick Spencer began chronicling Lang's exploits this past "January" in "Ant-Man" #1 alongside artist Ramon Rosanas and relocated the charcter to Miami to open his own business, Ant-Man Security Solutions, in an effort to be part of his daughter's life. Over the course of the series readers saw that while Scott's heart may have been in the right place, he also made a number of rash and poor choices that led to comedic consequences and ultimately put Cassie in danger.

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When Spencer and Rosanas return to the character this October as part of the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" lineup, the series will be relaunched as "Astonishing Ant-Man" and Cassie will no longer be a large part of Scott's life -- but several costumed criminals will be. Does this mean Scott's given up on heroics and broken bad? CBR News reached out to Nick Spencer for answers and the author also discussed how the book's unique comedic tone will remain intact, his takes on some of the super criminals that will join the book's cast including one of his favorites from "The Superior Foes of Spider-Man."

CBR News: You and Ramon Rosanas return to the exploits of Scott Lang by launching a new "Astonishing Ant-Man" series in October. How does it feel to be returning to the book with Ramon?

Nick Spencer: It feels really good. When we started on the book together we already knew that "Secret Wars" was on the horizon. We had a general outline of when things were going to resume and a little bit about the status quo. So it was a pretty smooth transition for us because we had it built in from the beginning.


We kind of always knew that we were coming back and always knew that we were going to pick up where we left off. So it's nice to be able to finally tell folks that and to show them that we weren't cancelled.

"Ant-Man" had a unique tone, and it seems like Ramon has really helped you build and deliver it, much in the same way artist Steve Lieber did during your "Superior Foes of Spider-Man" run.


Exactly! And Ramon is amazing. He's been a lot of fun to work with and he puts a lot of extra work into the book. He's such a fantastic storyteller and does a great job nailing the jokes and the comic timing, which is really important on a book like this. At the same time I can ask him to draw some great super hero action and he'll equally excel at that. So he's a very versatile guy. He's also a very nice guy to work with. I really enjoy collaborating with him on this.

Like the rest of the Marvel Universe, when "Astonishing Ant-Man" begins it will have jumped eight months into the future. What's it like working with that narrative device? Are you fond of kicking off stories in medias res?

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Yeah, it's a lot of fun. And on this book in particular it's a lot of fun just because I was writing it beforehand. So I was able to set things up in such a way that the eight-month jump works in our favor. Plus, thankfully to Marvel's credit, structurally we're doing something a little different with this book than I think most of the books coming out after "Secret Wars." I think people are going to like how we handle the time that's passed. Structurally, I think it will be a pretty unique way to tell a story.

What can you tell us about your title character's status quo when "Astonishing Ant-Man" #1 begins? Is Scott Lang still based in Miami?

Yeah, Scott will still be in Miami, and he'll still be trying to make Ant-Man Security Solutions work. As we saw at the end of our first arc, his relationship with Cassie, his daughter, was at a real turning point there at the end. So I'm particularly excited to get into that and show you what that looks like eight months later.

At the end of our fifth issue Scott decided that he was putting Cassie in too much danger, and that the best thing he could do to help his daughter was to be a smaller part of her life. So that's going to have a big impact on who Scott is and where he's headed as a character.

The cover to "Astonishing Ant-Man" #1 by Mark Brooks may hint at that direction. At first glance it suggests a darker tone for this new volume since Scott is standing around a gang of super villains, but fans of your work know that you're an expert at examining the humor in super villainy, and some of the villains we see have less than stellar reputations. What can you tell us about the tone of this new volume of "Ant-Man?" Is it pretty similar to the previous volume?

Tone-wise the book still is about a working class super hero with about fifty percent more comedy. That's always been our formula from day one and that will definitely continue. The book is not going to get darker or tell a bleaker story, but Scott is going to find himself without his major moral tether, which is obviously Cassie. Without that relationship being such a big part of his life Scott is more prone to make mistakes and fall back into bad old habits. So yeah, based on the teaser it certainly looks like he's going to be in a very different world with some pretty unlikely allies.

One of the characters on the cover with Scott is his ally from the previous volume, the former super villain known as the Grizzly, who became the first employee of Ant-Man Security Solutions. Can you talk about the dynamic between Scott and Grizzly when "Astonishing Ant-Man" #1 begins? Is it still employer-employee or have they become friends?

Their relationship will have grown and there will be a lot more of a friendship there. Scott really took Grizz under his wing, and Grizz has tried to return the favor. Obviously over the course of eight months they definitely have developed more of a relationship.

Grizzly is a character that I love writing and I think he makes a great right hand man for Scott. So he'll be back and [Machine]smith will be back as well. So will Ms. Morgenstern. Everybody we met in the first arc will return here.

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Among your new cast members is one of your favorite characters from your "Superior Foes of Spider-Man" run, Janice Lincoln, the new Beetle. How does it feel bring her into the series and what dynamic does she bring?

It's great to be writing her again. Expect her to be a big part of this book. When I got this assignment I was looking for things that could potentially carry over from "Superior Foes" and Janice stood out immediately as the obvious choice. Of all the characters at Marvel that I've had a chance to kind of put my stamp on Janice is probably the one that I'm the most proud of. So keeping her in front of people's eyes and to continuing to establish her as a prominent character in the Marvel Universe are things I'm really committed to. She's both a feminist and a lousy person. So she's a wonderful character. [Laughs]

The cover hints that the other villainous character new to your book is Whirlwind, AKA David Cannon. If I remember his origin correctly his path to villainy started out because of his obsession with the Wasp, correct?

Yeah. [Laughs] That guys a creep. I don't want to say much else about Whirlwind right now. My take on him is something I kind of want to keep under wraps. I will say though that he's in the rogues gallery that's associated with the Ant-Man costume. So I was very keen to bring him in and make him a part of this. He's a great villain and definitely underutilized. So I'm very excited to make him a part of this book.

When Mark Brooks started in on the cover/teaser image that you see here he had a longer list of characters to choose from in terms of who to single out. So there might be a lot more characters involved in our upcoming stories than you're seeing right now. There's another image out there that I can't wait for folks to see.

Can you talk at all about Scott's relationship with this crew of villainous characters? I noticed on issue #1 cover he's standing with them but one hand is behind his back with his fingers crossed.

He does have his fingers crossed! So he may not be being totally honest with someone -- whether it's us the reader or the folks surrounding him remains to be seen, but there certainly seems to be something else going on here.

So in terms of the narrative we'll see, Ant-Man's adventures with this new crew will be a mix of super hero action and crime/caper stories?

Yeah, definitely. There's a heist story feel to the first couple of arcs. With the first series we knew that volume was ending with issue #5. So I couldn't really play out the infiltration into Cross Technologies that I may have liked. This story coming up though gives me a really opportunity to play with those elements. I've done that a number of times between "Superior Foes" and "Thief of Thieves." I really like writing heists. So this will have a really good one I think.

"Astonishing Ant-Man" #1 is scheduled for release in October from Marvel Comics.