Ant Unleashed #1
Mario Gully, story
Marco Turini, art
Big City Comics, $3.99

The title character, a superhuman with missing memories, attempts to put her past life behind her in a new city as she looks for her father, unaware that others are on her trail who know her secrets. I give Mario Gully credit for persistence. This is the third incarnation of his series, which he has had going for several years now, with the third different publisher, the new Big City Comics, and throughout it all he has done his best to remain as true to his vision of his character as possible. Regardless of what you may think of him or his book, you have to respect his willingness to follow his path wherever it takes him, no matter the obstacles.

From what I’ve seen of Ant, both from its Image run and now here, it seems as if there’s a halfway decent story trying to emerge. Between Hannah’s missing memories, her powers and how she feels about them, and her family struggles, there are enough story elements to provide a great deal of dramatic tension. Still, the amount of T-and-A continues to weigh this book down to the point where it induces a certain level of stupidity into the characters.

Take the opening scene, where her co-worker hits on her. Now I realize how this is gonna sound, but bear with me. I am all for women’s rights and female empowerment. People who know me in real life know this. However, when you’re a young woman in a physically demanding job with a lot of sweaty, uncouth men around, one you don’t enjoy but need in order to earn enough money to leave town (a goal she expresses later on in the story), how smart is it to come to work dressed in a belly shirt and short shorts?

There’s empowerment and then there’s common sense. No self-respecting woman wants to be sexually harassed at her job, and if it’s a job that attracts unsavory types like the scumbag that hits on Hannah – and note that the other men do nothing to stop him; indeed, they’re clearly entertained by the whole thing, including the boss – why dress in a sexually provocative way? The answer: so we, the readers, can see how sexy and tough Hannah is by kicking the scumbag in the balls. This scene is gratuitous and does nothing for Hannah’s character – she couldn’t work as, say, a waitress, where there are bound to be more women around at the very least?

Gully’s writing is passable, but far from perfect. There’s a bit of a summation of past continuity, but I would’ve liked to have known more about how Hannah got her powers. Her roommate’s fate is laughably obvious once they start talking about moving out and always being sisters and all that crap. And was that a daughter of Hannah’s I saw? Why no ominous voice-over narrative devoted to her?

Marco Turini’s art is technically very proficient, though there are still quite a few WTF moments where he puts Hannah in T-and-A poses (the worst example being the scene with the detective). He makes some odd choices regarding facial expressions; there are moments where Hannah has a blank look where the dialogue calls for something with a bit more oomph; for example, in the scene where she walks in on her working girl roommate with a client, her reaction shot should have more surprise than it does. There are also some continuity glitches; on page eleven the john is atop the bed’s covers, and then on the next page he’s suddenly underneath the sheets.

I simply cannot generate any enthusiasm for this book. While Gully has gone to great lengths to keep it alive in a market that is notoriously cruel to new characters in general, never mind new black characters, there’s simply not enough here story-wise to keep me interested. Ant Unleashed, like its previous incarnations, reads like a bunch of cliches in search of a story, now with a copious amount of sex and profanity added to offer the suggestion of “realism” and to hide the lack of genuine character development. Want strong black women characters? Read the works of Lance Tooks instead. It kills me that someone as immensely talented as him lies almost completely under the radar of most comics fans while substandard wank material like this finds an audience.