Issue(s): Marvel Premiere #47, Marvel Premiere #48
Cover Date: Apr-Jun 79
Title: "To steal an Ant-Man" / "The price of a heart"
Credits:
David Michelinie - Writer
John Byrne - Penciler
Bob Layton - Inker

Review/plot:
I was expecting a little more from a comic by Michelinie/Byrne/Layton. I actually was expecting this to be awesome, based on that creative team.

And it's not bad; it's just not great.

There's a good basic concept, which is that a minor electronics genius turned petty burglar named Scott Lang gets out of jail after doing 3-5 years, and is reunited with his daughter Cassie, who has been under the care of Scott's sister and disapproving brother-in-law.

Lang even gets a job at Stark Industries. This portion is all shown in flashback. Then Cassie comes down with a rare heart problem and Scott is forced to go back into crime so that he can reach a heart surgeon, Erica Sondheim, who seems to have been taken against her will by Cross Technological Enterprises.

Purely by accident, he winds up breaking into Henry Pym's house and stealing his old Ant-Man uniform.

He uses it to infiltrate CTE.

There he finds that the head of CTE, Darren Cross, is a man who has an irradiated pacemaker that allows him to put in more hours at the office without getting tired, but he requires frequent heart transplants to keep going. The radiation also causes him to be big, strong, and a quick healer.

Lang adapts to the Ant-Man powers very quickly...

...and he's able to stop the CTE CEO and rescue Sondheim, who subsequently saves his daughter's life. It also turns out that Pym saw Lang stealing his old costume and instead of stopping him decided to follow him as Yellowjacket to see what he wanted with it. But incompetent Pym got himself knocked out by CTE's security devices and couldn't help Lang when he was fighting the CEO. Anyway, Pym tells Lang he can keep the costume.

Scott Lang/Ant-Man will be a fairly regular supporting character in Iron Man and a relatively significant third tier super-hero. His daughter Cassie eventually becomes the Young Avenger called Stature.

Erica Sondheim will become a supporting character in Iron Man as well.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 6 - First Ant-Man (Scott Lang) & Cassie Lang. First Erica Sondheim.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Issue #47 starts with Ant-Man already having infiltrated Cross Technological Enterprises. Then it flashes back to Scott Lang getting out of prison, jumps ahead to showing him employed by Tony Stark, and then jumps ahead to Cassie developing the heart condition that causes Scott to have to steal the Ant-Man suit to go to CTE. Scott Lang's first appearance in Avengers #181, which takes place before he's Ant-Man, takes place during that flashback sequence.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Other characters announced for Marvel Premiere at this time were Ka-Zar by Don McGregor and Bob Lubbers, and Giant-Man by Ed Hannigan and Bob Budiansky(it was never specified if this was supposed to be Henry Pym or Bill Foster).

I think that it was supposed to be Bill- a Bill Foster story that Budiansky drew later appeared in an issue of Marvel Super-Heroes.

Surprised no one has mentioned this before, but this might need to move.

If Scott Lang is already employed at Stark in Avengers #181, even though Lang isn't referenced as Ant-Man, and even though that is his first published appearance, this would seem to need to come first. It would certainly make sense if Hank recommended Scott to work at Stark.

Sorry, Erik, my fault. The portion with Lang getting out of prison and getting a job with Stark is told in a flashback that takes place before the main story, and Lang's Avengers #181 appearance takes place in between. I've updated the Considerations section. Thanks for altering me.

Darren Cross is brought back to life in Ant-Man 4, so he should be listed as a character appearing.

Thanks, Michael. Added him.

I love your new movie Ant-Man or rather Ant-Men.

The highly competent though often misunderstood hero Henry Pym is like a big brother to the bumbling and morally challenged criminal Scott Lang as he rescues him from a life of iniquity and sets him firmly on the path of righteousness. Feigning grogginess for the purpose of observation, he deduces that Lang still has a glimmer of decency deep down within him, forgives him his trespasses, and gifts him with his own astonishing size-changing abilities and expensive cybernetic technology. What a guy. Without his measured interventions, carefully considered wait-and-see attitude, and capital-H Heroism, Erica Sondheim might never have been rescued, Cassie might likely have died from her untreated heart condition, and Scott Lang most probably would have wound up as a besotted and morally crippled derelict. Thank Goodness for Henry Pym!