Enthralled and in anticipation for the latest issue of Erik Larsen’s remix of the origins of Ant, I took the time to stroll down the titillating heroes’ publication history. This proved to be a task as tough as piecing together Hannah Washington (Ant)’s memories after a session with Mind Drainer. But I was able to unearth her first run by creator Mario Gully on Arcana and wow, this book is something special; fitting for such a special character.
Detractors may only point out that the over-sexualized art by Gully is the only draw, looking like Macfarlane’s work on Korn’s “Follow The Leader” LP mixed with the raunch found in Erik Larsen’s “Savage Dragon”. Instead of pointing out the panels featuring intimidating school principal’s and law enforcement officials pointing their fingers to a level that almost breaks the fourth wall for empathetic affect, a naked girl battling a giant cockroach is probably the main apex of outrage. But if that scene wasn’t taken out of context, “Days Like These” is the most toned down of the Ant epics in eroticism while it doubles down on an origin story that is as important to comics as the death of Uncle Ben or Thomas and Martha Wayne. And the funny part about that is, in terms of mortality, Ant has the best case scenario of the majority of mainstream costumed vigilantes.
Reading later issues of Ant under other writers, I always saw too much of the Spider-Man homage or the nod’s to the memory problems of the Sentry. Going back here to the beginning in “Days Like These”, Ant becomes one of the most original characters that I have ever read in a comic book and it is a pleasure to watch her evolve. The ant spray, the in your face social commentary, the spotlight on gaslighting mental health issues that tend to manifest in the youth that become issues in adulthood, the escapism through the written word that so many find solace in when confronted with being cast into the bowels of a capitalist society; all this and the focus is around an eight year old girl : mighty, but practically unseen, just like the Ant she eventually grows into.
Having read “Reality Bites” ahead of this first volume, I was encouraged to retroactively expound on this character. The catchphrase that she’s “From The Dirt”, the daughter of a stripper while her father was essentially in Mike Tyson’s inner circle – it is nothing short of extraordinary for Gully to have come up with all of this while sitting in a cell in Florida facing charges similar to the one’s Ant’s father served time for before the start of the series.
As a writer who has been locked down before, I do have to concur that those creative juices definitely get flowing when your sat down by the gavel and you don’t know when you’ll be out again. I don’t wish time on Gully, but I have to say what he did while in the penal system did him a service that has elevated him to a legendary status like Mandela going against apartheid in South Africa or like Martin Luther King Jr. sat down for the sit-in’s in Montgomery Alabama, or most importantly, Detroit Red’s switch to Islam and ultimately the name Malcolm X while enduring his incarceration.
It appears that something special gets activated when a melanated individual gets behind a cell door with a pen in hand. Ant is independent comic’s 2pac : a product of the penal system and an economic classist struggle that not only affects her in the stories that she lives and the one’s that she creates, but also in the entire DNA that caused her creation in the first place ! Oh and no matter the obstacles placed in the way to bury her in history, to keep her story from continuing in print – Ant just won’t die! An amazing character, whether she’s busting out of a bootleg Jay-Z shirt as an adult or putting pen to paper tears mixing into the lead on the page as an eight year old kid, Ant has now joined the pantheon of one of my favorite comic book characters of all time, and anyone who reads “Days Like These” would be hard pressed not to echo the same sentiments.
She deserves her revival and a reprint of the collections of her previous issues, and something has to be done to make Mario Gully’s star shine more brighter than a little “created by” byline on every future issue featuring this treasure of a legacy character.
Score : 5/5
by Mario Gully, Sean Patrick O’Reilly
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