Recently I tried to read a hardcover collection of a new superhero title a friend had strongly recommended. It was only six issues long, but I couldn’t even get through three. It struck me as so … generic. That’s the problem with most superhero comics of today: They’re boring, offering nothing new.

Enter a breath of fresh air with THE IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN. As envisioned by writer Robert Kirkman, he’s the “world’s most unlikeable super hero!” Now that’s something I’ve never seen before. And it’s thrill-me-to-the-bone awesome. So, of course, it got canceled just 12 issues deep, but at least it’s now been collected in a pair of appropriately digest-sized paperbacks: THE IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN VOL. 1: LOW-LIFE and VOL. 2: SMALL-MINDED.

This is not your childhood Ant-Man, the incredible shrinking fellow known as Hank Pym. No, this is Eric O’Grady, a low-level employee of Nick Fury’s S.H.I.E.L.D. organization who’s ordered – along with his friend Chris – to guard the door to Pym’s lab. Not being the most ethical, they steal Pym’s prototype for a new Ant-Man suit. When Chris gets killed, in a sudden attack, Eric makes off with the high-tech duds.

Is his first order of business to avenge his pal’s death or to fight crime? Neither. It’s to shrink and perch unseen in the showers of curvy women. That’s also his second and third order of business, along with getting into the pants of his Chris’ girlfriend. Eric has zero ambition for using the suit for the greater good of the public; it’s all about the greater good of his, um, pubic.

It’s only when Hulk goes on a rampage that Eric goes into hero mode, even though he has no clue what he’s doing. And even then, it’s just to save face with Damage Control, the search-and-rescue team he finds himself employed by, under the lame alias of Slaying Mantis. All the while, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are searching for him – especially the guy whose face Eric accidentally burned half off.

With cameos from Wolverine, Iron Man, Ms. Marvel and a handful of other Avengers – and, it must be said, product placement for Old Spice – THE IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN is not lacking in superheroics, but Kirkman’s excellent sense of humor is what sets this apart. The story is funny without being punchline-driven, but above all, the story is actually a story. You can’t quite tell what’s going to happen to Eric; you care to find out even if you don’t care for him and his selfish “ant”-ics.

This series died well before its time, but at least it never got the chance to suck, making it one of my absolute favorite comics in recent years. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• MARVEL ZOMBIES by Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips