I'll give Gully credit for taking a completely independent super-hero comic and turning it into something that to which people seem to be paying attention. But that's as much credit as I'm willing or able to extend, as I found this to be a painful read, derivative of so many other super-hero comics. Ant is the ultimate statement on the resurgence of early 1990s comics storytelling. It's all flash, no substance. There were moments in the script, however, when it seemed as though the creator was satirizing the '90s, but ultimately, the story takes itself too seriously too often for that to be case. the art is uneven and inconsistent, and it's clear that Gully's love for Marvel and Image comics of the early 1990s is guiding his visual style as well as his writing.
Hannah Washington is Ant... she just doesn't realize it. But she feels cewrtain compulsions. She's drawn to the city. She's compelled to seek out Ant's onetime sidekick. And when she sees the convention that he's attending under siege by evil mimes and a spider-monster, she launches herself into action as the armor-clad heroine who's been missing but never forgotten. Hannah is learning a lot about herself and a past she cannot remember... and she's meeting new and interesting people, some of whom are friends, such as the Savage Dragon, and some of whom are enemies, such as Spawn.
Gully's art shows a wide variety of influences, but all from the same era. Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, Rob Liefeld... basically, if you're a founding father of Image Comics, you've had an impact on Mario Gully's artwork. One problem is that his art isn't always an amalgam of those influences, but favors one over the other. The design for the title character is far too simple, lacking in any real character. Basically, she's red and shiny, and it's a visual that fails to hold one's interest for long. Furthermore, Gully seems obsessed with depicting Ant in crouching positions, presumbably to make her seem more like an insect, but the real result is to show off the characters ass all the time.
When I first caught a glimpse of the first bad guy in the book -- Jessica Mime -- my interest was piqued. It's a great concept for a super-villain satire, and the powers were novel. But I was surprised when the initial teasing tone gave way to a more serious one. Jessica Mime... serious threat to super-heroes. Um, no. This is the sort of character Keith Giffen would have done wonders with in his Ambush Bug comics of the 1980s, but Gully fails to focus on the comedic side of things.
It's a shame Gully has opted to focus his creative energies on a generic super-hero story that belongs in an era more than a decade gone by, because from his introduction, he clearly has some interesting stories to tell. His text piece at the beginning of the book is full of honest and dramatic confessions from his own life, and if he were to tap into those experiences, I know I'd definitely be interested in what he would have to say as a writer and comics creator. 2/10
