One might assume Ant-Man is used to strange allies by this point since he commands an army of ants. However, in Ant-Man #2 by Zeb Wells and Dylan Burnett, Scott Lang finds himself reluctantly teaming up with the bee-powered Nazi supervillain Swarm. As it turns out, the bee-powered Nazi supervillain proves to be the very lesser of two evils.
Swarm first appeared in Champions #14 way back in 1977. A Nazi fugitive, Fritz von Meyer became a beekeeper in South America while on the run. There, he experimented on mutated bees, only to be completely devoured by the insects in the process. However, his consciousness was uploaded into the bees in the process, creating the supervillain Swarm. Since then, he’s done battle from everyone from Spider-Man to Squirrel-Girl, but in spite of the obvious similarities between them, he hasn’t crossed path with Ant-Man much. However, in Ant-Man #1, Scott finally battles Swarm, only to discover there are more beings like Swarm.
In the opening of Ant-Man #2, Ant-Man and Swarm must team up in order to survive several other Swarm-like beings, including the hornet swarm Vespa, the silkworm Thread and Tusk, who is made out of beetles. Ant-Man must team up with Swarm to escape the onslaught, though he is clear he is not fighting for a “Nazi bee man”, which Swarm tepidly agrees is fair. After escaping, Swarm explains he was captured by these creatures by their master and forced to do their bidding. Apparently these creatures - unlike Swarm - lack any human intelligence, and view Swarm as “impure” (which is deliciously ironic that Swarm, a Nazi scientist, has been enslaved and degraded by a far more powerful enemy who regards him as impure).
Unfortunately, the bee Ant-Man has been riding on is also infected, and explodes to reveal Macrothax, the master of the swarms. Ant-Man agrees to communicate with Macrothax using his helmet, which only leads to a post-apocalyptic vision of the insect horror Macrothax hopes to reign on mankind. Ant-Man resists Macrothax’s psychic attacks by shrinking, only to be rescued by Swarm, who loudly proclaims he is in Ant-Man’s debt to Scott’s bewildered new employers. Just as Swarm leaves, however, Ant-Man realizes his ant friend is missing - and has been abducted by Macrothax.
The addition of the greater threat possed by Macrothax greatly expands Swarm’s backstory. In addition, Zeb Wells’ scripting does an excellent job depicting Scott Lang as a struggling hero out of his depth, even when he’s in his insect element. Throughout the issue, he seems more annoyed with having to team up with a Nazi beekeeper rather than Swarm’s own heinous ideology. The fact that Swarm is all too eager to accept Scott’s help only adds to the situation’s hilarity. Hopefully, this won’t be the last Scott sees of his new “ally”, but with the next issue teasing the likes of Spider-Man and Black Cat, Ant-Man should be posed for an even funnier crossover next issue.
Ant-Man #2 hits stores on February 25th.
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