Ant-Man tells all! Just a few short months after debuting in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Scott Lang’s international best-seller Look Out for the Little Guy! will soon be available to own — not just in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, but in our own.
Yes, really. Disney and Hyperion have teamed up to bring us the very first memoir from a real-life Avenger. Look Out for the Little Guy! will reacquaint us with the hero we all know as Ant-Man, charting his rise as a scientist-turned-corporate-whistleblower, his checkered past as a convict, and of course, his tenure as one of Earth’s mightiest heroes.
Lang’s memoir hits bookshelves September 5, but Marvel recently released a brief tease for anyone whose patience is wearing thin. This excerpt serves as a brief catch-up for anyone who’s forgotten the events of Ant-Man and its sequels. Lang (or rather, Lang’s ghostwriter) breezes through his brief time at VistaCorp, his three-year stint and San Quentin, and his choice to take on the Ant-Man mantle. It even gets around to answering a few unspoken questions: why is Lang’s memoir such a big deal? Why is Lang publishing a memoir in the first place?
“The simple answer,” he explains, “is ‘The Avengers asked me to.’”
Yes! Really! Lang took on the task of penning his memoir as a favor to his fellow Avengers:
“One day, Bruce ‘the Hulk’ Banner and Clint ‘Hawkeye’ Barton took me out for lunch. They said they were concerned that the world didn’t really know what had happened with Thanos and the Blip and our long struggle to finally put things right again ... billions had experienced these jarring and mind-bending events, but they didn’t know the full story behind them. And ultimately, that’s what people need the most to get through and get past traumatic events: a narrative that helps it all make sense.”
Look Out for the Little Guy! will serve as a definitive account of the Blip in-universe, but fans can look forward to a more intimate, subjective take on the events depicted in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. This could explain why Lang’s book is getting such a unique roll-out. It’s more than just a tie-in novel, or even an elaborate gag: the memoir could reveal details about key events within the MCU, as told to Scott Lang from the Avengers.
“I’m going to tell it all,” Lang writes, “from how I saw it, experienced it, and heard it firsthand from my hero buddies. I’m going to bring you into the hero world.”
It also explains how the people of Earth-616 got such intimate details about the Blip. A memoir is an effective way to curb any misinformation, and Lang’s approachable, Man of the People vibes apparently made him uniquely qualified for the task. While he missed out on key parts of the Avengers’ war against Thanos — like the Battle of Wakanda, as well as the Blip itself — he was instrumental to the Mad Titan’s eventual defeat. He’s an unlikely hero, sure, but he’s much more capable than even he is willing to admit. As such, his “memoir” might be a lot more important than anyone expected it to be.
