Marvel’s New ULTIMATE ANT-MAN Is A Champion For Body Positivity

Marvel Comics’ latest flirtation with body positivity has arrived in the form of the new Ultimate Ant-Man. The publisher’s revamp of its Ultimate Universe line is in full-swing, and Earth-6160 is slowly finding its mightiest heroes. Marvel’s Ultimate books have always been a sandbox to play with established characters in ways the main universe doesn’t allow. Hank Pym is a prime candidate for this kind of reinvention, and changing his body type is one of the first hints fans have about this new hero.

The designs for the new Ultimate Ant-Man and Ultimate Wasp began circulating online ahead of their debut in The Ultimates #1 by Deniz Camp, Juan Frigeri, Federico Blee, VC’s Travis Lanham, and Wil Moss. Fans were quick to notice that Frigeri’s design for Ultimate Hank Pym appears to have a softer jawline, a rounded, protruding stomach, and thicker backside.

However, bigger bodies can be a sensitive subject in the world of superheroes, leading some to be unsure if they could trust what they were seeing. In the days that followed, writer Deniz Camp shared the design sheet again on X/Twitter, clarifying “Pudgy Hank Pym is maybe my favorite character design from issue 1.”

The New ULTIMATE ANT-MAN May Represent A Shift in Marvel’s Fat Politics

Similar to race, sexuality, and ability, representing different body shapes and sizes in media is impactful. The portrayal of those bodies influences how those marginalized groups are understood in the public’s imagination. Comics are as guilty as other popular media in their clumsy and harmful depictions of fatness. Fat bodies have long been used as visual shorthand for greedy, gluttonous, and often monstrous characters (i.e. the Blob, the Shadow King). The function of gaining or losing weight is often used clumsily to imply a decline in mental health or unworthiness that must be overcome. Otto Octavius is either the vile, chubby Doc Ock, or the shredded antivillain Superior Spider-Man.

In cape comics, heroic characters are hardly allowed to be fat at all without their fatness being the butt of a joke. Rarer still is a fat body permitted to be a hero’s status quo, unless it is framed as an underlying issue to be resolved. Largely this is due to fatphobic biases in mainstream beauty standards, after which many heroes are modeled. This context makes the new Ultimate Ant-Man unique. Camp also responded to a reply that “there are no plans to slim [Hank] down,” as part of the story.

This lends credence to the idea that this new fat hero is here to stay.

A ‘Body Positive’ Ant-Man Is Only A Step In The Right Direction for Marvel & Hank Pym

For many comic readers, Hank Pym ranges from a flawed, tragic hero, to dancing with outright villainy. His untreated Bipolar Disorder and the specter of his abusive past with his former wife, the Wasp, have made Hank Pym a very difficult character for writers. Even his most charitable depictions in recent years paint Pym as a genius whose ego prevents him from seeing the role he plays in his own suffering. Hank Pym is a character who could greatly benefit from being rebuilt from the ground up in the new Ultimate Universe. Giving him a body that breaks from the typical superhero mold is the first step in reimagining the original Ant-Man.

Introducing any new hero that diversifies what bodies are defined as “superheroic” is good news. However, one white, able-bodied man who happens to be fat is hardly the picture of success for body positivity in comics. The movements of body positivity and fat liberation were formed by Black and Brown disabled fat women who saw these civil movements reaching across the axes of race, disability, and fatness. Both Marvel and Hank Pym as a character stand to benefit from the new UltimateAnt-Man, but it is a victory that must be built upon rather than rested on.

Sources: Deniz Camp, Jonathan Jones, Deniz Camp