Endgame

Now

Mitch Carson has made it his mission to capture the new Ant-Man (Eric O’Grady). After almost catching him, the trail has gone cold. When he reports in to Director Maria Hill what happened and promises to bring O’Grady in. Little does he know that Eric has been hiding in his SHIELD issue flying car at ant-size. Tired of running, Eric reveals himself and tires to use his past friendship with Mitch to try and get him to stop his manhunt. However, Carson is furious at O’Grady for scarring half of his face because it will likely lead to his being retired from SHIELD duty. As the two struggle, Eric wonders what he can do to stop Mitch from hitting him…

One Week Ago

While investigating the theft of the Ant-Man suit,[1] his prime suspect has been Eric O’Grady. During their regular poker game, Mitch decided that Eric has been lying to him this whole time and attacks him. O’Grady denies everything and Carson decides that they are going to search his room to determine the truth one way or the other. As they go down the hall, they pass Veronica King who wants to talk to Eric about something very important.[2] This comes at a bad time, but Mitch promises he’ll send Eric to talk to her after they’re done with their official business. Realizing that O’Grady hooked up with the late Chris McCarthy’s former girlfriend, Mitch tells Eric that he’s going to hell.

When they arrive at O’Grady’s quarters, Eric pretends to have trouble with his new door code. This causes Mitch to let his guard down for Eric to quickly get in and close the door in his face. When Carson finally gets into the room, Eric has put on his Ant-Man suit and fled into the ventilation system. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get far when Mitch — in a prototype — catches up with him. The brawl sends them spilling out int the helicarrier’s cafeteria where they begin fighting in trays of food before the astonished eyes of the agents eating there. When Dum Dum Dugan comes to see what the commotion is all about, the two Ant-Men’s brawl spills onto the brim of his trademark bowler hat before they both fall to the floor.

Realizing that he can’t beat Carson in a one-on-one fight, Eric tries to use his suit’s jetpack to get away. In doing so, the exhaust ends up burning half of Mitch’s face. Horrified by what he has done, O’Grady goes back to help his friend and returns to full size. After getting directions to the infirmary from Dugan, Ant-Man carries Carson away. Moments later, Dugan orders the other agents to get after him. Unfortunately, O’Grady manages to get Mitch to the ship’s doctor and tells her to get Hank Pym to help before shrinking out of sight. O’Grady then tries to sneak off the helicarrier in a transport taking staff to the city below. Unlucky for him, Dugan manages to find him before he can get away. Deciding to make a run for it, O’Grady changes into Ant-Man and leaps off the helicarrier runway praising his escape a miracle.

Two days later, Mitch Carson is visited by Director Maria Hill, who learns that he has sustained burns to one half of his face, making him blind and deaf on one side. Despite his injuries, Carson wants to be the one to hunt down and capture O’Grady. Even though he needs time to heal, Hill has no option but to assign the case to Carson as he is the only one trained to use the Pym Particle tracers that will be used to hunt down O’Grady.

It was at this time, that Ant-Man saved the a woman named Beth from a mugging in New York City and boldly asked her out on a date. When this date ended, O’Grady was found and was on the run again which brings us to the present….

Now

Unable to defeat Mitch Carson in a one-on-one fight and being a total coward, Ant-Man decides to run away. However, he manages to grab the Pym Particle tracker so that Mitch has no way of following him moving forward. Once he is in the clear, O’Grady contemplates his next move. Deciding to do some more peeping, he decides to find a fresh victim to spy on. Sitting on a window ledge at ant-size, Eric watches people pass by on the street until he spots a woman that suits his perverted needs. Leaping into her purse, he finds the SHIELD ID card belonging to Carol Danvers, AKA Ms. Marvel!

Recurring Characters

Ant-Man, SHIELD (Maria Hill, Dum Dum Dugan, Mitch Carson, Veronica King), Ms. Marvel

Continuity Notes

1. Going to get this out of the way: The Ant-Man suit went missing when Eric’s friend Chris McCarthy tried it on and accidentally shrunk himself in Irredeemable Ant-Man #1. This happened just as the SHIELD helicarrier was being attacked by Hydra, as seen in issue #3. Chris was fatally shot in the head, prompting O’Grady to steal the Ant-Man suit for himself. Carson has been searching for the suit since issue #4.

2. This entire time, Eric has been gaslighting Veronica into having sex with him and quickly lost interest in her after the deed was done. The reason why she wants to talk is because she got pregnant during their one night stand, as revealed last issue.