Uninvited

After evading capture from SHIELD, Ant-Man (Eric O’Grady) has decided to find a new woman to peep on.[1] Finding a woman he finds attractive, he hitches a ride in her purse. As fate would have it, he finds a SHIELD ID card belonging to Carol Danvers, aka the Avengers known as Ms. Marvel. He finds himself divided between not wanting to get busted and his perversions. He opts to root through Carol’s wallet for money to steal. Unfortunately, he doesn’t find any and decides to take a nap instead.

Later, he’s rudely awoken when Carol returns home and tosses her purse on her bed. When he crawls out, he discovers that he is in Carol’s new apartment judging from the unpacked boxes. Instead of figuring out where he is, the sound of the shower entices O’Grady to go peep on her. However, when a SHIELD agent comes to give Danvers a status report, Eric fears that he might be back on the SHIELD helicarrier.

After looking around, Eric is somewhat relieved to discover that he is not on the SHIELD helicarrier at all, but a much smaller vessel run by Ms. Marvel’s Operation Lightning Storm.[2] Figuring he is safe for the time being, Eric begins planning a means of getting a camera so he can secretly record Ms. Marvel the next time she takes a shower since he can probably sell it for big money. That he is this close to a famous superhero makes Eric think about his best friend, the late Chris McCarthy, who would have loved being here and he sighs over the loss.[3] That’s when he spots Carol preparing to leave the mini-carrier for a mission with Iron Man’s new team of Avengers. Seeing this as an opportunity to get off the carrier, he decides to take it and hitches a ride in Carol’s purse again.

Soon, Ant-Man finds himself unwittingly tagging along with the Mighty Avengers — Ms. Marvel, Iron Man (Tony Stark), the Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Wonder Man (Simon Williams), the Black Widow (Natasha Romanov), Ares, and the Sentry (Bob Reynolds) — on their first mission.[4] Soon, they are fighting monsters that have appeared in the middle of New York City. Being a total coward, Ant-Man has no interest in getting into the fight, particularly when he is almost squashed by Wonder Man in the the brawl.

That’s when Eric sees a broken parking meter with its change spilled all over the sidewalk. He realizes that he could use his size-changing powers to steal a bunch of stuff in all the chaos and nobody would be the wiser. Heading to a nearby jewelry store, Ant-Man discovers that it is being robbed by the elderly crook known as the Black Fox. Mistaking Ant-Man for his old foe, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), the Fox tries to shoot Eric but the bullets bounce harmlessly off his Ant-Man suit.[5] Annoyed, O’Grady shrinks down to ant-size and then punches the old man in the dick before taking the stolen loot. That’s when he notices Black Fox’s wallet poking out of the back of his pants and decides to take it as well. He is delighted to see that it is also flush with cash.

However, before he can flee the scene, Ant-Man hears someone crying for help in some of the rubble. He decides to see what he can do to help and frees the woman who was trapped. Once they are free, he is congratulated by Lenny Balinger who introduces him to the brand new Damage Control!

Recurring Characters

Ant-Man, Mighty Avengers (Ms. Marvel, Iron Man, Wasp, Wonder Man, Black Widow, Ares, Sentry), Black Fox, Operation: Lightning Storm (Agent Sum, Agent Baines), Damage Control (Lenny Ballinger, Frank Johnson, Kathleen O’Meara, Visioneer, Fluppy)

Continuity Notes

1. Eric O’Grady is a former SHIELD agent who has been on the run since he stole a new suit of Ant-Man armor. You’d know this if you read the last six issues.

2. Operation: Lightning Storm is a hand picked SHIELD unit given to Ms. Marvel to help her find unregistered superheroes following the passage of the Super Human Registration Act that was passed in Civil War #3. See Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #13 for more. This law will remain on the books until Siege #4.

3. Chris McCarthy was killed when Hydra attacked the SHIELD helicarrier, as seen in Irredeemable Ant-Man #3.

4. These events take place concurrently with those of Mighty Avengers #1-6. In that story, we learn that Manhattan is being attacked by the Mole Man’s monsters because he blames the surface world for earthquakes that are affecting his kingdom. It will later be revealed to be the work of Ultron, who has been using SHIELD weather satellites to try and wipe out the human race.

5. The Black Fox has primarily been an antagonist to Spider-Man dating back to Amazing Spider-Man #255. He mistakes Eric for Parker here because his Ant-Man suit vaguely resembles the Iron Spider armor that Peter wore from Amazing Spider-Man #529 to Civil War #5.

Topical References

• Eric finds $600 in the Black Fox’s wallet, which I guess is an impressive amount of money for a petty thief back in 2007. However, this isn’t that great when you consider modern inflation. $600 back then would be worth a little over $900 in 2024. As such the dollar amount should be considered topical as it is relative to the date of publication.