Ant-Man 2 Almost Referenced Ultron's Comic Origins

Screen Rant

By Thomas Bacon

Published Jul 30, 2018

Concept art from Ant-Man & the Wasp shows some helmet designs that are very much reminiscent of Ultron, the AI created by Hank Pym in the comics.

Concept art for Ant-Man & the Wasp reveals a subtle homage to Ultron and Hank Pym of the comics; certain versions of the Ant-Man helmet were visually similar to the android created by Hank Pym in the books.

Although the MCU is inspired by decades' worth of Marvel comics, the creative teams have made a substantial number of differences. One of the key changes is with the villainous artificial intelligence known as Ultron. In the comics, Ultron was created by Hank Pym. In the MCU, though, Hank hadn't been introduced by the time of Avengers: Age of Ultron. As a result, the MCU's version of Ultron was created by Tony Stark and Bruce Banner.

It was a necessary change, but a frustrating one for lovers of the comics. However, concept art in The Art of Ant-Man & the Wasp reveals some of the artists created alternate designs that are visually reminiscent of Ultron, at the least canonizing Pym's design traits.

At one point, concept artist Andy Park was asked to design different helmets for Ant-Man to wear when he was in the Quantum Realm. "Peyton [Reed] wanted to explore a helmet that could expose Scott's face but still be protective," Park explained. "I came up with the idea that the helmet could have two modes: a normal mode with his helmet closed as we know it, and an alternate mode that had a transparent red blast shield come down after the front part of the helmet raised up to expose his face." The resulting design is clearly reminiscent of Ultron.

See The Ant-Man Ultron Mask Concept Art

Story-wise, there's a reason for this. Hank Pym traditionally has his own technological style, one that contrasts markedly with Tony Stark's: Stark cares a lot more about appearance, with his armors are designed to be sleek and efficient, streamlined for flight speed, and aesthetics; Pym's designs are more utilitarian, with visible round tubing on the outside of the suit to channel the Pym Particles. But 3D artist Adam Ross realized Lang wouldn't be too impressed with this. As he explained:

"I imagined what a design meeting between Scott Lang and Hank Pym might look like, and how they'd get into it over what looks cool vs. what is actually functional. I imagined that Scott would bring up how much more advanced-looking Tony's armor is, and how rad he would think it looked and functioned, pressuring Hank to do the same to a suit redesign. In turn, I imagined Hank pushing back, sarcastically, on Scott, asking if he wanted the helmet to open up like his new flip phone."

A lot of thought went into this design process, and as a result some of the concept art looks almost like a blend of traditional Pym-tech and the MCU's Stark-tech. Concept artists took advantage of this opportunity to create designs like those helmets, visually reminiscent of versions of Ultron in the comics. It's just a shame those smart homages didn't make their way into the final theatrical cut.