Black Superheroine: Ant

post by gM writer Wallruss

I originally ran across the comic book character Ant while she was at Image comics. When I went out to find out more about her, I discovered that the story about Ant's creator is interesting in it's own right. According to his myspace page, Mario Gully came up with the idea for Ant while he was incarcerated. While he was in the cell, an ant crawled in and gave him inspiration. When he got out he started as an Independent comic book creator, and since then, the character has been through three comic book companies.

Ant is an African-American girl named Hannah Washington who grows bulletproof red skin, and has super strength, speed, agility and various sensory abilities. Her origin is unclear and much of her story is about the search for clues to her unknown past. I read somewhere that Ant is like the girl next door that can kick your ass. She's no nonsense and relatively down to earth. She's also one of those few Black female Superheroes that is actually shaped like a Black woman.

Mario Gully is the African-American owner and creator of Ant who's arrival in comics began at Arcana Studios. The series told the story of a little girl who dreamed that she was the world's greatest hero. The book exceeded expectations and proved to be quite a success. The first issue sold out. The series ran for four issues and it's success brought it to the attention of Image Comics. Ant moved over to Image Comics and right away began interacting with superheroes like Savage Dragon, and Spawn (these issues are collected in the TPB Ant Vol1: Reality Bites). The art and story seemed to feel right at home with Image and the series seemed poised to do quite well. Distinct from the previous volume published by Arcana, the story took place years after but acknowledged the previous story. The little girl had grown up and more of her mystery was revealed. Problems began to develop behind the scenes and despite compelling story and artwork the series ended after the 11th issue.Mario Gully's talent enabled him to work on other projects. After some time he decided to bring Ant back to the public and did so through Big City Comics. This latest series is entitled Ant Unleashed and is a more mature comic in imagery and theme. Again it is kept distinct from previous volumes as the story takes place after the others while acknowledging what transpired in them. The last issue seems to be #6 which was published back in 2008. Publishing challenges aside, each time Ant shows up she commands the room and each series has surpassed the previous in both art and story. I don't know where and when she'll show up again but I'm looking forward to checking her out when she does.

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Wallruss is a teacher, traveler, comic book nerd, techie, and internet phenom. he can teach you a thing or two on his BlackSuperhero Blog, and if you're REALLY down, hit him up at Tanjectory.com

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