This first look at Paul Rudd in Ant-Man is hilarious — for all the wrong reasons

Ant-Man is a trickier sell than many of his super-heroic counterparts. He doesn't have the name recognition of Spider-Man or Batman, and his superpower — the ability to shrink in size while becoming stronger — isn't as self-evidently cool as anything you can see in X-Men or The Avengers. That is already proving a challenge for Marvel, which is trying to ramp up anticipation by releasing the first image of Ant-Man protagonist Scott Lang — and if your idea of a badass superhero is Paul Rudd looking much crankier than usual, you won't be disappointed:

No weird silver helmet, no red Spandex costume. (He's not even a little bit smaller than regular Paul Rudd.) Those things will presumably show up in the movie itself, but those who aren't already familiar with Ant-Man are likely to be a little baffled by this image of Paul Rudd glowering aimlessly under the Golden Gate Bridge. Unless there's a hidden message in that "D69W01Y" license plate, there's absolutely nothing to identify this as Ant-Man and not Clueless 2: 2-Less or I Don't Love You Anymore, Man. Let's hope our next glimpse of ­Ant-Man turns out to be at least a little illuminating.

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