If there’s one thing you should know about me, it is that I am one of the biggest Ant-Man fans around!* I absolutely adore all of his films and appearances and Scott Lang’s everyman approach to the Marvel Cinematic Universe has always been a big appeal to his character for me. (along with being played by the loveable Paul Rudd). Naturally, I was very excited to see a new book called Look Out for the Little Guy, all about Scott Lang, would be released this year.
Ant-Man as a character was first introduced in the 2015 film Ant-Man and is seen as one of the smaller-scale film franchises in the MCU. This would become a hallmark of the character and his appearances up until Avengers: Endgame where it was Ant-Man’s idea that helped save the universe, thrusting him into the spotlight. His latest movie Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania went big in scale, introducing the new ‘big bad’ of the MCU, but unfortunately didn’t do too well critically or financially. Despite this, there is still a future for the character with an appearance likely for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty which Quantumania is in effect a direct prequel to.
One of the better parts of Quantumania however, was turning Scott Lang into a writer. This brought a lot of comedic elements and moments to the film and also gave Marvel the chance to actually bring his book, Look Out For The Little Guy, to life as a readable book written as if it was in the MCU universe.
Before the review begins properly I just want to shout out Rob Kutner as the actual author of the book. He brilliantly brings Scott Lang to life on the page and has definitely done his research when it comes to the amount of detail this book possesses!
Seriously, it’s a real book:
Look Out For The Little Guy is part memoir, part self-help book and part retelling of some of the more important parts of both Ant-Man’s and the Avengers lives. The book is written as an in-universe answer as to how normal citizens know so much about the Avengers and what actually happened during the Battle of Earth in Avengers: Endgame.
The book provides a series of retellings via Scott Lang’s view of what happened, as well as asking other Avengers for their input to help ‘fill in the gaps’ from Scott’s missing time. This is all done brilliantly and genuinely feels like you are reading about it first hand as if you are a citizen in the MCU.
Look Out For The Little Guy not only covers the details of Avengers: Endgame but also Scott Lang’s life from his imprisonment right through until just before Quantumania. Expertly expanding on some of the gaps between movies so that we get to see more of what Scott’s character is like and what it is truly like to be Ant-Man from his everyman point of view.
There is a lot of the classic Ant-Man style humor brought over into this book, between Scott Lang’s retelling of events, his explaining his life advice, and what he’s learned from being Ant-Man that you can use in real life. This book almost feels like it could be another part of the Ant-Man franchise. Whilst the book is not required reading to keep up with the MCU by any means, if you want more ant-themed humor from the mind of Scott Lang, sprinkled with extra lore and expanded moments, this book is definitely a must-read.
Another amazing part of Look Out For The Little Guy is the “self-help” aspect of the book. As well as being a memoir, each chapter of the book tells us a little more about Scott as a person. Deepening our connection with him, but also what about his experiences we can take over into our own lives as readers. The tips given are always relevant to the story. This is done wonderfully in my opinion and any life advice given seems genuine and something you would want to carry over into your own life. (because let’s be real, who wouldn’t want to be like Scott Lang?!)
Remembering Black Widow Natasha Romanoff
Another aspect of this book I adored is that it helps give some additional closure to Black Widow’s death. A complaint I have seen many times from fans is that the scene we got in Avengers: Endgame didn’t give her the send-off she deserved. Look Out For The Little Guy aims to rectify this with a whole chapter dedicated to her and her legacy through not only Scott Lang’s eyes but that of the other Avengers he asked too. It is a sweet section of the book that I think a lot of fans will appreciate, as it certainly does its best to properly understand her as a character.
Final thoughts on Look Out for the Little Guy by Scott Lang
My main complaint about this book is that it is too short! I could easily read a lot more about Scott Lang’s life and have him give us all life advice for many more pages. Another is that there are some parts of the book that make you wonder why Scott Lang would tell normal citizens of the MCU these things, especially concerning some more personal details about his own life and family. It definitely feels like oversharing. However, understanding that this is a memoir (and having not read too many real-life ones myself), I can forgive that aspect as being down to Lang’s oversharingness, just as he is in the movies.
Despite a few issues I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Obviously, if you’re not a huge Ant-Man fan, you may not enjoy it as much. Especially with it covering the Ant-Man films in great detail. However, I still strongly urge everyone to give it a read as it will hopefully help you fall in love with Scott Lang a lot more, as well as the rest of the Ant-Man family! Look Out For The Little Guy is written very in character for Ant-Man, and getting a deeper dive into what makes such a great, funny, and relatable character tick is always fantastic.
My Rating 9/10
Look Out For The Little Guy by Scott Lang is available now! Have you read it yet? What did you think? Let us know on social media @mycosmiccircus or in The Cosmic Circus Discord.
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