The Boys’ Version of Ant-Man Is Completely Useless

Warning! Spoilers for The Boys comic and television series below!

Ant-Man doesn’t get a lot of love when it comes to the discussion around Marvel’s greatest heroes. His size-shifting powers and ability to talk to ants is inherently silly, which has made him the butt of jokes in the Marvel Comics universe. However, his counterpart in The Boys, a winged hero named Swatto, is completely useless.

In The Boys comic series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, the superteam known as Payback is the second-tier hero group to the Seven. It’s members (especially Soldier Boy) desperately want to join the top superhero team and partake in missions to prove their worth. The team consists of Swatto (Ant-Man) Soldier Boy (Captain America), Stormfront (Thor), Mind-Droid (Vision), and the Crimson Countess (Scarlet Witch). The Ant-Man parody is an insect-themed hero who can only speak by making buzzing noises and can fly.

Swatto’s existence in The Boys universe is extremely short-lived. The buzzing supe and the rest of Payback are directed by Vought to take out the Boys. In the ensuing battle, Swatto gets knocked around by The Female and proves to be fairly weak. Serving as the lookout for Payback as they struggle badly with their mission, Swatto is impaled by a pickaxe in a gruesome, swift death.

Unfortunately for Swatto, he doesn’t have his own version of the Pym particles or can shift to different sizes. Instead, he’s literally just a man who can only speak in buzzes and can use his wings to fly. It’s pretty clear why he was never added to the Seven’s roster: Swatto is useless. He might make a good scout, but as a hero, he was always going to be outmatched. What was he going to do? Buzz at somebody until they died?

Swatto might have been useless in the comics, but in The Boys television show, he could still play an important role if they opt to make him even more like Ant-Man. On the Amazon series, someone or something is responsible for killing numerous people by blowing up their heads, including the CIA’s Julia Raynor, and a number of people at the courthouse massacre in the latest episode of the show. It’s possible that Swatto has the shrinking powers of Ant-Man and pulled a Thanus and exploded their heads by expanding himself in their heads. That’s pure speculation, but it would explain the deaths while turning Swatto into a semi-useful character. Because as a comics character, Swatto might be the most useless supe in The Boys universe that there is, which says a lot considering how awful a majority of them are.

About The Author

Liam McGuire
(2604 Articles Published)

See also  The Last Of Us: 5 Ways Abby Is The Worst (& 5 Ways She’s Misunderstood)

Lead writer for Screen Rant’s comic team. [email protected]. Find me on Twitter @LiamRMcGuire for comic news and reporting.

More From Liam McGuire