Eric O'Grady
Eric O'Grady is a male comic character who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Eric O'Grady was a male human who by adulthood had enlisted to become an agent at S.H.I.E.L.D. where he was a low ranking operative and was stationed on the Helicarrier. (Irredeemable Ant-Man v1 #1)
Ant-Man
Eric and his best friend Chris McCarthy were tasked with guarding Dr. Henry Pym's lab by a higher ranking agent, Mitch Carson. When Pym went to leave the lab, Eric and Chris panicked and Eric attacked Pym, knocking him unconscious. Inside the lab, they found the most recent version of Ant-Man's Suit, which Chris put on and promptly activated, shrinking down. Thinking him gone, Eric panicked again and ran off. Chris promptly got lost in the Helicarrier, stuck at the 1-inch size. Eric, meanwhile, took this opportunity to make a pass at Chris' girlfriend Veronica King, which the miniature Chris saw from an air vent. Around this time, a group of Hydra employed superhumans attacked the Carrier, and Chris and Eric were caught up in the ensuing chaos. While trying to find a safe place to hide, Chris was killed, and Eric took the Ant-Man's Suit off his body. Surviving the Helicarrier crash, Eric continued to work for S.H.I.E.L.D., using his evenings to explore the powers of his new suit. Seeing a man beating his wife, he tried to intervene by shrinking down and beating up the man. His attempt at punching him the neck, however, went badly wrong as Eric's attack seriously injured the man. Eric discovered the ability of the suit to communicate with ants, which he used to stage races between the Ants living in the Carrier's ventilation system. Around this time, a group of Hydra employed superhumans attacked the Carrier, and Chris and Eric were caught up in the ensuing chaos. While trying to find a safe place to hide, Chris was killed, and Eric took the Ant-Man's Suit off his body. Surviving the Helicarrier crash, Eric continued to work for S.H.I.E.L.D., using his evenings to explore the powers of his new suit. Seeing a man beating his wife, he tried to intervene by shrinking down and beating up the man. His attempt at punching him the neck, however, went badly wrong as Eric's attack seriously injured the man. Eric discovered the ability of the suit to communicate with ants, which he used to stage races between the Ants living in the Carrier's ventilation system. (Irredeemable Ant-Man v1 #1)
Agent Mitch Carson, who was amongst the forerunners to become the new Ant-Man, was tasked with hunting down the person who had stolen the suit and given a less advanced prototype to aid him in his search. (Irredeemable Ant-Man v1 #2) Agent Carson caught up with him, and the two Ant-Men slugged it out. A few days later, Carson discerned that Eric had stolen the suit and confronted him. (Irredeemable Ant-Man v1 #3) They eventually ended up fighting with Eric eventually proving the victor. Carson grabbed his foot, and the Rocket Jets from Eric's suit badly burned Carson's face. Eric managed to take tiny Carson to the infirmary before finally escaping the Helicarrier, still in possession of the Suit. (Irredeemable Ant-Man v1 #4)
Avengers
O'Grady came to join the 50-State Initiative where he went to Camp Hammond to undergo training to be a superhero. (Avengers The Initiative v1 #8)
Eric was then approached by the Black Fox who offered him intelligence that criminal forces intended to steal a device from Hank Pym. With this information, O'Grady thought he could further ingratiate himself to the Avengers and approached Pym with this information. However, in reality, Black Fox had allowed O'Grady to be susceptible to possession by a Sleepwalker entity called Agent Anesthesia. Once at Pym's headquarters, Agent Anesthesia was able to release herself from O'Grady when he slept and stole the device which she gave to her A.I.M. employers. (Ant-Man & Wasp v1 #1) Atoning for his actions, Eric went alongside Hank Pym as the pair journeyed into the Mindscape as they tracked down the stolen device that was an artificial heaven that maintained the mind of the deceased Bill Foster. (Ant-Man & Wasp v1 #2)
He was approached by Steve Rogers to join his Secret Avengers strike force as a means of redeeming himself with Eric participating on their first assignment in infiltrating the Roxxon Energy Corporation. (Secret Avengers v1 #1)
Still in hiding, he was contacted by Sharon Carter through his communication device after she saw him appear on her tracking system. O'Grady revealed that he was still within the secret facility and that a number of enemy operatives were heading to the machine that transported him to the site. They came to determine that the enemy were sending troops with explosives to kill themselves and the Secret Avengers with Eric being the only thing standing in their way. He entered into the transportation system and was ahead of the enemy forces where he used a Wasp Sting to detonate their explosives to kill them mid-transit. This caused an explosion that detonated both sites of the portal killing the enemy troops though Ant-Man survived where he re-emerged on Mars with him rendezvousing with the Secret Avengers. (Secret Avengers v1 #4)
Afterwards, the Secret Avengers received that Zheng Zu was being resurrected and his assassins among the Celestial Order of the Hai-Dai to target his son Shang-Chi. Thus, the heroes went to rescue the martial artist and to protect him from further attack whilst looking to stop his fathers resurrection. They came to learn that central to Zu's return were relics known as the Eyes of the Dragon with Shang-Chi going to the site of one of the gems but this proved to be an ambush where he was captured by the Hai-Dai. However, unknown to his attackers, O'Grady was on Shang-Chi's person in shrunken form and enlarged to protect him when the assassins intended to bleed the martial artist to death. Eric when to Giant-Man form to fight their attackers but this damaged their craft causing it to crash. To save themselves, Ant-Man used his suit's jets to take himself and Shang-Chi to safety where they returned to the Secret Avengers. (Secret Avengers v1 #7)
Black Ant
He later joined a new incarnation of the team that was going to be led by Hawkeye. During this time, they responded to an incident in Pakistan where a woman had manifested superpowers leading to their first encounter with the Descendants. Ultimately, their mechanical foes escaped with the woman and her child with the Secret Avengers failing to stop them. (Secret Avengers v1 #22) Unknown to the mechanical beings, O'Grady had actually shrunk in size and hidden on their person as they fled to their base. Whilst at their headquarters in the Core, he witnessed the Descendants leader Father attempting to get the woman and her child to embrace their heritage. When the mother refused, Father ordered her killed with O'Grady then intervening to save the woman. The Pakistani woman then sacrificed her life to save Eric who decided to take her son to safety but was pursued by the Adaptoids. Wounded and running low on Pym Particles, he was cornered by his pursuers where he desperately fought against them but despite his efforts he was overwhelmed by his attackers. (Secret Avengers v1 #23)
In Bagalia, he was with Taskmaster when the pair discovered that Steve Rogers had secretly been a Hydra agent. (Captain America: Steve Rogers v1 #11) O'Grady and Taskmaster intended to sell this information to Maria Hill for large sums of money but were stopped by Madame Hydra Elisa Sinclair. (Captain America: Steve Rogers v1 #12)
Once the dome was down, he was discovered by Yellowjacket with the other villains at the scene intending to get their revenge on him for his part in their capture. However, Taskmaster arrived on the scene where he saved O'Grady with the two being reunited as criminal partners who left the scene before they could be arrested. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #23)
Overview
Personality and attributes
The LMD version of O'Grady later came to take the name of Black Ant for himself. (Secret Avengers v1 #32)
He had said that he had grown up Irish Catholic and claimed that this allowed him to recognise guilt quickly. (Ant-Man & Wasp v1 #2)
Eric believed that he was not an inherently good person but tried to make up for what he had done. Thus, he did heroic acts like that of a good person even though it went against his very nature. O'Grady often struggled reconciling his actions with his inherent beliefs but ultimately believed that he tried to be a better person. Ultimately, he hoped that if he helped enough people then maybe someday he could look himself in the mirror again. he felt that when such a time came then doing the right thing would not be so hard. (Secret Avengers v1 #23)
O'Grady was said to be a distasteful person but one who was hard to kill. (Secret Avengers v1 #23)
As a kid, he was known to had gotten into plenty of fights and was able to hold his own. His father would try and hide his approval of his son as he wanted Eric to grow up tough. O'Grady's father wanted him to become a firefighter and protect other people. (Secret Avengers v1 #23)
It was shown that he seemingly maintained a good friendship with Taskmaster. (Amazing Spider-Man v5 #23)
Powers and abilities
As such, he was able to shrink and get real small but retained his human proportion strength. (Irredeemable Ant-Man v1 #1)
O'Grady later learned how to access the particles for increasing in size, the "G.I. Ant-Man" feature, allowing him to increase in size and strength. (Avengers: The Initiative v1 #8)
A Wasp Sting was later added to his suit allowing him to fire an electric blast from his hands. (Secret Avengers v1 #4)
Notes
- Eric O'Grady was created by Robert Kirkman and Phil Hester where he made his first appearance in Irredeemable Ant-Man v1 #1 (December, 2006).
- In an interview on CBR, Rick Remender commented on his Secret Avengers arc:
- "In our first Descendants story, we set up this bubbling plot where Ant-Man, Eric O’Grady, was killed and replaced with a Life Model Decoy who basically has all of Eric’s memories. It’s almost like he died, everything went black and he woke back up with Father, the leader of the Descendants, standing over him. I don’t want to reveal too much of the deal they make and how this all works out, but Eric is still Eric. He’s a Life Model Decoy dealing with the fact that he’s an artificial person. He has his own his motivations for serving Father and the Descendants and that’s going to play a huge role coming up because the Secret Avengers now have a spy within their ranks."
- "Eric is a complex character. He was established to be a bad guy and sort of a dirt bag. Even when he attempted redemption, it always fell flat, like a selfish and slightly rotten person putting on a pose. This story is going to keep with that theme. It’s going to play into who the character has been as well as developing him into a new character known as the Black Ant, which Art Adams has designed and is amazing!"
Alternate Versions
In other media
Television
- In The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Eric O'Grady appeared in the setting of the animated television series in the episode "Nightmare in Red" where he was voiced by actor Troy Baker. This version was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was stationed on the Helicarrier when it came under attack from the mysterious Red Hulk.
Appearances
- Irredeemable Ant-Man v1: (2006)
- Avengers: The Initiative v1:
- Ant-Man & Wasp v1:
- Secret Avengers v1:
- Illuminati v1:
- Amazing Spider-Man v5:
External Links
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