Anna Daniels
During COVID-19 quarantine, many MCU fans have gone back to acknowledge the great marketing Marvel has done over the years. The old teaser trailers from the last decade have all been reanalyzed and praised for how they built excitement at sometimes fever pitch levels. Now fans are turning to many of the teaser posters released over the years.
According to fans recently, the old Ant-Man posters had some of the best artwork. Having teaser posters talked about again is kind of fun in a time when movie poster art is taken for granted.
At one time, poster art for movies was more appreciated in the age before the internet and social media marketing became the norm. What made Ant-Man really stand out for moviegoers?
The spare, comedic value of the ‘Ant-Man’ posters
Someone on Reddit recently posted a collection of old teaser posters Marvel put out over the last decade. Each MCU poster was basically a work of art in their own right, if not being hand-painted as movie posters were in the old days. Even so, Marvel posters are still mostly well-designed.
One thing standing out for Reddit fans was the spareness of each Ant-Man poster. Each one was mostly a white background with a tiny image of Ant-Man/Scott Lang in the center section.
For Ant-Man and the Wasp, it was virtually the same, except the Wasp was added to Ant-Man’s immediate right. Of course, the point was to bring some laughs to how simple it was, not including some funnier posters later on. Just about everyone on Reddit agreed these teasers made them laugh, something all too rare in the MCU.
As one commenter put it: “Antman gets first dibs because it’s original and clever and grabs your attention”. Comments like this give a reminder of what can be accomplished in marketing with spare imagery.
Will more MCU movie posters use spare artwork?
Most movie posters of today look like a giant Photoshop overload with a million things going on. While most do a good job of conveying what the film is about, the MCU does a better job of being a little economical in their poster designs.
Going back and looking at them all, they typically feature just one character and simpler backgrounds. For instance, Captain Marvel just showed the title character standing in front of hangar doors with “Higher, Further, Faster” mentioned at top. Infinity War used a giant A that was used other times as the symbol of The Avengers.
Most interesting is the only other comedy of the bunch (Thor: Ragnarok) really had no comedic sense in the teaser poster. Only the Ant-Man posters really made viewers laugh at how simple they were while making a strong point.
Since the MCU changed the game in how movie marketing works, even their poster designs might have a ripple effect in other movies. Perhaps spare teaser posters will become the norm when the message of a movie might otherwise be muddled.
The next ‘Ant-Man’ movie will likely use similar imagery
Another Reddit user above said this: “Ant man and The Wasp. I found it funny how they copied the first poster, which was already funny to begin with.”
No doubt Marvel knows how much of a reaction those posters received, meaning once Ant-Man 3 is ever made/released, everyone can expect a play on that same poster design. What such a poster would look like is anyone’s guess, unless it involves showcasing Ant-Man’s own daughter as seen in the comic books.
Lang’s daughter is also working on being a superhero in a recent comic book series with the title character. He also works to impress his daughter after his own superhero persona becomes downgraded to C-list.
Yes, such a scenario would truly make for another entertaining poster with Ant-Man at microscopic size as real symbolism.
Written by: Cheat
