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Marvel's Ant-Man trailer: ants, laser beams, and Paul Rudd making fun of himself

Alex Abad-Santos is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at the Atlantic.

Ant-Man is not as awesome as Captain America or Iron Man. He might not even be as cool as Thor. He's definitely not as badass as Black Widow. And, well, Marvel kind of knows it.

On Monday, the entertainment juggernaut released its first official trailer for the Paul Rudd superhero flick. There are, yes, ants, as well as laser beams. Plus Corey Stoll playing a menacing bad guy.

But there's also a lot of self-effacing humor.

"I'm Ant-Man," Rudd says, with just the tiniest hint of enthusiasm. "I know … wasn't my idea."

It looks like Marvel is laying the foundation for Ant-Man — a.k.a. Scott Lang — to be a source of comic relief for the Avengers in future films — not unlike how the Flash (with the Justice League) and Spider-Man are used in the comic books.

Ant-Man marches into theaters on July 17.

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