Eric O'Grady

Eric O'Grady is the name of two fictional characters appearing in

Eric O'Grady is a low-level Irish agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who stumbles upon Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym's latest incarnation of the Ant-Man suit in the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.^[6] A man of very few morals with a willingness to lie, cheat, steal and manipulate in order to get ahead in life, O'Grady immediately steals the Ant-Man suit for his own selfish plans, which include using his status as a "super-hero" to stalk women and facilitate his thievery. A running theme with the character is his evil side clashing with a desire to be accepted by others, which leads to O'Grady vowing to renounce his evil ways and become a proper hero, causing a cycle of the character relapsing and vowing to "change".

After he obtains a fake ID under the name Derek Sullivan and comes up with the new superhero name Slaying Mantis, this organization offers him a job and he consents. He meets Abigail and they start dating. He leases an apartment under his new name, and with Damage Control's help, begins to establish a new identity while continuing to hide from S.H.I.E.L.D. However, as Abigail begins to fall in love with O'Grady, she reveals to him that she is a single mother with a son. This in turn triggers O'Grady dumping Abigail over keeping her son's existence a secret from him while pursuing a romantic relationship with him.^[12]

Black Fox later shows up looking for the jewels. O'Grady, however, had already sold them to a pawn shop. The two work together, getting the $150,000 back and splitting the proceeds, with O'Grady keeping 15 percent. They form a close friendship afterward.^[13]

During a later confrontation with Abigail, she reveals that she possesses the power to read people's emotions telepathically. She promptly states that her power reveals that O'Grady truly loves her. Before he can answer, the Hulk begins an attack on Manhattan. O'Grady reluctantly joins the fray by attacking Hulk from the inside of his body. However, the Hulk's stomach and innards proved to be just as tough and O'Grady ended up being discharged through one of the nostrils. He awakes in a S.H.I.E.L.D. infirmary, with Mitch Carson standing by his bed, stating that he is under arrest.^[14]

Carson takes O'Grady to a secret room aboard the helicarrier, and proceeds to torture him. While doing so, Carson reveals shocking secrets to O'Grady regarding his own sociopathic nature and abusing being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to cover up murders over the years. Just as Carson is on the verge of burning O'Grady's face with the Ant-Man suit's jet boosters, Iron Man arrives and subdues Carson. O'Grady uses Carson's confessions of past misdeeds to frame his captor for the stolen Ant-Man suit fiasco, saying that he was only trying to stop the Ant-Man suit for being used for evil. Iron Man refuses to believe O'Grady, though Iron Man is quickly sidetracked by the arrival of the Black Fox (now friends with O'Grady after their first encounter). Black Fox demands that O'Grady be released and claims to have placed explosives on the helicarrier in order to extort his friend's freedom. O'Grady refuses Black Fox's claims to protect him from Iron Man, leading to Black Fox being arrested.^[15]

Several weeks pass and it is shown that O'Grady has resumed his post upon the Helicarrier, having been offered his own job under unknown circumstances.^[15] Feeling guilty for Black Fox being in jail, O'Grady helps the elderly thief escape from the Helicarrier, with O'Grady admitting that he was sorry for putting Black Fox through the ordeal of being arrested. Later on, O'Grady refuses Veronica's attempt to work out an arrangement for raising their child together, in part because of his inner fear that he would be a horrible father due to his utter lack of morals or ethics. Meanwhile, despite their misgivings, Iron Man and Pym reluctantly offer O'Grady the Ant-Man suit back after determining that none of the other candidates can control the suit to the degree that O'Grady has already demonstrated, on the condition of him becoming part of the Initiative, which O'Grady accepts.^[16][17]

O'Grady also has one last meeting with Abigail and tells her that he does, indeed, love her. However, he tells Abigail that he will be leaving for a while and wishes to be with her. While doing so, he hopes that he can be a better person. Before leaving, he tells her his real name.^[16]

In spite of his vows to Abigail, O'Grady continues his lewd and irredeemable ways upon joining the Initiative.^[18] In particular, during his first meeting with Taskmaster, O'Grady attempts to slander the Ant-Man name of his predecessor Scott Lang by passing off stories of his lewd stalker behavior regarding Ms. Marvel onto Lang, as well as claiming that Lang was never really an official member of the Avengers and that Lang was simply hiding inside the Avengers mansion during his tenure with the team and following the group around as a hanger-on. When Stature overhears Taskmaster and O'Grady laughing at these lies, Stature attacks by growing to giant size and attempts to step on the human-sized O'Grady. Using his Ant-Man suit to increase his size to fight back, O'Grady tricks Stature into thinking the hero Stingray had been stepped on and killed in order to knock down with a cheap shot, mocking yelling "Who's Your Daddy Now?". This in turn causes Pym to grow giant-sized and attack O'Grady. However, as their fight begins to attract the attention of people outside the Initiative compound, Taskmaster brings all three of the giants down with his shield.^[18]

O'Grady is defeated by a clone of

When the Skrulls begin an invasion in New York City, the Initiative are ordered to fight. O'Grady decides to avoid this by shrinking down and hiding.^[22] He soon discovers that the Skrulls have taken over Camp Hammond.^[23] He aids the Shadow Initiative in a failed attempt to assassinate Queen Veranke.^[24] Escaping by once again shrinking down, O'Grady discovers the Skrulls' last resort plan: to open a giant Negative Zone portal, and have the entire United States removed from this dimension. During this time, O'Grady muses that the Skrulls planned for every possible complication that Earth's heroes might have created, but did not plan on a "one-inch tall coward" running around underfoot. Escaping the Skrulls on the back of one of their shock troopers, Eric brings the information to some of the remaining Initiative members, and they set out to stop the plan from happening.^[25]

Following the Skrulls' defeat, O'Grady is commended for his good work, and is promoted to a position in the

O'Grady becomes increasingly disgruntled with the Thunderbolts, and concerned for his future. In order to earn some goodwill, he helps Captain America escape from custody, asking that he keep this in mind in the future.^[32] Later, when sent with the rest of the team to infiltrate Asgard and steal Gungnir, he once again faces off with Stature.^[33]

After Scourge finds Gungnir, he attempts to take it to the Iron Patriot, but is stopped by Paladin finally having enough of serving a madman. Grizzly attacks Paladin to kill him for treason but O'Grady shrinks down and enters Grizzly's ear canal, incapacitating Grizzly and saving Paladin's life. As the Mighty Avengers defeat what remains of the Thunderbolts, O'Grady finds Gungnir and gives it to Paladin, who hides it from the Iron Patriot. After the battle, O'Grady decides to re-evaluate the choices he has made and to do something good with his life.^[34]

Eric O'Grady is later seen to be a member of the Secret Avengers, using the real Pym's classic Ant-Man gear.^[35] He was invited by Steve Rogers, believing that O'Grady can be a better person.^[36] O'Grady is positioned as the rookie of the group and is teamed up with War Machine, who believes O'Grady is not worthy of the Ant-Man name.^[37]

In the arc of the opening four issues, O'Grady inadvertently stumbled upon a group of

While wearing the Ant-Man suit, Eric O'Grady has the ability to shrink to the size of an insect while retaining full-sized strength. He also possesses two robotic arms he can release from his Ant-Man suit's back when he is shrunk. The Ant-Man suit's main mode of transportation is a jetpack that can be detached and used as a weapon by turning the jet's flames onto an enemy. He also has the ability to talk to insects while wearing the Ant-Man suit. However, he has not quite trained in this ability and is somewhat lacking in skill. After joining The Initiative, it was revealed that O'Grady's Ant-Man armor was the prototype "G.I. Ant-Man" suit that could also increase O'Grady's size. During this time, his Ant-Man helmet seemed to become more of a close-fitting piece of fabric, as it moulded itself to his facial expressions, and could even be peeled upwards to allow him to drink.

As a member of the Thunderbolts, his Ant-Man suit gets redesigned and recolored to better fit his new position in covert operations.^[28]

As a member of the Secret Avengers, his redesigned Ant-Man costume resembles the original Ant-Man suit.

In Marvel Universe Vs. The Punisher, set a world where a plague turned heroes and villains into zombies, Ant-Man (Eric O'Grady) was among the infected. He was later killed by the Punisher to which his head was displayed as a hunting trophy.

• Eric O'Grady makes a cameo appearance in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes episode "Nightmare in Red".
• Eric O'Grady appears in the Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D. motion comic, voiced by Jeffrey Hedquist.

IGN listed Eric O'Grady as the 82nd greatest comic book hero of all time stating that he is another hero who faces the challenge of living up to a huge legacy but he is truly good at heart, and he has made great strides when it comes to doing justice to the venerated Ant-Man name,^[45] and as #43 on their list of the "Top 50 Avengers".^[46]