What a long, strange trip it has been for Ant-Man, Marvel Studios’ latest entry in their constantly expanding cinematic universe. It had been in development for a decade before it went before the cameras, and by then the director who had been with the project since its inception had long departed due to the dreaded “creative differences.” This has probably been the most difficult baby for Marvel to birth since The Avengers, and when Ant-Man brings Marvel’s Phase Two line-up to a rousing conclusion this weekend, we’ll finally find out if the movie has proven to be worth the wait.

I decided to trace Ant-Man‘s obstacle-fraught journey from the pages of Marvel Comics to the big screen beginning when the visionary British filmmaker Edgar Wright first signed on to develop a live-action feature based on the character. From 2010 onward, the development will be recounted as it was covered by several writers here at Geeks of Doom over the years, myself included.

Marvel Studios’ Phase Two closing blockbuster Ant-Man recently screened for critics after undergoing a very painful and potentially troubling birth, and the reviews – blessedly – are mostly positive.

Several noted online film writers took to Twitter to voice their opinion of the film. Here are a few of the more enthusiastic ones.

The ingenious part of Marvel’s Shared Universe is that the marketing team can have fun and find creative ways to market each film, whether it involves the solo ones or the ensemble ones. Their latest effort turns its attention to the upcoming Ant-Man.

But for one of the more obscure heroes of the MCU, how would the marketing team make sure that audiences know that Ant-Man exists in it. Well one way is having him do some tiny cameos on the Avengers’ signature weaponry. Check out some of the cool posters below.

Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man has seen its fair share of problems. Edgar Wright dropped out at the last minute because of a major script overhaul; the studio eventually settled on Peyton Reed to replace him as director; Adam McKay and star Paul Rudd did rewrites to Wright’s script. No one will really know what Wright’s version of the movie would have looked like had he stayed on to direct, and in fact there are only a few people who have seen the actual script.

Joss Whedon is one of those people. The Avengers: Age of Ultron director recently spoke about Ant-Man, and praised Wright’s script calling it one of the best that Marvel has ever had. Hit the jump for more.

Marvel Studios has released the first full theatrical trailer for their latest solo comic book adventure, Ant-Man. You can check it out here below.

The teaser trailer, released in January, leaned heavily on setting up the story basics. The latest delivers on the action and visual effects fronts and then some, with Paul Rudd looking mighty badass as the titular incredible shrinking superhero as he encounters insects of an unusual size and takes on Corey Stoll‘s villainous Darren Cross when the latter suits up as Yellowjacket. We also get a sense of the on-screen relationship between Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and the stakes involved in their recruiting thief Scott Lang (Rudd) for their battle against Cross.