I bet some of you were starting to
worry that I was gone for good. Have no fear folks, after my little week off
I’m back and better than ever. Ant-Man
is set to release later in the week, so you can probably guess what’s happening
next. That’s right, an Ant-Man theme week. Are you as excited as I am? If yes,
great. If no, well, then it’s my job to make you excited. We’ll cover the major
players in the new film, as well as a few characters from the Ant-Man mythos. Just
to make sure that we have a full week’s worth of stuff. Without further ado,
we’ll get started with the guy that started it all, Dr. Hank Pym.
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| From bottom to top, Ant-Man, Hank, Goliath, Yellowjacket, Giant-Man It's a varied group. |
Dr. Henry “Hank” Pym started out as
a gifted biochemist. His most important discovery was a group of unusual
subatomic particles. He named them Pym Particles. With just a little tinkering,
he discovered that the Particles could cause objects to shrink or grow. He
gathered these particles together and created a pair of serums, one to cause a
person to shrink and one to return him to normal size. Hank did the somewhat
stupid thing of testing the formulas on himself in his empty laboratory. Why
the heck to fictional scientists think this is a good idea? Whatever, a
discussion for another time. Hank shrank, but a lot faster than he had
originally predicted. He shrunk to the size of an ant, and then got stuck in an
anthill for a bit. He was able to escape this tiny, tiny death trap without
being turned into buggy-chow. He regrew using the reversal formula, and was
understandably shaken by the experience. He considered scrapping the Pym
Particles research, but his scientific brain wouldn’t let him run from his
research. He continued experimenting with his Particles, and also began to
research ants. He’s one of those Renaissance-men, crazy smart in a number of
different, completely unrelated fields. Like cybernetics. He was able to make a
helmet that would allow him to “communicate” with ants and other insects.
Aquaman rules, he doesn’t have long conversations with bugs, but can get some
basic information out of them and make them do his bidding. He was also able to
create a costume of unstable molecules, to reduce the damage from bug bites and
scratches, and created the Ant-Man persona.
He went on a few adventures before
he had a fateful encounter. He was contacted by colleague Dr. Vernon van Dyne.
Dr. van Dyne wanted Hank’s help in contacting alien life. For some reason Dr.
van Dyne also brought his daughter, Janet, with. While Hank refused to help Dr.
van Dyne, he and Jan had an almost immediate attraction to each other. Smart guy, rich woman, what are the odds of that working out? Dr. van Dyne went ahead with his research,
but was killed by an acid-like alien criminal that he accidentally made contact
with. Jan went to Hank for help, for some reason. Personally, I’d have tried to
contact the Avengers rather than the random scientist that I’d just met. But
that’s just me. He revealed his identity as Ant-Man, and also gave Jan her own
powers. Namely tiny insect wings grafted to her shoulders and her own supply of
Pym Particle Pills. Again, that’s putting a heck of a lot of trust in someone
that you just met. Just saying. Jan took up the moniker the Wasp. Together,
Ant-Man and Wasp avenged her father’s death and became long time partners. Like
Iron-Man, the insect themed duo intercepted a distress call for the Fantastic
Four that the supervillain Loki was funneling towards Thor. After the group
foiled Loki’s plans, Hank pitched the idea that they form a team, and Wasp
christened them The Avengers.
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| Way more terrifying than one would have thought at first. |
Shortly after joining the Avengers,
Hank decided to change up his superhero identity. He took the growth Pym
Particles, becoming the 12 foot tall Giant-Man. It was the 60s, superpowers
were still being figured out. It’s revealed later on that Hank decided to
become Giant-Man partially because he was feeling a little inadequate as
Ant-Man when compared to Iron Man and Thor. Which, not going to lie, is totally
understandable. Who wants to be the literal little guy next to guys like that?
He works with the Avengers for years, is part of the team when they rediscover
Captain America, and battle Baron Zemo’s Masters of Evil. Shortly after, Hank
finished his most important and destructive creation, Ultron. The android
quickly gained sentience, escaped Hank’s lab, and became one of the Avenger’s
most dangerous foes. Hank was understandably depressed after his greatest
creation went psycho, and vowed to do better, but Ultron wasn’t the last time
that Hank’s botched experiments caused trouble. He was accidentally exposed to
some dangerous chemicals after an experiment. Said chemicals caused Hank to
suffer a psychotic break, inducing schizophrenia and multiple personality
disorder, two problems that he has continued to battle to this day. Hank
created the new persona of Yellowjacket, a cocky, impulsive, arrogant superhero
that came to the Avengers Mansion and claimed to have disposed of Hank. Wasp is
the only one to realize that Yellowjacket and Hank are the same guy, which is
why she agrees to marry Yellowjacket when he proposes. It’s a comic, roll with
it. Hank eventually recovers from the chemicals, still marries Jan, and keeps
the Yellowjacket persona.
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| He's schooling Tony Stark. Imagine how rarely that happens. |
Over the next few years Hank jumps
between different superhero teams and shuffles between his Ant-Man/Giant-Man
and Yellowjacket/Goliath personas. It gets a little confusing, with the
Defenders he is Yellowjacket, but with the Avengers he’s Ant-Man. Make up your
mind Hank! In the 80s, Hank went through a rough patch. He and Jan were having
marital problems, and he was becoming more and more aggressive. He was
suspended from the Avengers when he viciously attacked a foe, from behind,
after he’d surrendered. Feeling nervous and insecure with his place with the
Avengers, Hank does what any super-scientist with a history of mental illness would
do. Make an evil robot army that only he could defeat. Jan finds out, and tries
to stop him, but gets backhanded for her trouble. An interesting fact for ya’ll,
Hank wasn’t supposed to outright hit his wife. Jim Shooter, a writer for Marvel
who was behind this particular story, intended for Hank to throw up his arms in
desperation in a sort of “Get away” gesture and accidentally hit Jan. The
artist he was working with, Bob Hall, had been taught to always go “with the
most extreme gesture” and turned the accidental smack into a hard right cross.
When Shooter got the final cut, it was too late to have Hall go back and fix
it. Look it up at Jim’s blog. Regardless, Hank was discovered by the Avengers,
his army was defeated, he was kicked out of the Avengers, and Jan served him
divorce papers. Hank, after being framed for stealing the national reserve of
adamantium, retires for a time as a superhero. He joins the West Coast branch
of the Avengers as an adviser and later a “non-costumed” aid. He eventually picked
his costume up again. During the Civil
War story Hank apparently sided with Iron Man and the Registration side of
the conflict. It’s eventually revealed that this Hank is actually a Skrull, a
shapeshifting imposter. He works hard to weaken the World’s heroes during this
and later conflicts, but is eventually discovered. When Jan is apparently
killed in a conflict, Hank took up the Mantel of the Wasp in remembrance of his
ex-wife and partner. When Jan eventually returns, this happens a lot in comics,
he returns to his Yellowjacket costume. Hank is always jumping around.
Hank Pym’s powers and abilities
varies depending on which persona he goes with. I’ll stick with the general
stuff and get to the more specifics in a bit. Hank is a genius scientist with a
PhD in biochemistry and nanotechnology, he is also skilled in the fields of
quantum physics, robotics, artificial intelligence, and entomology. Hank uses
his Pym Particles to either increase or decrease his overall size. When in his
miniature “ant” size he’s still as strong and fast as he is at full size. He’s
like a bullet, incredibly tiny but hits hard. When he uses the Particles to
grow to his “giant” size, he gains enhanced strength, durability, and stamina
because of the increase in mass. Initially he had to either ingest or inhale
Pym Particles to shrink and grow, but eventually he gained the ability to
shrink and grow at will. Over the years he’s developed a fighting style that
combines his shrinking and growing to keep opponents off balance. The unstable
molecules that makes up his costume allows it to shrink and grow with him, and
makes it largely tear resistant. He also has a cybernetic helmet that he
incorporates in all his costumes to allow him to communicate and control
insects. He also keeps various tech and gear in the pockets of his uniform.
They’re shrunk down to microchip size by Pym Particles. As Yellowjacket and,
later, the Wasp, he adds artificial insect wings to his back, and
bio-“stingers.” The stingers shoot bolts of bio-electricity that can either
annoy or seriously injure an opponent.
Hank Pym has appeared in a few
different Marvel series, typically as a support character. He’s usually shown
in his Ant-Man persona. His Giant-Man persona is usually tied to it as well,
but Ant-Man is the focus and the name he goes by.
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| The much more aggressive Yellowjacket. The gun shrinks stuff. |
He was a major character in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. He’s
a founding member of the team alongside Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and the Wasp. He
swaps between his Ant-Man and Giant-Man forms, and goes by both names, at
normal or micro-size he’s Ant-Man and supersized he’s Giant-Man. To distinguish
between the two, when he shrinks or returns to normal size there’s a flash of
yellow light, and when he grows or returns to normal size there’s a flash of
blue. He’s more interested in trying to rehabilitate villains than, you know,
smacking them around. He build’s Ultron, and sees his robot become one of the
Avenger’s greatest foes. After the season 1 finale, when the Avenger’s battle
Loki in Asgard, Hank retires. He claims that things just haven’t been the same
since Ultron snapped. His costume was stolen by Scott Lang in “To Steal an
Ant-Man,” who stole the suit to get enough money to pay off a former criminal
associate. Said associate had kidnapped his daughter, Cassie, to extort him. He
hires Luke Cage and Iron Fist to help him get the suit back. After helping
Scott out and saving Cassie, Hank turns the costume over to Scott. We see Hank
again in “Yellowjacket,” where he proposes as new micro-sized prison to Iron
Man and Wasp. Both are more concerned about Hank’s health, but he angrily shuts
them out when Tony says no to the new “Big House.” Hank is then apparently
killed by an explosion. Shortly after the highly aggressive Yellowjacket
appears and starts attacking a supervillain group known as the Serpent Society.
Yellowjacket keeps the Avengers off balance, seeming to have expert knowledge
of the team. Wasp begins to suspect who he really is. There’s a particularly
funny forth wall joke, “He’s probably going to fly in and brag about his
hammer.” Thor flies in and does just that, Yellowjacket smiles at the audience.
He’s unmasked, and the Serpent Society is freed from his unstable Big House.
Hank is allowed to rejoin the Avengers, on probation. He’s a lot more cocky and
aggressive now, but still one of the smartest guys on the team. He joins Iron
Man, Mr. Fantastic in the series finale to help stop Galactus. He and Wasp’s
relationship is bumpy during the course of the series, but the final moments of
the series seems to suggest that they’ve figured things out.
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| He's not quiet Ant-Man anymore, but he's still pretty amazing. |
We see him as Giant-Man in the
direct-to-video Ultimate Avengers and
Ultimate Avengers 2. He’s a lot like
Yellowjacket in these movies, hotheaded, impulsive and a little obnoxious. He
helps the team battle the Chitauri in both movies. He also has the limitation
of having a limit between shrinking and growing, if he changes size too quickly
or two often, he’d shred his organs. They’re a good pair of movies.
He’ll be portrayed by Michael
Douglas in Ant-Man. This version is a
retired superhero from the 80s-90s. He is the mentor of Scott Lang and has a
strained relationship with his and Wasp’s daughter, Hope.In the film he's lost his company to his former protegee, Darren Cross. Upon learning that Cross is incredibly close to recreating his Pym Particle shrinking formula, he recruits Scott Lang to help him steal the formula back and destroy Darren's research. They state pretty clearly that the reason he doesn't don his old costume to do it himself is because years of exposure to Pym Particles has had some severe damage to his brain. Doesn't mean he's completely out of the game, though. He utilizes special hearing aid looking devices that let him mentally control ants, giving him a distinct advantage in a number of surprising situations.
I like Hank Pym. His powers are a
little different from the standard set, you know, superstrength, healing
factor, energy blasting, and so on. His powers are kind of terrifying, think
about it, he can summon swarms of fire ants, locusts, killer bees, and so on.
The man could decimate a country is he really wanted to. His battle with mental
illness is interesting, and shows us one of the darker side effects of being a
superhero. I’m still a little disappointed that he will not be the focus of the
Ant-Man film, but I’m glad that they
didn’t just write him out or barely mention him. He’s the sometimes tiny,
sometimes gigantic, a little unstable, but always brilliant Hank Pym. Next time, the next Ant-Man,
Scott Lang.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Pym
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080528024244/marveldatabase/images/e/e7/Henry_Pym_%28Earth-616%29_001.jpg
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/avengersearthsmightiestheroes/images/4/4e/Antman.png/revision/latest?cb=20120317235652
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/avengersearthsmightiestheroes/images/0/01/Yellowjacket_Proposal_Three.PNG/revision/latest?cb=20120912011645
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Pym#/media/File:Michael_Douglas_as_Hank_Pym_in_Ant-Man.jpg
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