Henry Pym
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Template:Superherobox Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe, a founding member of the superhero group The Avengers and a brilliant scientist who spends much of his time in his lab. Over the years, Pym has had a number of different costumed identities, such as Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Yellowjacket and Goliath; he is currently going by the alias of "Yellowjacket". While his brilliance could not prevent several encounters with mental illness and an inferiority complex, his mind and stability of spirit have proven invaluable to the Avengers team.
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Character history
At one point, Henry Pym was married to a Hungarian called Maria Trovaya. Sadly, their marriage was cut short when Maria was killed by Hungarian Secret Police. Shortly after that, biochemist Hank Pym discovered what he called Pym particles, a rare group of subatomic particles from which he formulated a size-altering formula. Testing the solution on himself, he found they were far more powerful than he hypothesized—one of these particles had the power to make things shrink and the other to restore an object to its natural size. He was shrunk down to the size of an insect and narrowly escaped the inhabitants of an anthill. He then restored himself. After he undertook an exhaustive study of ants, he later constructed a "cyber-helmet" that would let him communicate with and control insects. He designed a costume and gave himself the superhero name Ant-Man. On his first outing as Ant-Man, he defeated some KGB agents that were trying to steal some anti-radiation gas that Pym had made. He started a career as Ant-Man and fought many supervillains and monsters.
Later, Pym was contacted by Dr. Vernon Van Dyne, who asked for Pym's help in contacting aliens. He refused, but became attracted to Vernon's daughter, Janet Van Dyne. Vernon Van Dyne was later slain by an alien outlaw. Janet asked for Hank's help to avenge his death. Pym then revealed his secret identity to her. Hank used some Pym particles on her and grafted wasp wings beneath her shoulders (but they disappeared when she was normal size and came back again when using Pym particles). Janet assumed the name of The Wasp. They tracked down and defeated Vernon's killer, thus forming a permanent partnership and starting a relationship, before becoming founding members of the Avengers. Shortly afterward, he developed a variant Pym particle that could increase his size; using these, he became Giant-Man and later Goliath.
However, Pym suffered a series of mental problems. Shortly before his wedding, he had a breakdown during which he became amnesiac and developed the cocky "Yellowjacket" persona; he only fully recovered after his wedding to Janet. Almost immediately prior to that incident, he had created an android called Ultron, which, to his horror, became self-aware and evil, and plotted to kill and replace him and the rest of humanity with robots. The extent of his guilt involved in Ultron's creation was not revealed until years later, when he admitted that Ultron's brain patterns were in fact based on his own.
Several years later, Pym had a complete breakdown, and became extremely paranoid. During the course of this breakdown, he became overbearing and verbally abusive towards Janet. At the nadir of this degeneration, he struck her, and then proceeded to concoct a plan to make himself look good in front of his teammates by staging an attack upon them which only he could stop. This plan backfired and Pym was exposed, disgraced, and expelled from the Avengers, and the couple divorced.
After Pym's mental state returned to normal he rejoined the Avengers, first in an advisory role and later as Giant-Man. After the events of "Avengers Forever", Pym re-adopted his Yellowjacket costume, to put the past behind him and acknowledge his healed psyche. After a time, he and the Wasp became friends again and, some years later, resumed a romantic relationship. In the events detailed in the "Avengers Finale", Pym and Janet left the team to re-kindle their relationship in England, where Pym had accepted a residency at Oxford.
Powers and abilities
Dr. Hank Pym is a scientific genius of the highest order with expertise in both the fields of robotics/cybernetics and biochemistry. Throughout his career, he has created the robot Ultron, often repaired Vision, and invented much of the Avengers' equipment. The robot Rover, another of his creations, served as a jet, possessing rudimentary artificial intelligence and offensive capabilities.
His greatest scientific achievement, "Pym particles", led to several costumed identities. Pym particles enable mass to be shunted or gained from an alternate dimension. By imbibing special capsules of Pym particles, Pym was able to shrink to half-inch size and adventure as the Ant-Man and, later, to grow to 30-foot size and adventure as Giant-Man and Goliath. He later switched from using capsules to a Pym particle-filled gas, but eventually his body had absorbed enough particles to shrink and grow at will. As Yellowjacket, Pym used his shrinking ability along with a bio-energy gun (used incorporated into blasting gauntlets.) In his insect guises, Pym also used a communication device in his helmet that allowed him to communicate and control insect life (mostly ants.) At one point, Pym found himself able to use the Pym particle field about his body to shrink and grow objects in contact with him, and he carried various high and low tech equipment in his jumpsuit. Currently, he can only shrink and grow objects that have been specially-treated with Pym particles beforehand. As Hank's abilities have fluctuated between growth and size reduction, he has remained an intellectual at heart. [1]
Successors
A number of other superheroes (and a few supervillains) have used Dr. Pym's rejected costumes and codenames; they are listed here in chronological order of first appearances.
Goliath II
- Main article: Hawkeye (comics)
Clint Barton is better known as the superhero Hawkeye; he adopted the Goliath powers and identity in The Avengers #63 (April 1969), shortly after Pym became Yellowjacket. He remained Goliath through the Kree-Skrull War, and briefly resumed using the name during "Operation: Galactic Storm".
Black Goliath/Giant-Man II/Goliath IV
- Main Article: Black Goliath
Dr. Bill Foster was Pym's lab assistant, an African American who used the Giant-Man identity briefly. He had an equally brief career as the Black Goliath before retiring from superheroics.
Ant-Man II
Template:Main Scott Lang was a thief who was reformed with the aid of Pym and Iron Man. After a fairly lengthy, if not especially noteworthy, career as the second Ant-Man, he became an affiliate of the Fantastic Four and most recently became a full-time member of the Avengers. For a period of time he dated Jessica Jones. He was killed in Avengers #500, but his daughter, Cassie, has taken up his heroic mantle as Stature in the pages of Young Avengers.
Goliath III
Erik Josten was originally known as the supervillain Power Man; after an encounter with Luke Cage, who was also calling himself Power Man at the time, he changed his codename to The Smuggler, and later to Goliath. He adopted the superheroic identity of Atlas upon joining the Thunderbolts.
Yellowjacket II
Rita DeMara was introduced in Avengers #264 as a villainess. She went on to become a member of two versions of the Masters of Evil, a temporary Avenger, and a Guardian of the Galaxy.
Ultimate Henry Pym
In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Henry "Hank" Pym is a brilliant, but mentally fragile scientist who takes Prozac and is married to Janet Pym, née van Dyne. He was chosen to work on the "Super Soldier Project" for S.H.I.E.L.D. under Nick Fury. Hank is also the superhero "Giant-Man", able to grow to 59 feet and 11 inches (60 feet being the point where the human body cannot support its own mass). He gained his powers after experimenting on the blood of his wife Jan, who is a mutant.
In this continuity, he was prone to domestic violence, likely a spin off of a storyline in Marvel 616. He had been attempting to change, going on a medication, and Jan believed that joining the Ultimates could be a new start for them. But later the tensions of losing and humiliating himself in a battle with the Hulk, and his jealousy of Jan's "friendship" with Captain America, led into a heated argument between the couple that ended after they had a violent fight, and Janet was hospitalized. Captain America himself took revenge, beat him to a pulp and forced him out of the team.
He was eventually allowed back into the Triskelion, but not as a member of the Ultimates, but rather he served with the staff and acted as a shrink for inmates, including Norman Osborn, Otto Octavius, Maxwell Dillon, Flint Marko and Sergei Kravinoff.
Henry seemed to have overcome his violent streak and was desperate to get in the Ultimates again, becoming the ant-manipulator "Ant-Man" and building two prototype androids, Ultron and Vision II. Despite this, he remained a pariah, becoming increasingly depressed as S.H.I.E.L.D. debuted an entire team of Giant-Men who were capable of breaking the 60-foot "limit" that he had been unable to overcome. Desperate, he joined the vigilante team Defenders, starting a meaningless affair with Valkyrie and making a laughingstock of himself.
In spite of his sad descent, he has been able to relate to his estranged wife Jan again, and the two are starting to see each other again (their relationship has been platonic so far). On a side note, he was visited by the traitor within the Ultimates—an object of great fan speculation, as of 2005—but seems too much in a funk to seriously care (It was revealed in Ultimates 2 #9 that the traitor was Ultimate Black Widow). In recently published materials, it has been revealed that Pym is building an army of Ultrons for the invading Coalition. Hank Pym, keeps the American populace in line using the Ultron robots he created, not knowing how full scale the attack would be. Template:-
References
- Tales to Astonish (as Henry Pym) #27 (Marvel Comics, January 1962)
- Tales to Astonish (as Ant-Man) #35-49 (Marvel Comics, September 1962 - November 1963)
- Tales to Astonish (as Giant-Man) #49-69 (Marvel Comics, November 1963 - July 1965)
- Ant-Man's Big Christmas #1 (2001)
- Essential Ant-Man (black and white trade paperback) (2002)
External links
- MDP: Henry Pym - Marvel Database Projectes:Hank Pym