Merge:Henry Pym

Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym is a founding member of the superhero group The Avengers. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, he first appeared in Tales to Astonish #27 (January 1962).

A chemist, biologist and inventor of artificial intelligence, Pym is one of the most brilliant human scientists in the "Marvel universe." He is the creator of "Pym particles," a substance that allowed him and his love interest/partner The Wasp to shrink to minute sizes. Later alterations to the particles allowed Pym to increase his size as well.

Originally called Ant-Man, Pym's adventures with the Wasp were featured in Tales to Astonish until The Avengers became the primary platform for their careers. Both as a superhero and as a scientist has been invaluable to the team, but a long-nursed inferiority complex and bouts of mental illness have caused innumerable problems for the team and made Pym abusive towards loved ones.

In addition to Ant-Man, Pym has several different costumed identities over the years, including Goliath, Giant-Man and his current moniker Yellowjacket. Several related or semi-related characters have taken Pym's previous identities (See: successors)

Pym was featured in both animated adaptations of the Avengers: as Ant-Man in the series Avengers: United They Stand and as Giant-Man in the direct-to-video film Ultimate Avengers. A live action Ant-Man film is scheduled for 2008.

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&mdash;one type 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.

Later it was revealed that his erratic behavior had been sparked as part of a plan from supervillain Egghead (who at the time was presumed dead) to ruin Pym's reputation and cajoling him into stealing the national reserve of adamantium. The plan went into effect and Pym was eventually captured and blamed for the theft while Egghead escaped; blaming the whole thing on a reputedly-dead villain was initially taken as further proof of Pym's madness and was only through the sheer effort and determination of the bow-wielding Hawkeye (whose brother was killed by Egghead) that the real perpetrator was exposed and Pym cleared of charges. (Egghead died when pulling the trigger of a laser gun in which Hawkeye had just shot one of his arrows).

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.

Civil War and Beyond!
Both Pym and the Wasp have reappeared in the Civil War cross-over. Pym, as his Yellowjacket persona, has appeared to have sided with Iron Man, believing that superheroes should register with the government and be held responsible for their actions.

Both Wasp and Pym are also present in the series Beyond!. He mentions that the Wasp is still his ex-wife, and he wears no notable costume in the series as of the first issue. He is also going by true name, "Dr. Pym" again in this series.

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. During 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. 

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.

Clint Barton

 * Main article: Hawkeye

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".

Bill Foster

 * Main Article: Bill Foster

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 and Giant Man before retiring from superheroics.

Recently, Bill Foster came out of retirement, doning a new costume and becoming known as simply Goliath. He has recenly seen in the Civil War mini series, siding with Captain America's faction of outlaw Anti-Registration heroes.

Scott Lang
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.

Erik Josten
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.

Rita DeMara
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.

In other media
Henry Pym was featured regularly in the short-lived The Avengers: United They Stand cartoon, voiced by Rod Wilson.

He was also a major character in the animated feature Ultimate Avengers, based on the Ultimates rendition of the character. He was voiced by Nolan North.

He will soon receive his own film, entitled Ant-Man, directed by Edgar Wright.