This is your chance. To earn that look in your daughter's eyes. To become the hero that she already thinks you are. It's not about saving our world, it's about saving theirs. Scott, I need you to be the Ant-Man." 
- —Hank Pym[src]
History
Work with S.H.I.E.L.D.
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Dr. Hank Pym is the inventor of Ant-Man's Suit, a suit that uses the Pym Particles, also discovered by him, which had the ability to shrink those equipped with it down to a size of an insect.
In the 1960s, Pym was working for S.H.I.E.L.D. as a research and development consultant. One day, he was approached by Howard Stark, who demanded that Pym must lend the Ant-Man suit over to his team for a covert mission to shut down a Hydra outpost. Pym declined, because he did not trust anyone handling his suit other than himself, in fear that it may end up in the wrong hands. Stark wouldn't let him out on the field, but S.H.I.E.L.D. co-founder Peggy Carter changed his mind.[1]
Pym traveled to Berlin, but was hesitant about being in the field. He'd find the outpost and discover the Hydra agents testing a brainwashing machine. He was disgusted by technology being used for evil. He used the stealth of being miniature to mess with and defeat the Hydra agents and to destroy the machine. Back at headquarters, Stark expressed his disapproval of Pym's decisions to destroy the technology and told Pym that it would be his last mission, but Pym told him that there was more good work the Ant-Man suit could do, and only he himself would be allowed to wear it, so he asked for his next assignment.[2]
Sometime later, Hank Pym realized he could use the help of Ants, he just had to create a device so he could communicate with them, so he successfully invented the E.M.P. Communication Device, which utilized an electromagnetic pulse to mimic ant's pheromones and communicate in a language they would understand.
Every species of Ants were following his lead by passing the test, but when it came to test the Paraponera clavata ("Bullet Ants"), they just ignored him, so Hank shrank himself expecting the result to be a different one. The problem is that, instead of listening to him, the ants began to attack and chase him until a centipede showed up and they were forced to work together to solve the situation.
Back to his normal size, Hank put the centipede in a proper place and the ants start ignoring him again.[3]
As time went on, Pym began to go on more missions for S.H.I.E.L.D., eventually sharing the secret of his suit with his wife Janet so that she could accompany him in the field. However, during a mission in 1987, Janet sacrificed herself by shrinking down to the sub-atomic level to disable a stolen ICBM, resulting in her apparent death as she went past the point where she could be returned to normal size. This experience left Pym stricken with grief, shipping his daughter Hope off to boarding school while he attempted to research the Quantum Realm to find a way to rescue her. Hank told Hope that her mother died in a plane crash, which she easily saw through as a lie. A decade of research into the Quantum Realm with no results convinced Hank that Janet was lost forever.
In 1989, Pym had a confrontation with Howard Stark, Peggy Carter, and Mitchell Carson when he discovered that Carson had been involved in attempts to duplicate his Pym particles. Although Peggy was shocked at the discovery, when Howard attempted to justify the decision due to the military applications of the particle. Pym punched Carson in the face when he made a snide remark about Janet's apparent death, and left the unfinished Triskelion in disgust.
A New Ant-Man
Pym founded Pym Technologies at some point after ending his affiliation with S.H.I.E.L.D., and buried his research of Pym particles out of fear of what would happen should it fall into the wrong hands. He took on a young protégé Darren Cross, and although he thought of Darren as the son he never had, the two of them never saw eye-to-eye on the potential applications of the Pym particle. Hank never allowed Cross to find out about the Ant-Man suit since he knew Cross would be unable to resist developing more of them.
Cross eventually took over as CEO of Pym Technologies. His relationship with Hank had soured to the point that Cross forced him out of his own company. Hope, who had since taken her mother's maiden name as a sign of her own chilly relationship with her father, remained with the company as Cross's assistant. Cross continued development on the Pym particles in an attempt to weaponize them. He eventually found Hank's research with the Ant-Man suit. With that information, Cross was able to build the Yellowjacket suit, his own version of Hank's suit designed for military use.
Hank and his daughter both realized the danger an army of equipped with Pym particles would pose to the world, and put aside their differences to stop Cross. Hope wanted her father to give her the Ant-Man suit so she could stop him, but Hank adamantly refused to allow his daughter to use the the suit. Instead, he saw Scott Lang, a thief imprisoned for stealing millions from VistaCorp, as the perfect candidate to wear the suit. When Hank and Hope discovered the Yellowjacket suit, however, they had to expedite their plans significantly. They still had some time to prepare since Cross had still not yet found a way to shrink organisms with the Pym particles while maintaining their form.
Hank seeded information about a heist with a friend of Scott's in the hope that it would make it to him. Scott took the bait and broke into a vault in Hank's house, only to find the Ant-Man suit instead of the riches Hank had led him to believe were hidden there. Hank watched the break-in from a hidden lab in the house, observing with keen interest as Scott adeptly bypassed every one his security measures. He continued to observe remotely as Scott then stole the suit and eventually tried it on back at his own apartment. It was only then that he finally revealed himself, radioing to the suit's helmet receiver to coach Scott through the alien situation of being the size of an insect.
Hank's plan to see how the thief would cope with the Pym particle technology ultimately failed when Scott decided to break into Hank's house a second time to return the suit. The thief was caught by police in the act of escaping, prompting Hank to intervene later by posing as his lawyer at the police station. He told Scott about his own ruse, and how he needed the younger man's unique skill sets, before leaving the station. This was all just another part of his attempt to draw Scott to him, and shortly after leaving he orchestrated a bold escape whereby he had his ants bring the Ant-Man suit into Scott's holding cell, and cover up the escape while directing Scott to safety.
The next morning, after the ants had taken Scott back to Pym's house, Hank explained everything about Darren Cross. After winning some measure of trust, he and his daughter began training Scott to become the next Ant-Man. Scott's initial failures caused more friction between father and daughter, with Hope insisting that she be the one to wear the suit. Hank found himself accused of lying to her about her mother's death, and weathered even more accusations about how he had treated Hope since. He eventually revealed the truth about how her mother had sacrificed herself to save many, leading to some measure of reconciliation with his daughter, and with the warming of their relationship, the training with Scott improved markedly.
Scott's training progressed to the point that Hank was confident in letting him break into an old Stark warehouse in New York and steal a device that would help them stop Darren Cross. However, Hank was unaware that the warehouse had since been transformed into the Avengers' headquarters. Scott proceeded with the mission anyway despite Hank's objections, and was spotted by one of the Avengers, Falcon. Scott showed off his skill with the suit by fighting and beating Falcon before escaping with the device he was there to retrieve in the first place.
Hank was furious with Scott for risking the Pym particle technology in the robbery at the Avengers' base, and said as much when Scott returned. His fury abated when Scott produced the device however, and talk soon turned back to the imminent heist. Hank stepped into another room to find Darren Cross had discretely entered his home. Cross confronted him over their mutual history, and asked why Hank had kept the Pym particle research hidden. While Hank was trying to deflect Darren's criticisms, he was relieved to see a map of the Pym Technologies site furl up thanks to the intervention of Scott discretely commanding ants from another room. Cross soon ended the discussion with an invitation to Pym Technologies to witness something profound. Understanding how close Cross was to a technological breakthrough, Hank felt the urgency to act and reluctantly agreed to have Scott bring his crew in on the heist.
On the day of the heist, Hank Pym arrived at Pym Technologies, now renamed Cross Technologies, main facility. Before he entered the building, he was stopped by two police officers trying to question him about Scott Lang's escape. Pym tried to tell the officers that the world would be in extreme danger if they prevented him from entering the building. Dave, one of Scott's crew members, foiled the impromptu questioning by stealing their car, giving Hank the freedom to enter the building.
A delighted Darren Cross greeted Hank inside and ushered both Hank and Hope to the Yellowjacket's vault where a sale was to be made. He introduced them to the people buying the suit, and Hank was mildly surprised by the presence of Mitchell Carson leading the group of buyers. Scott Lang also entered the room, playing his part in the heist and shrunken to the size of an insect in the Ant-Man suit, but became trapped in the cylinder normally used to house the Yellowjacket suit instead. Hank was then treated to several revelations including Carson's affiliation with Hydra, and that Darren's earlier visit to his home had been an assassination attempt, foiled by the presence of Hope. Hank punched his former protégé, prompting Cross to demand his execution, but when the Hydra goons moved to gun Hank down, he intervened and announced that he wanted to kill Hank himself. Hope reacted violently, as did Scott who explosively escaped from the chamber and attacked the various assembled gunmen. In the confusion, Darren Cross shot Hank in the shoulder.
Cross and Carson both escaped while Scott and Hope looked after Hank. Hank ordered Scott to go after them while Hope helped get him out of the facility. He handed her his keychain with a token of a tank on it and told her it was more than just a keychain. Hope restored the tank to normal size and drove it out of the building. Once free of the building, Hank could do little more than accept medical attention and be helped to safety. He learned later that Scott had safely entered and re-emerged from the subatomic Quantum Realm in an effort to defeat Darren Cross.
The next day, Hank tried to get any information about the Quantum Realm that he could out of Scott, but Scott could not remember much of it. He again thanked Scott for all he had done, and later found him stealing a kiss with Hope. Some time later, Hank showed his daughter something he and Janet had been working on when she died - a new Wasp suit. Hank thought it might be time for the two of them to complete it together.[4]Attributes
Abilities
Physicist: Dr. Henry Pym is a gifted scientist with a particular expertise in particle physics.
Brawling: Hank has had many years of practice with unarmed combat, marrying conventional punching with the acrobatic capabilities afforded him by Ant-Man's Suit when shrunken to insect size. Even in his advancing years, he still demonstrated a forceful and effective punch.Weaknesses
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Ant-Man's Suit
- Ant-Man's Helmet
- Portable ant control device
- Miniature portable surveillance cameras
Notes
- Michael Douglas portrays Hank Pym in Ant-Man, and will reprise his role in the upcoming film Ant-Man and the Wasp. Dax Griffin portrays a younger Hank Pym during his days as Ant-Man in the same film.
Trivia
- In a deleted scene for the film Thor, Erik Selvig mentions Hank Pym as a colleague of his that he would email who had some dealings with S.H.I.E.L.D..
See Also
- 8 appearance(s) of Henry Pym (Earth-199999)
- 3 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Henry Pym (Earth-199999)
- 2 minor appearance(s) of Henry Pym (Earth-199999)
- 3 mention(s) of Henry Pym (Earth-199999)
- 26 image(s) of Henry Pym (Earth-199999)
- 1 quotation(s) by or about Henry Pym (Earth-199999)
- 1 item(s) used/owned by Henry Pym (Earth-199999)