Do writers hate Hank Pym Ant-Man?

[Kaitou D. Kid]

That's pretty insightful on the MCU and how Hank's absence was filled by others.

At the same time I don't entirely buy the "Edgar Wright tied our hands" excuse. If Feige believed that Hank Pym and Janet were essential to the Avengers he would never have allowed Wright to hoard on to those characters. Remember, that Hulk had to be recast after Norton walked away and Feige had to recast and quickly reintroduce him in Avengers 2012. Hawkeye had a small cameo in Thor 1 but also had to be reintroduced quickly. Likewise, Peyton Reed wasn't informed or consulted about Scott Lang turning Giant Man in CAPTAIN AMERICA CIVIL WAR. So if Feige wanted to, he could have featured Hank and Janet.

Likewise, Edgar Wright all along was going to feature Scott Lang as Ant-Man. He never had intentions of using Hank and Janet. So the decision to shift Ant-Man away from Hank to Scott Lang was made very early, agreed on by Feige and Wright, and even after Wright stepped down, they still stuck to that. So I think the simple answer is that Feige didn't want Hank's baggage in the comics to be tied to the MCU even in tangential fashion (and Disney might not appreciate that it takes a quick search to put "wife-beater" next to a character they are promoting as lead, as opposed to supporting character).

As such I think I am fair in arguing that "redeeming Hank" has come at the price of Janet.

Edgar Wright first signed on to make Ant-Man back in 2006 around the same time as Favreau signed on for Iron Man. The idea of actually doing the Avengers and having a shared universe only began to be taken seriously during the production on Iron Man. In other words, Hank and Jan were off-the-table from literally the very beginning, and Favreau+Wright were the Big Bang to the MCU. Before there was anything, there was Favreau who had an interest in Iron Man and Wright who had interest in Ant-Man.

In regards to why Marvel decided to do shelf them from the beginning...First, I think the only Avengers they thought of as "essential" were Iron Man, Cap, Thor, and Hulk. Second, Edgar Wright is no Steven Spielberg but he was a very solid choice for a studio that was struggling and only started making their own films because they were in debt (especially since Ant-Man was always going to have a lower budget than the average Iron Man/Cap/Thor film). Third, early MCU directors had a level of auteur influence over their films that we almost never saw again after the success of Iron Man, except occasionally like with Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther. For those reasons, I don't think hiring Edgar Wright and being ok with letting him shelf the Pyms were crazy decisions in the context of the mid 2000's. I don't think the decision to continue Ant-Man after Wright's departure was odd either - by then the MCU Avengers canon had been set (including Ultron whom Whedon was already working on), the film was in production with a script, a deadline, and an expected return on investment.

In regards to whether or not Disney/Marvel wanted to avoid Hank, I'm doubtful they were. Favreau had to fight Marvel to get Downey in the role of Iron Man. Marvel didn't want him initially due to his history, and Downey is a real person while Hank is fictional (the MCU Hank would have furthermore been a different version from 616 and there is no prerequisite that Hank has to be a wife beater). When Marvel eventually cast Hank Pym, they still cast an A-list actor and gave the character a decent amount of exposure in the marketing. Outside of the MCU, I don't get the impression Disney has a problem with Hank. They still market him for the cartoons and gave him his own trailer for the video game. The truth is that getting angry at fictional characters is to a superhero fan what yelling at athletes through a TV screen is to a sports fan - only the hardcore fans do it while those more casually invested can't find the energy to go that far.

Here is another reason I suspect at least Wasp would have been in the cards: Black Widow honestly never fully worked as the 'main Avengers girl'. She was always too grounded to feel natural standing next to the Big Three (which wouldn't have been a problem for Carol), and too emotionally detached to fill in the void left by Janet. She isn't colorful enough to sell to kids like you can with Janet or Carol. She wasn't even thought of as a top 10 Avenger until the success of Ultimates - even then, Janet was still 'the main Avengers girl' in that run and Widow was written to be a traitor. I don't think it's a complete coincidence that both Wasp and Captain Marvel got their solos before her, or that she was killed off once the MCU's Wasp and Captain Marvel were established. Even now, I get the sense Feige still sees Wasp and Captain Marvel as stronger long-term IPs than he saw the Black Widow just based on the way he talks about them. If Edgar Wright wasn't the reason that Janet was excluded from the Avengers from the get-go, the only other one I can think of is that late-2000s execs thought a spy in black leather was a safer choice than a bug lady in yellow (Carol was probably off-limits due to her origin having to be reworked). Just my opinion, but I don't see how else Widow could make the cut over them regardless of how good of a character she is - it would be like doing a Justice League film and featuring Black Canary or Huntress as the main female lead over both Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl.

Ultimately, do I think Feige is losing sleep over not including Hank and Janet in the Avengers? No, but I'm sure he would have done some things differently in the same way that literally every other successful person always has 1 or 2 things they would do differently in hindsight. I suspect including Hank and Janet as founding Avengers is one of those things he would have done differently, even if he is overall happy and proud of his results.