The Original Ant-Man!: Hank Pym Appreciation

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Yeah they don't seem to be wanting to do Hank any favors if they make him a baddie again rather than admit that he's no longer joined with Ultron...

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Tales to Astonish #49 Nov 1963
"The Birth of Giant-Man!"
The story opens with a giant Henry Pym (in a new costume) smashing through his own home and frightening off one of his own neighbors.
We learn that he has developed a new type of formula that allows him to grow in size, and is now taking on the identity of Giant-Man.
The Wasp helps him free himself from the house and Giant-Man explains that he was testing his new size-changing capsules.
Giving her a demonstration, Pym grows to the height of 12 feet.

Meanwhile, Pym's frightened neighbor arrives at the police station to make a report about a giant man.
The police tell him that they're too busy looking for a "pixie" that is apparently erasing people.
Later, at a local park, a police team is searching for a being they're calling "The Eraser."
The Eraser is hiding in the woods until he's discovered by a hot dog vender.
Not wishing to have his presence alerted, he "erases" the hot dog vender.
Later the Eraser travels to the home of Dr. Ebbhart, explaining that he's been "erasing" atomic experts, and that his next target is Henry Pym.

Back at Pym's residence, Henry is explaining how the size-changing capsules work and fits himself
and the Wasp with belts that dispense different size-changing capsules for easy access.
Wasp takes a size-changing pill and shrinks down to wasp size and lands on Pym's finger.
Just then the Eraser arrives and erases Henry (and unintentionally the Wasp), who finds himself in "Dimension Z."
The Eraser follows him shortly.

The Eraser explains that their world is in a different universe that shares the same space with Earth
and that they have been monitoring the people of Earth for years. When they learned of mankind's
ability to create the atomic bomb they sought to claim the technology to do so and invented their "erasers."

Refusing to aid them, Henry Pym tries to escape but is ensnared in "clinging bands."

At this point the Wasp comes out of hiding inside Henry's coat and feeds him a shrinking capsule to escape the trap.
In their diminutive size, Pym and the Wasp escape the guards and their hunter hounds.
Donning his Giant-Man costume, the two heroes travel through the air ducts
and find the scientists and alert them of their presence and intentions to free everybody.

Taking a growth capsule, Giant-Man storms the city, easily defeating the guards and their weapons.
He captures one of Dimension Z's scientists and forces him to bring them to the lab where the erasers are kept.
There Giant-Man is trapped in a unbreakable glass cage by the Eraser, who tells him that he has the only eraser on the planet.
Too busy boasting over his victory, the Eraser doesn't notice that the Wasp has triggered the device to free Giant-Man.
Giant-Man easily defeats the Eraser and takes his devices.
Returning to the prisoners, Giant-Man uses the devices to send them all back to Earth's dimension.

Script by Stan Lee, art by Jack Kirby and Don Heck

[Habis]

So there seems to be something going on with A.I.M. and them being convinced that Hank is still alive as Pymtron and going full evil, wanting to "infect" everyone, either with some sort of computer virus or maybe turning everyone into machines...

Where is that from? I haven't been reading many Marvel books lately, but I may read something if Ultron or Hank Pym or Pymtron plays a relevant role...

[Digifiend]

Unstoppable Wasp.

[Mary Jay]

Where is that from? I haven't been reading many Marvel books lately, but I may read something if Ultron or Hank Pym or Pymtron plays a relevant role...

Unstoppable Wasp.

Yep. My advice, Habis, would be to keep your money and wait to see what develops. I don't think there will be any "relevant" role to be played either by Hank, Ultron or even Pymtron (does he still exist, or is it just Ultron messed up and believing he's still part Hank?) in that book. And if it does, I think the tone of the book lacks the proper maturity to handle it in a satisfactory way for us fans. It will probably just be another excuse to blame all the problems of the universe on Hank... The book itself seems very adamant on focusing exclusively on female characters, so I seriously doubt that a man will have any type of involvement in the storyline.

I personally am still on the lookout for Infinity Wars, if ever something happens to Hank over there... it's not looking like it, but you never know. There are also rumors about the new weekly "No Road Home" starting next February. Those are only extrapolations made by fans from a few comments by the writers in interviews, but it's as good a bet as any. I still haven't decided if I was going to get it or not, but part of me feels like I should

[tliscord]

I happened to discover a terrific Hank Pym 4 part series starting in this issue of the Avengers vol 1 written by George Perez. Unfortunately doesn’t seemed to be featured in the Marvel Unlimited. Story about variant strains of the Pym particles by the original Kosmos characters featuring Janet, Bill Foster, Scott Lang, Cap, and Wanda. Kind of an back upside down feature to those issues. If you get a hold of them well worth it.
2866A34D-2869-40DF-8FA8-8DE945FF2AF4.jpg

[Triniking1234]

I finally finished Infinity Countdown which is a damn chore to read through tbh. Poor Pym got put in a bad spot. God damn.

[Mary Jay]

I finally finished Infinity Countdown which is a damn chore to read through tbh. Poor Pym got put in a bad spot. God damn.

I kind of liked it, personally.

Do you have any theories about what might happen to Hank? I'd be really interested in reading them

[Phoenixx9]

What was the size-changing progression? Cybernetic helmets, gas, then pills (capsules) and then finally sheer willpower alone?

[Mary Jay]

What was the size-changing progression? Cybernetic helmets, gas, then pills (capsules) and then finally sheer willpower alone?

I think it's gas, then pills, then a cybernetic control embedded in the hood of his suit/helmet, and after a while his body started to produce Pym particles naturally after having been exposed to them for so long. It has been so since then.

[Mary Jay]

I happened to discover a terrific Hank Pym 4 part series starting in this issue of the Avengers vol 1 written by George Perez. Unfortunately doesn’t seemed to be featured in the Marvel Unlimited. Story about variant strains of the Pym particles by the original Kosmos characters featuring Janet, Bill Foster, Scott Lang, Cap, and Wanda. Kind of an back upside down feature to those issues. If you get a hold of them well worth it.
2866A34D-2869-40DF-8FA8-8DE945FF2AF4.jpg

I managed to get the original floppies a couple of years back! It's a great story

[Mary Jay]

So, about those rumors for the No Road Home weekly event... apparently the "big reveal" in issue #5, that was supposed to be as astounding as the resurected Hulk was in No Surrender will be Conan.

So much for any hope of seeing Hank come back, as some had theorized. I thought as much, but it's still a disappointment, even more so since this news brings down quite a bit my interest for this event. I was on the fence before, but now I'm pretty sure I'll be skipping it.

[Snoop Dogg]

The next Pymtron book will be Champions. They keep harping on about the team facing A-List villains spoilers:

and Vision's dog was just assimilated by an Ultron bot.

end of spoilers

[Mary Jay]

The next Pymtron book will be Champions. They keep harping on about the team facing A-List villains spoilers:

and Vision's dog was just assimilated by an Ultron bot.

end of spoilers

spoilers:

But Hank's soul was "eaten" by Devondra in Soul Wolrd in the Infinity Countdown event. So this Pymtron is just essentially a delusional Ultron by now. It still gives us no clue as to if we'll ever get Hank back

end of spoilers

[Mary Jay]

So...

Infinity Wars is over, except for that Infinity Wars : Infinity in January.

I have to say I enjoyed the story for what it was, but I wonder now what was the point of spoilers:

involving Pymtron in Infinity Countdown, have Hank's soul be whacked from the merge, only to be "eaten" by Devondra. I mean, it literally served no purpose for the story going forward. It could have been completely omitted and it wouldn't have made any difference. And it wasn't even touched on in Infinity Wars itself.

end of spoilers

So really, what was the point? "This character isn't dead enough, let me kill him one more time, for good"?