The Original Ant-Man!: Hank Pym Appreciation

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Tales to Astonish #45 Jul 1963
"The Terrible Traps of Egghead!"
Egghead forms a new gang

and sets a trap for the Wasp,

hoping to use her against Ant-Man.

Script by Stan Lee and Ernie Hart [H. E. Huntley], art by Don Heck

[jetengine]

I've always thought (besides copious retcons) the easiest way to get Hank going again is drop all the other heroic accoutrement. No Ant/Giant/YellowJacket/Wasp man stuff.

You Doc Savage him ala WCA. He's just Dr Pym doing super-science shit and occasionally punching a dude in the face who happens to be hanging around doing nefarious things at his latest research project/expose etc. He's a man with ludicrous amounts of knowledge and interests, unlike Reed isn't fettered by corporations essentially bribing him, so he can try to make the world a better place (albeit in small doses, this is status quo world after all, you could even story it as people being wary about working with the 'crazy ultron guy') and wants to prove himself since his PR is mostly negative.

For example

Issue 1 - We set up the new status quo as the OC assistant arrives in Egypt for an Archaeological dig only to discover her/his new boss is Hank Pym. "I thought you were a superhero...and a bug guy?" "Entomologist, superheroing....had issues and I took an interest in Archaeology last week, got my full PHD two days ago and thought 'what the hell, lets go find us a Pharaoh' ". Whilst digging around they awaken something horrible and shenanigans occur, hints are dropped to an overarching plot or villain that would appear in subsequent issues. For whatever reason Pym keeps the OC on board whom is the reader essentially. Hints at his....less then stellar mental state are dropped occasionally leading up to a frank discussion about Bi polar disorder and mental illness in general in a later issue.

Each issue follows a similar pattern. Fabulous location, odd problem or situation that Pyms got himself into either intentionally or accidentally , solved through ingenuity, quick wits and the occasional shrinking/enlarging of things/supertech.

[Lucas 35]

[Mary Jay]

I rather like that YJ design. I think it's a nice adaptation, and one that doesn't look menacing like the YJ suit in the first movie. It's a "good guy" kind of suit

In fact, this design reminds me more of the original YJ suit than the Darren Cross one (which only really had the color theme going for it, while the "back arms" were taken from the G.I.Ant-Man suit).

I'd be curious to see if they had a helmet design as well.

[juan678]

[juan678]

[sweetxsecret]

So Hank Pym sorta appeared in the recent Ant-Man & Wasp (Issue 4)

spoilers:

in a dream-world that projects a person's deepest desires meant to trap Nadia and Scott. On the bright side, this is the closest we've gotten to seeing Hank being unfused from Ultron, and him and Nadia finally meeting. It makes me optimistic for the day when it actually happens.

end of spoilers

[Digifiend]

Nadia was an idiot in that issue. spoilers:

She should've known Hank wasn't real immediately, because he knew who she was. The real Hank doesn't know she exists and so would've thought she was trespassing.

end of spoilers

[Michael Watkins]

Nadia was an idiot in that issue. spoilers:

She should've known Hank wasn't real immediately, because he knew who she was. The real Hank doesn't know she exists and so would've thought she was trespassing.

end of spoilers

She probably thought that she was in an alternate timeline. It's what I thought when he showed up.

[catbellysqueezer]

Yeah I thought it was an alternate timeline at first too.

[itspopularnowitsucks]

Is this guy going to be in the new Unstoppable Wasp ongoing? Solocitation mentioning him and AIM (wasn’t AIM good now under Toni Ho?)

[itspopularnowitsucks]

Is this guy going to be in the new Unstoppable Wasp ongoing? Solocitation mentioning him and AIM (wasn’t AIM good now under Toni Ho?)

[catbellysqueezer]

Which guy?

[sweetxsecret]

Is this guy going to be in the new Unstoppable Wasp ongoing? Solocitation mentioning him and AIM (wasn’t AIM good now under Toni Ho?)

I'm assuming you're talking about Hank Pym? Based on the interview, the book is going to go more into Nadia investigating the connection between her father, Hank and the evil A.I.M. and fighting enemies he's made as Ant-Man/Giant-Man. So we're gonna be getting flashbacks and mentions of him at least. (My guess is that it's gonna be similar to the Ant-Man and the Wasp movie except the roles of Hank and Janet are reversed. Like we feel Hank's presence, but don't actually see him outside of flashbacks.)

As for A.I.M., I remember Whitley mentioned on either his Tumblr or Twitter that A.I.M. is being run under Monica Rappaccini again after the events of Avengers No Surrender. (The aftermath resulted in Roberto disbanding U.S.Avengers, and Toni Ho's heroic A.I.M. deciding to rebrand the organization under the new name R.E.S.C.U.E.)

[Michael Watkins]

I never bought Monica willingly serving that mope Andrew Forson. i think it's time for the more prominent female A.I.M villainesses to league up. Monica Rappaccini, Deidre Wentworth/Superia, and Kashmir Vennema have all been seen acting as figureheads of A.I.M. why not a triumvirate? it would dovetail with the female empowerment angle of Nadia's book. i guess there might be room for someone like June Covington (although she treated AIM as an adversary) or Tilda Johnson (if she's done with that Nighthawk crap).

https://static.comicvine.com/uploads...rappaccini.jpg
https://static.comicvine.com/uploads...-superia+1.jpg
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix6/v..._AIM_armor.jpg