The Original Ant-Man!: Hank Pym Appreciation

[Hypestyle]

how old is Nadia? how old is Hank? How old is Jan? Roughly speaking anyway; I'm aware of the sliding timeline aspect.

[Triniking1234]

Nadia's younger than Kamala. Hank's around Banner's and Stark's ages. Janet should be older than Jean; but younger than Susan Richards.

[scribbleMind]

You guys ever feel like the way the Avengers treat Hank or fail to prioritize him when he's clearly in need of their assistance (like...idk, being fused with one of their arch-nemeses?) has tarnished your perception that they're good people? Heroes all, certainly, but good people? Sure, there's lot's of stuff happening all the time, but this is one of their own, and original Avenger, and they have showed they don't care NUMEROUS times post-Secret Invasion.

[Michael Watkins]

You guys ever feel like the way the Avengers treat Hank or fail to prioritize him when he's clearly in need of their assistance (like...idk, being fused with one of their arch-nemeses?) has tarnished your perception that they're good people?

he's dead. he doesn't need their assistance.

[Michael Watkins]

how old is Nadia? how old is Hank? How old is Jan? Roughly speaking anyway; I'm aware of the sliding timeline aspect.

15
45
30

I honestly don't know.

[bearman]

I firmly believe that editors should be able to retcon or eliminate badly written stories
( not necessarily bad behaviors).
But so many heroes have had a bad story line or two that defines them....Mr. Fantastic cloning a Thor, Banshee creating X Corps, Beast doing any number of things...
They should have the opportunity for a limited re set.

[Captain M]

15
45
30

I honestly don't know.

That seems about right

[Mary Jay]

You guys ever feel like the way the Avengers treat Hank or fail to prioritize him when he's clearly in need of their assistance (like...idk, being fused with one of their arch-nemeses?) has tarnished your perception that they're good people? Heroes all, certainly, but good people? Sure, there's lot's of stuff happening all the time, but this is one of their own, and original Avenger, and they have showed they don't care NUMEROUS times post-Secret Invasion.

A lot of Avengers have been guilty of this in the past. Their "do not meddle" approach about personal matters have caused things to escalade more than they should have. The whole Carol story back in the days was bad in itself. Did somebody lift a finger to help Tony when he was struggling with alcoholism? I'd even say, re-reading the old Avengers issues pre-Trial of Yellowjacket, how couldn't anyone realize there was something wrong with Hank (hint: there definitely was)?

But yes, letting Ultron go free without pursuit in RoU was wrong. They should have tried something, anything, to stop him or reverse the process. Not only for Hank, but they freaking let Ultron go free...! That in itself is wrong, IMO.

What happened with Hank in RoU and later on does make the Avengers, at the very least the original ones, look really bad. Especially since Hank himself would have done anything he could to help if the situation was reversed. For how long did he look for Jan when she was in the Microverse (and volunteered to go get her when they found out where she was)? Wasn't he part of the team that brought Captain America back in Captain America Reborn? Didn't he help Tony Stark when he was lost in time in "Iron Age"? He risked his life helping Daredevil get rid of nanobots placed by Doom, he helped with Foggy Nelson's treatment just cause. He's always there for others, but it feels like no one is there for him. The only time I witnessed someone doing a purely good deed to Hank was when Bonita Juarez stopped him from killing himself. A complete stranger did more for him than all his "friends" combined. Oh, and that one time during Ultron Unlimited. That's all I can think of.

[Mary Jay]

how old is Nadia? how old is Hank? How old is Jan? Roughly speaking anyway; I'm aware of the sliding timeline aspect.

That's hard to say.

My personal opinion, that is worth not much more than anyone else's, is: around 15, around 40, around 33.

The universe has rebooted Hank and Jan with Heroes Return anyway. They might be 35 forever for all I know.

The only sure thing is that Jan was 23 in the first few years of the Avengers, before the time she got married (she inherited from her dad when she turned 23).

Hank got his doctorate while others his age were just starting college, and he met his first wife around that time. They got married within months, and she got killed on their honeymoon. So Nadia has been conceived around that time, before he became Ant-Man.

I think we, as fans, think too much about all this

[Hypestyle]

That's hard to say.

My personal opinion, that is worth not much more than anyone else's, is: around 15, around 40, around 33.

The universe has rebooted Hank and Jan with Heroes Return anyway. They might be 35 forever for all I know.

The only sure thing is that Jan was 23 in the first few years of the Avengers, before the time she got married (she inherited from her dad when she turned 23).

Hank got his doctorate while others his age were just starting college, and he met his first wife around that time. They got married within months, and she got killed on their honeymoon. So Nadia has been conceived around that time, before he became Ant-Man.

I think we, as fans, think too much about all this

so if the wife got killed on the honeymoon, then how.... never mind.. lol

[Michael Watkins]

so if the wife got killed on the honeymoon, then how.... never mind.. lol

she was pregnant when they kidnapped her.

[Mary Jay]

so if the wife got killed on the honeymoon, then how.... never mind.. lol

Well, it's safe to say that such a story wouldn't have been written back in the 60s, having a child be conceived out of wedlock would have been too controversial in those days, at least for a comic book

[Da Boat]

I 100% agree.

It seems like some people expect Hank hitting Janet to be brought up in a comic every single time the character's name is referenced and if it isn't then Marvel is trying to 'hide it'.

The Tom Brevoort comment is ironic. The reason hitting Janet, mental health issues, creating Ultron & Pym particles is all people remember about Hank Pym is because those events are pretty much the only things writers written about involving the character for the last few decades.

People don't bring up Spider-Man hitting his wife because there is decades worth of fantastic other stories involving his character. If Marvel want to make Hank Pym a profitable character that people like then perhaps letting writers create new stories that don't revolve around previous well covered events is the direction to go.

And because Chuck Austen brought it back in the early 2000s. You are talking about decades where Hank and Janet had been together on and off and having had many adventures together where they were happy. And Hawkeye is like "how could you?" Like, what? But we live at a time where people use Twitter to bring back things someone might have said years ago to shame them and have them being punished. Some people won't accept that comic-books were created for fun and not linger into negative stuff.

[Tony Stark]

You guys ever feel like the way the Avengers treat Hank or fail to prioritize him when he's clearly in need of their assistance (like...idk, being fused with one of their arch-nemeses?) has tarnished your perception that they're good people? Heroes all, certainly, but good people? Sure, there's lot's of stuff happening all the time, but this is one of their own, and original Avenger, and they have showed they don't care NUMEROUS times post-Secret Invasion.

A lot of Avengers have been guilty of this in the past. Their "do not meddle" approach about personal matters have caused things to escalade more than they should have. The whole Carol story back in the days was bad in itself. Did somebody lift a finger to help Tony when he was struggling with alcoholism? I'd even say, re-reading the old Avengers issues pre-Trial of Yellowjacket, how couldn't anyone realize there was something wrong with Hank (hint: there definitely was)?

But yes, letting Ultron go free without pursuit in RoU was wrong. They should have tried something, anything, to stop him or reverse the process. Not only for Hank, but they freaking let Ultron go free...! That in itself is wrong, IMO.

What happened with Hank in RoU and later on does make the Avengers, at the very least the original ones, look really bad. Especially since Hank himself would have done anything he could to help if the situation was reversed. For how long did he look for Jan when she was in the Microverse (and volunteered to go get her when they found out where she was)? Wasn't he part of the team that brought Captain America back in Captain America Reborn? Didn't he help Tony Stark when he was lost in time in "Iron Age"? He risked his life helping Daredevil get rid of nanobots placed by Doom, he helped with Foggy Nelson's treatment just cause. He's always there for others, but it feels like no one is there for him. The only time I witnessed someone doing a purely good deed to Hank was when Bonita Juarez stopped him from killing himself. A complete stranger did more for him than all his "friends" combined. Oh, and that one time during Ultron Unlimited. That's all I can think of.

I was actually thinking about this the last few days. I think they could have done more for Pym. Though Tony has had his own issues to deal with like being in a coma. I don't know why Janet or Thor didn't do anything as I haven't kept up with them.

[chamber-music]

And because Chuck Austen brought it back in the early 2000s. You are talking about decades where Hank and Janet had been together on and off and having had many adventures together where they were happy. And Hawkeye is like "how could you?" Like, what? But we live at a time where people use Twitter to bring back things someone might have said years ago to shame them and have them being punished. Some people won't accept that comic-books were created for fun and not linger into negative stuff.

Yep. Hank mostly rebounded in the nineties but then in the early 2000s the new crop of writers suddenly decided people were still mad at Hank. Tony, Carol, Clint and others all suddenly hate or distrust Hank despite them being fine with him for years before that under different writers. It is especially weird because Clint and Hank developed a pretty good relationship and Tony called Hank one of his best friends at one point.