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Hank Pym
Real Name: Henry Jonathan Pym
Aliases: Ant-Man, Goliath, Giant-Man, Yellowjacket, Wasp, Earth's Scientist
Supreme, Scientific Adventurer, Gigantus, The Mage, Ultron
Relatives
Angela Pym (paternal grandmother, deceased);
Brad Pym (father);
Doris Pym (mother);
Sally (aunt);[5]
Harry (uncle);[5]
Janos Trovaya
(1st father-in-law, deceased);
Vernon Van Dyne (ex-father-in-law, deceased);
Maria Trovaya (1st wife, deceased);
Janet Van Dyne (ex-wife);
Nadia Pym
(daughter)
Affiliation: Formerly Avengers Academy, Avengers A.I.,
Avengers (Heroes Reborn), Illuminati, Secret Avengers, Mighty Avengers,
G.R.A.M.P.A, Secret Defenders, West Coast Avengers (resident scientist),[1]
Avengers (founding member), Defenders, Future Iron Man's Team, Knights of the
Atomic Round Table, Partner of Wasp, Pym Labs
Base Of Operations:
Formerly Soulworld; Ultronic Territories, Alaska; Avengers Compound, Los
Angeles, California; Crofton University, Washington, D.C.; Infinite Avengers
Mansion; captive aboard a Skrull ship; Avengers Mansion, Manhattan, New York
City, New York
Citizenship: American
Occupation: Adventurer,
biochemist, scientist, Scientist Supreme of Earth; former manager of Avengers
Compound
Education: Doctorate (Ph.D) in Biochemistry
Gender: Male
Height: 6' 0"
Weight: 185 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair:
Blonde
Origin: Human mutated by exposure to the Pym Particles he
discovered which allowed him to alter his size. Continued exposure altered his
body allowing it to naturally produce them.
Place of Birth: East Nowhere, Nebraska.
History
Early life
Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym, is an American
biochemist with extensive knowledge in various scientific fields. He was
born and raised in East Nowhere, Nebraska the son of Brad Pym and Doris Pym.
A prodigy from birth, he spent his time creating fantastical and fun
inventions encourage by his grandmother. But on her death, he became more
serious and decided to stop with his wild ideas.
Education
He
attended university where his own professors discouraged Pym's use of his own
imagination and inventing things for fun by being told that he would never
invent anything that would impact the world. Pym excelled better than any
of his fellow classmates, earning his doctorate in biochemistry while his
friends were still undergrads.
Maria Trovaya
He married
Maria Trovaya, a brave and beautiful young woman who had been a political
dissident in her native Hungary, from which she had fled. Naively believing
that his American citizenship would protect her, Henry and Maria Pym
traveled to Hungary shortly after their marriage. The Pyms were confronted by
agents of the secret police there. Henry Pym was knocked unconscious and
Maria was murdered. Pym was greatly distraught by his wife's death, and
decided to do whatever he could in the future to battle injustice and
inhumanity.
Pym Particles
Back in the United States, Pym
discovered a rare group of subatomic particles, which have become known as
the "Pym Particles." Pym was able, through the application of magnetic
fields, to entrap the particles within two separate serums. One serum would
reduce the size of persons and objects, and the other would restore them to
their normal size. Pym tested the reducing serum on himself and discovered
it was more powerful than he had expected: it reduced him to the size of an
insect. Pym became entrapped in an anthill and was pursued by the ants
within. He escaped and restored himself to his normal size with his other
serum. Deciding that the serums were too dangerous to exist, Pym destroyed both
of them.
Hank Pym as Ant-Man
Ant-Man
However,
weeks later he reconsidered his decision and began to recreate the serums,
whose existence he then kept secret. Inspired by his experience in the
anthill, Pym undertook a study of ants, and theorized that ants communicate
through psionic / electrical waves transmitted through their antennae. After
months of work, Pym succeeded in creating his first "cybernetic helmet," which
would enable him to communicate with the ants through transmitting and
receiving psionic / electrical waves. Thinking that someday he might want to
use theshrinking potion on himself again, Pym also designed a protective
suit for himself, Unstable Molecules and steel mesh. That same day, however,
Pym received an assignment from the government to concoct a gas that would
provide people with temporary, limited immunity to radioactivity under
certain specific circumstances, based on his previous work. The government
also assigned four other scientists to assist him in the project. The KGB,
the Soviet Intelligence agency, learned of Pym's project and sent agents who
held Pym and his assistants prisoner in their own laboratory. Only Pym knew
the entire formula for the gas they had by now developed, and he refused to
tell the Soviet agents. The agents set about searching the laboratory for
the formula, intending to kill Pym and his assistants afterward. Unseen, Pym
donned the cybernetic helmet and protective costume and, using his reducing
formula, shrank himself to the size of an ant. He escaped to an anthill
outside, put a large number of ants under his control through the helmet,
and used them to attack the agents and free his men, who then overpowered
their assailants. Pym then restored himself to normal size. Afterwards,
in the guise of the Ant-Man, Pym battled various menaces, including Comrade X,
the Protector, the criminal scientist Elihas "Egghead" Starr, who was to become
Pym's greatest enemy, as well as the Scarlet Beetle,
the Hijacker, the alien Kulla, the Voice and the Time Master.
After an alien being from the Kosmos dimension killed Pym's
colleague, the scientist Vernon van Dyne, Pym revealed his secret identity
of Ant-Man to van Dyne's daughter Janet, who wished to avenge his death. Pym
taught Janet how to use the gas within which he now contained the "Pym
Particles," and which he used to shrink himself in size, and through
biochemistry, gave her the ability to grow insect-like wings when she used
the gas to shrink herself to insect size. As the Wasp, Janet van Dyne
assisted the Ant-Man in finding and defeating the murderous Kosmosian.
Pym and van Dyne gradually fell in love; van Dyne reminded Pym of his deceased
first wife, Maria. Pym and van Dyne became crime-fighting
partners in their costumed identities, fighting menaces like the Egghead, the
A-Chiltarians and their robot Cyclops, the trumpet-playing criminal Trago, the
Porcupine, the Human Top and the Black Knight (Nathan Garrett). They were two of the founding members
of the Avengers and were part of the group that discovered the frozen
form of Captain America, bringing the World War II hero into the modern
world.
Becoming a Giant
Giant-Man and the Wasp
Pym
next developed a series of capsules containing the Pym Particles which he
and van Dyne used to grow or shrink to various heights; he also developed
capsules that enabled him to grow to greater than normal heights. Thereafter,
Pym preferred to use his power to grow to giant size for crime fighting and
called himself Giant-Man.[33] At first he found that he could not support
his own weight if he grew to a height above twelve feet. Later, he was able
to reach far greater heights, even 100 feet, and still move about
comfortably, but he became weaker in proportion to the amount he grew beyond
twelve feet.
However, his size-changing imposed great strains on Pym's
body that he believed could be fatal, and, upon deciding that their careers
as Giant-Man and the Wasp were proving too great a danger for van Dyne, who
seemed to think of adventuring as a way of showing love for each other. Pym
decided to retire as a costumed crime fighter as well as member of the
Avengers.[34] Acceding to his wishes, van Dyne retired as a crime fighter,
too.
Sometime later, however, Pym and van Dyne learned that the
Sub-Mariner was heading for New York City. Fearing trouble, they decided to
alert the Avengers. Janet, as the Wasp, was captured first by the undersea
barbarian leader Attuma and then by the Collector. In order to help the
Avengers rescue van Dyne, Pym decided to use his growing power again, he
donned a new costume and adopted the new name of Goliath.
By this
time both Pym and van Dyne could change size simply by willing themselves to
do so, due to their exposure to Pym Particles over the years. However, Pym
could only achieve one height other than his own, that of 25 feet, and could
only do so for exactly 15 minutes. In the course of the Avengers' battle
against the Collector, Goliath overstayed this time limit, and, on trying to
regain his normal size, could not shrink beneath ten feet.
Eventually, Pym regained his ability to shrink to insect size but lost his
ability to grow to ten feet in height. The Collector later subjected Pym to
treatments that enabled him to grow to 25 feet in height for up to 15 minutes.
Ultron, Yellowjacket, and Beginnings of the Fall of Pym
Pym began
experimenting with robotics and created a robot with the potential for high
intelligence. The robot turned against its creator, hypnotizing Pym and
escaping from his laboratory. It later became one of the Avengers' greatest
adversaries under the name of Ultron. Its evil deeds would long plague Pym with
guilt, especially since, as he was forced to admit much later, he had used
his own brain patterns as the engram basis of Ultron's robotic mind.
For several years, Pym had been in love with Janet van Dyne, but because of
his repressed personality, and her abundant wealth, he resisted marrying
her. One day while working in his laboratory, whilst thinking of the fact
that he wanted to marry van Dyne but couldn't, Pym accidentally dropped and
smashed some vials containing various unknown gases. The released gases
wreaked a radical temporary personality change in Pym, what could be seen as
a severe case of schizophrenia. He took the new identity of Yellowjacket,
claimed that he had murdered Henry Pym, kidnapped van Dyne, and proposed
marriage to her, as Pym had long wanted to do. Realizing that Yellowjacket
was really Pym, Van Dyne decided to play along, fearing that she would
worsen his psychological condition if she did otherwise.
The Avengers,
not suspecting at first, were shocked to hear that she said yes to the
proposal. Van Dyne and Pym, as Yellowjacket were married at Avengers Mansion
amidst an assembled who's who of superheroes active at the time, as well as some
villains who were hiding and secretly pretending to be the caterers.
Immediately after the marriage, the Avengers were attacked by the Ringmaster
and his Circus of Crime. The shock of seeing van Dyne in danger of death
(via the Princess' python), shocked Pym back into his normal personality.
The Avengers defeated the Ringmaster and company. Despite the fact that Pym
was married under an assumed name, the marriage between Pym and van Dyne was
still legal, and Pym and Van Dyne happily agreed to let it stand.
Pym renounced his power to become a giant due to its continuing physical
strains and used the name and costume of Yellowjacket in crime fighting. He
spent periods of time with the Avengers,[37] and a couple of times with the
Defenders as Yellowjacket, and also briefly returned to his Ant-Man persona
for a short time (becoming trapped at ant size for a while), but he spent
most of his time completely devoted to his scientific research. He gave his
blessing to Scott Lang when Lang used his old equipment to become the second
Ant-Man.
Crumbling Marriage
Scientific research had always been
Pym's preferred career, and he no longer found the excitement in crime
fighting that he had earlier in his career. Pym began to have periods of
tension and depression. He began to feel that he had never made a scientific
discovery equal to his discovery of the Pym Particles in the several years
following that event. Moreover, he was plagued by guilt over creating
Ultron. As a result, he was overcome with a sense that he was a failure as a
scientist, judged by his own impossibly high standards. This sense of
failure was exacerbated when he considered his wife's success as a fashion
designer and realized that, as a millionaire, she was the principal source of
money in their marriage. Pym began to take out his frustrations through
verbally abusing his wife.
Pym striking his
wife, Janet
Matters came to a head when the Avengers battled the
so-called Elfqueen. Suspecting that the Elfqueen was not acting from evil
motives, Captain America attempted to calm her down. Yellowjacket, who was
edgy because of his personal matters, blasted Elfqueen from behind without
stopping to consider what Captain America was trying to do. As a result
Elfqueen resumed fighting, almost crushing a truck onto Pym until the Wasp
saved him. Afterward, Captain America felt forced to bring charges against
Yellowjacket for acting recklessly since innocent people could have been
killed because of Yellowjacket's actions. An Avengers court-martial meeting
was set to examine the charges. Now beginning to undergo a nervous
breakdown, Pym built a robot to attack Avengers Mansion during the court
martial. Pym designed the robot to have a secret weak point which he would
use to defeat it. Pym fantasized that his defeat of the robot would make him
a hero in the Avengers' eyes and lead to the dismissal of the charges. When
his wife protested his plan, he struck her. Pym's plan ultimately went awry, and
it was the Wasp who ended up defeating the robot. Pym was expelled from the
Avengers, and Janet initiated proceedings that ended in their divorce.
Framed
Pym moved out of his wife's mansion. Astonishingly, Pym was
now virtually penniless, since his books were out of print and he had
somehow exhausted the money he had earned from his patents. He had rejected
van Dyne's offer to help him get back on his feet with monthly checks. Pym
lived his life aimlessly until he was approached by his old enemy Egghead.
Egghead claimed that he felt guilty over causing his niece, Patricia Starr,
to lose her arm, and asked Pym to give her a bionic arm he had designed and
attach it to her, in exchange for a large sum of money. Needing the money,
Pym fulfilled his assignment, but found that the bionic arm placed "Trish"
Starr under Egghead's control. Egghead informed Pym that the bionic arm was
booby-trapped and that he could detonate it, killing Trish unless he obeyed
his orders. As a result, Pym was forced to help steal Adamantium from the
government and to fight the Avengers, who defeated him. However, Egghead had
lied: the arm was not booby-trapped. Moreover, Trish Starr had been
"programmed" by her uncle's technology to claim that it was Pym's plot, not
Egghead's. Hence Pym had no evidence that he had stolen the adamantium under
duress, and so he was imprisoned on charges of treason. To add insult to injury,
van Dyne began dating Tony Stark, although she broke off the relationship
after learning that he was Iron Man.
Pym as Yellowjacket
During Pym's trial,
he was captured by the third group calling itself the Masters of Evil, who
claimed to be "rescuing" him. Actually, they worked for Egghead, who, having
successfully framed Pym, now asked him to join their criminal organization.
Pym pretended to agree, and Egghead set him to work on developing a machine
intended to lengthen the human life span. Soon afterward, Pym announced it
was finished. Suspecting a trick, Egghead and his allies had Pym hook up the
machine, just as Pym had secretly intended. Pym had actually constructed
various means of defeating his enemies into the machine, and then turned it
against Egghead and the Masters of Evil and single-handedly defeated them.
Meanwhile, the Avengers had found Egghead's hideout. The Avenger Hawkeye
sneaked into the hideout and saw Egghead aiming a gun at the unsuspecting Pym.
Hawkeye fired an arrow into the gun barrel. The gun proved to be an energy
blaster and backfired, killing Egghead.
Redemption and Return to the
Avengers
Some of the Masters of Evil testified in Pym's trial as to how
Egghead had framed him, and Pym was found not guilty. Upon his release Pym
decided, after an emotional goodbye to all the Avengers (especially Janet),
to give up being a costumed adventurer and returned permanently to a life of
scientific research. However, as time passed. Pym decided he wished to aid
the Avengers without returning himself to life as an adventurer. Hence, he
offered to become manager of Avengers Compound, the headquarters of the new
West Coast Avengers, a role in which he would perform many of the same
functions that Edwin Jarvis fulfilled at New York City's Avengers Mansion.
Pym's offer was accepted and he served not only as Avengers Compound manager
but as a trusted adviser to the West Coast Avengers as well as skilled
science specialist. During this period, he called himself simply Dr. Pym,
the Scientific Adventurer.
Dr. Pym, the
Scientific Adventurer
This period saw the continued mental deterioration
of Pym as he became nearly suicidal. When the West Coast team was hurtled
back in time by Kang the Conqueror, Pym helped the team return to the
present. Redeemed, Pym returned to active duty. Teammate Tigra, with her
cat-like need for attention, attempted to maintain relationships with both
Pym and Wonder Man at the same time. Later, van Dyne was assigned to West
Coast duty, which placed both in an awkward situation. Eventually, however,
they were able to salvage their friendship, with tiny sparks of feelings for
each other returning as well.
Pym was on hand with the other Avengers
who seemingly sacrificed their lives to absorb the energies of the being
known as Onslaught. In reality, he was shunted to another dimension. When he
and the other heroes were restored to Earth, Pym found that he was capable
of his full range of size-changing abilities, although he could not shrink
and grow other objects unless he specifically treated them in his
laboratory. Hank and Janet also returned to their previous romantic
relationship, although he was initially distant due to his fear of another
breakdown. However, on a trip to Las Vegas Jan turned down a proposal of Hank's.
She said she would not marry him again.
Pym helped re-form the
Avengers with the other restored heroes, stopping the menace of the
sorceress Morgan Le Fay. He then agreed to stay on as a reserve member (in
his Giant-Man identity), returning to his laboratory work full-time. During
this time, his research was monitored by Ultron, who later kidnapped Pym and
others of its so-called "family." Pym finally revealed that he had used his
own brain patterns as a template for Ultron's intelligence, explaining his
debilitating guilt at Ultron's decimation of the Baltic nation of Slorenia.
Ultron intended to use the mental engrams of all the members of its "family"
when building a new robot army with Pym's latest research. Ultron was confronted
by the Avengers, but even their combined might was insufficient against the
indestructible Ultron. The Grim Reaper, a fellow prisoner of the fiendish
robot, was freed by the Vision, who had escaped, and subsequently freed Pym,
Janet, Wonder Man, and Scarlet Witch. As the Avengers struggled, the injured
Justice arrived with Antarctic Vibranium, the Anti-Metal. Pym used this
amidst a furious hail of blows that finally destroyed Ultron.
Not
long after this, Hank returned to active duty, and after a time returned to
his Yellowjacket identity. His relationship with Jan was, as usual, turbulent,
but came to be stable when he and Jan were both captured by the newest
Scorpio. When Hawkeye returned from his own inactivity, however, Janet began
a flirt with him that left Hank reeling.
When the Scarlet Witch had
her breakdown that disassembled the Avengers, Hank rushed Janet to the
hospital when she was put into a coma by an enraged She-Hulk, where he
stayed at her side. After she had recovered, the two decided to give things
another shot. Pym received a fellowship at Oxford, and they movedto England
together. Taking a break from crime fighting, the two briefly reconciled.
The Wasp
leading the Avengers
Secret Invasion and Mighty Avengers
After
Hank and Jan's last attempt at reconciliation, she left him, so Hank began a
relationship with a college student at Oxford University. His not having beeninvited to help form the New Avengers did nothing to help his self-esteem.
After the woman learned everything from him, she revealed herself to be a
Skrull andused the power of the Hulk to defeat him. Hank was replaced by a
Skrull.
After the Skrull invasion was repelled, the real Pym found
himself returned to Earth. He did not like what he found: the aftermath of
the Civil War and the death of the Wasp came as great shocks to the troubled
hero. Seeking to affirm his place in the world and seeking to memorialize
his late ex-wife, Pym adopted the identity of the Wasp, eventually building
the new Mighty Avengers alongside Jocasta, the robot harboring the brain
engrams of van Dyne.
Hank took part in attempting to bring the first
Captain America back after he was discovered to be trapped in time.
The cosmic entity Eternity revealed to Pym that he was Earth's "Scientist
Supreme", the scientific counterpart to Earth's Sorcerer Supreme. The Norse
trickster god Loki later claimed to have been posing as Eternity in order to
manipulate Pym.
Return to Giant-Man
Avengers
Academy
After saving young superhumans from Norman Osborn he formed the
Avengers Academy and promised he would find some way to "cure" the teens. He
led them and taught the kids how to control their powers. He recovered
his title of Giant-Man after his fight with the Absorbing Man.
He
inspected Tigra's child William Grant, who was fathered by Hank's Skrull
impostor Criti Noll. Hank checked William over and found that he had no Skrull
DNA in him because the impostor Hank Pym had copied him on a genetic level.
Tigra asked if Hank would raise William should anything happen to her. He
then told Tigra he was trying to revive Wasp.
It was revealed that
the being he thought was Janet Van Dyne was actually the wife of Korvac.
Veil revived her, which brought Korvac to the Academy. They were only able
to defeat Korvac by using the future versions of the Academy students.
During the War of the Serpent, Absorbing Man and Titania attacked the
Avengers Academy, leading to the destruction of the Infinite Mansion.
The Academy was later relocated to the old West Coast Avengers Compound and
opened its doors to all young heroes, such as Lightspeed and White Tiger.
When the Avengers came into conflict with the X-Men, Pym allowed the Academy
to be used to hold the children of Utopia after the Avengers seized the
island.He also helped Iron Man make the Phoenix-Killer Armor, and later
assisted Pixie in damage control as Dark Phoenix (Scott Summers) ran
rampant.
Finding Janet
Pym later joined the other founding members
of the Avengers in a trip to the Microverse after an Avengers emergency
signal was triggered there. Hank came to the realization that the signal
could only have come from Janet Van Dyne. The group arrived in the
Microverse and followed the signal until they found Janet who had just taken
out an army. Their brief reunion was cut short by the Microverse gangster
Lord Gouzar who was trying to kill Janet. The battle ended when Wonder Man
intervened and helped the other Avengers escape, but Lord Gouzar followed
them and tried to kill Janet but was stopped by the combined force of
multiple Avengers members. After the battle the Avengers hosted a welcome back
party for Janet.
Size Reduction: As
Ant-Man and Yellowjacket, Henry Pym possessed the power to reduce himself to
the size of an ant, approximately one-half inch in height, by means of the
subatomic particles known as the Pym Particles. The nature, source, and
mechanics of the Pym Particles remain unrevealed. Originally, when Pym
inhaled a gas or drank a potion containing the Pym Particles, the Particles
would interact with the electrical impulses of his brain, creating an
organism-wide "reducing field." Thus activated, the field reduced his entire
body at a uniform rate to the smaller size he desired. Although he usually chose
to reduce himself to one half inch in height, he could reduce his size to
any size between that and his normal size. Usually, Pym did not compress his
mass into his smaller size. Instead his mass was somehow extended into an
extra-physical dimension that is opened by the activating of the Pym
Particles, from which the mass could later be reclaimed. Strangely, because
Pym's mass was extended extra-dimensionally when he was at ant-size, he
retained his full human-size strength at that size. To return to normal
size, Pym inhaled another gas or drank another potion, either of which
contained another type of Pym Particles. These particles interacted with his
brain to create an organism-wide "enlarging field," which is energized by
mental command. Thus Pym could grow back to his normal height and reclaim
all of the mass that was extended extra-dimensionally.
Size
Addition: Pym also discovered Pym Particles which interacted with his brain
to enable him to grow to gigantic height as Giant-Man and Goliath. The growth
process required the rapid acquisition of bodily mass, comes from an
extradimensional source. This extra dimensional mass fortified all of his
cellular tissue, including his bones and muscles, enabling him to support his
increased weight, and giving him superhuman strength and durability. Early
in his career this caused health problems due to the strain, and he was
subject to various limitations on his size and the duration of his
transformations (described under History.)[70] He is capable of growing
hundreds of feet tall exceeding the heights of even the tallest buildings in
New York. He can grow past the barriers of the "Microverse" to enter
Overspace, a point above and apart from all other realities where it is
possible to confer with abstract cosmic entities.
Entering other
planes of existence: Pym can use the Pym Particles to shrink to
sub-microscopic stature. When 99.99 + % of his mass was extra-dimensionally
shunted, he was sent into a "subatomic universe" or "microverse," one of
countless alternate universes accessible to Earth only by the mass-shunting
process. Such as shrinking down to enter the Microverse, and on one occasion
growing into the plane inhabited by such cosmic beings as the Living Tribunal
and the In-Betweener.
[Expand]
Former Powers
Wasp Enhancements:
Wasp Stings: Pym is capable of firing powerful,
bioelectric energy blasts from his hands much like his deceased ex-wife.
Bio-Synthetic Wings: As Wasp, synthetic specialized cells implanted
beneath his shoulder blades expand into insect-like wings as he shrinks;
when he returns to normal size, the wings disappear beneath a nearly
undetectable layer of genetically engineered callus. He could presumably
match Van Dyne's top flight speed, flying up to 38 mph for up to an hour
before tiring. Able to maneuver in flight much like a real wasp, he can
hover and dart forwards and backwards in addition to sustained forward
flight. since abandoning the Wasp identity, Pym no longer uses his wings,
although it is unknown whether he still retains them.
Abilities
Super-Genius Intelligence: Dr. Henry Pym is one of the world's foremost
biochemists and also possesses considerable expertise in numerous scientific
fields such as subatomic physics, robotics, cybernetics, artificial
intelligence, programming, emergency medicine, optics and entomology. He has
also referred himself one of the five smartest people on the planet which makes
him capable of rivaling others such as Reed Richards and is regarded by the
Eternity as the Earth's "Scientist Supreme".[3] During his career, he created
robot Ultron, explored and repaired the Vision often, and created much of the
Avengers' equipment. Another robot, Rover, was a jet with rudimentary artificial
intelligence and sophisticated offensive capabilities.
Skilled Combatant:
Hank is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant using special styles of unarmed combat
depending on his size. If he is small, he takes advantage of the opponent's
larger form by assaulting points of his/her body that they would not expect and
move to another before they detected him. If he was giant, he would take
advantage of his own massive form and use attacks that would either throw them
off balance or render them unconscious before they could concoct a better
strategy against him. Has had some training in judo, karate and wrestling. He
was also trained by Captain America in unarmed combat making him a very
formidable fighter. A trained scuba diver. Capable pilot of aircraft ranging
from conventional helicopters to high tech vehicles such as the Avengers
Quinjets.
Strength level
Pym has the normal human strength of a
man of his age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise. He
retains this level of strength even at insect-size. At giant size, Pym's
strength varies according to the height he achieves: at 10 feet tall, Pym can
lift (press) 1000 pounds, at 25 feet tall he can lift (press) 10 tons. The
higher Pym grows past 25 feet, the more of his strength he had to use simply to
support his own enormous mass. At 100 feet tall, Pym can lift (press) 50 tons.
He is capable of Class 100 strength at heights beyond 100 feet tall, though he
usually cannot maintain those gigantic sizes for long.
Equipment
Ant-Man's Suit
Wasp's Suit
Toolbot: The toolbot is a small, technological, handheld multi-tool device
that stores hundreds of useful such as a key, minicomputer, and energy sword
which are all shrunken down to microscopic sizes with a computer programmed
"smart chip" giving Pym the right, or appropriate tool in any situation.
Avengers Identicard: Hank uses it to access the Avengers Mansion.
Former Equipment
Cybernetic Helmet: As Ant-Man,
Pym wore a "cybernetic helmet" which permitted him to achieve rudimentary
telepathic communication with ants and other higher insects and to control
their minds. Also, Pym formerly required gas capsules or potions to shrink,
grow, or return to normal size.
Yellowjacket's Suit:Yellowjacket Pym
carries miniaturized versions of his Ant-Man helmet's devices in his cowl,
enabling him to perform the same feats it could. His costume also has
artificial wings which enable him to fly while reduced in size. As Giant
Man, he created a helmet that he could use to reduce or extend other objects
and people. See also Technological Accomplishments.
Pym can shrink an
entire laboratory or an array of firearms to the size a microchip when not
in use. The various compartments on his "Goliath" uniform straps contain a
wide variety of miniaturized equipment. Pym must specially treat objects in
his laboratory before being able to change their size.
Cowl
Communicator: This enables Giant-Man a two-way radio contact, as well as
cybernetic communication with insects, or with other people using his insect
communication technology. He can communicate with and command higher insects
such as ants, wasps and bees.
Wasp Goggles: Pym wears a pair of specially
designed goggles that enhanced his peripheral vision and could make video
recordings of whatever he saw, they also contained a retinal scanner and
analytical sensors, including devices that analyzed different kinds of
energy, even magical energy, transmit his thoughts as radio frequencies to
receiving radio equipment such as his Ant-Man helmet, and communicate with
insects when not serving as eye protection.
Soul Gem[61]
Transportation
Flight: After being merged with Ultron, Pym's new cyborg
body made him capable of achieving self-sustained flight with thrusters in his
feet.
[Expand]
Former Transportation
Ants: As Ant-Man, Pym often utilized flying insect "mounts" Small Flying Craft
Which could be disguised as a cellphone.
Rover Airship: It that had an
artificial intelligence capable of human speech and complex reasoning. Bug
shaped, the VTOL airship comfortably seated two people and could hover or fly up
to 250 mph; emit acids, flames, gases or a spotlight from its front grille,
project elongating metallic tentacles used for gripping or grappling and climb
up sheer surfaces using its insect-like legs.
Avengers Quinjet: The standard
transport method of the Avengers.
Weapons
"The Stinger": Pym
currently carries a small, technological firearm that converts his body's
mutated, bio-electric aura and fires it as a powerful stun beam.
As
Yellowjacket, Pym formerly carried electric "stingers" in his gloves capable of
emitting electrical bolts of variable current.
Notes
On March 29,
2011, many years after Hank's marriage to Janet ended, writer Jim Shooter
publicly commented on the infamous arc via a blog in which he denounced the
claims that Pym was a "wife-beater". He explained that he had intended for
Pym to strike Janet accidentally, but when artist Bob Hall drew the panel,
the exaggerated motion made it appear as if he deliberately slapped her.
Shooter claimed that there was not enough time before his deadline to have
the frames redrawn, and as a result, the details of Pym's personal suffering
were overshadowed by his being labelled a "wife-beater". Hall
subsequently commented that he was still new to the industry at the time he
drew the panel, and admitted that the final product may have been in stark
contrast to Shooter's intent. He also acknowledged that Shooter likely would
have had the panel redrawn had there been time.
Henry Pym first appeared
in Tales to Astonish #27, and as Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish #35, as
Giant-Man in Tales to Astonish #49, as Goliath in Avengers #28, as
Yellowjacket in Avengers #59, and as Wasp in Secret Invasion: Requiem #1. He
returned to his Giant-Man identity in Avengers Academy #7.
Hank is both
divorced and a widower from separate marriages.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Real Name: Scott Edward Harris
Lang
Current Alias: Ant-Man
Relatives:
Cassandra
Eleanor Lang (daughter);
Ruth (sister);
Bob Lang[5] (father, deceased);[6]
Carl (brother-in-law);
Peggy Rae (ex-wife)
Affiliation: Cosmic Avengers; Formerly Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova Corps,
partner of Stinger, Underground, Ant-Man Security Solutions, Future Foundation
(leader), Fantastic Four (leader), Avengers, Heroes For Hire, Stark Industries,
Electrolang, Inc.
Base Of Operations: Milano;
formerly The Mount, Nevada; South Beach, Miami, Florida; Baxter Building,
Manhattan, New York City, New York; Farmingdale, Long Island, New York
Citizenship: American
Marital Status: Divorced
Occupation: Adventurer, electronics technician and owner of Electrolang, Inc.;
formerly burglar
Education: Some college,
electronics technician certificate, plus additional advanced electronics
training while in prison
Gender: Male
Height: 6' 0"
Weight: 190 lbs (86 kg)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Strawberry Blond
Origin: Human using Ant-Man's
Helmet and Pym Particles
Place of Birth: Coral Gables,
Florida
History
Early life
Scott Lang was born and raised
in Coral Gables, Florida, the son of Bob Lang. He later became an electronic
engineer and met and married Peggy Rae. Together they had a daughter Cassandra
"Cassie" Lang. Although he was an electronics expert he could not support his
family doing repair work, so he turned his talents to burglary. Apprehended, he
served his prison sentence and was paroled for good behavior. During his time in
prison, however, Peggy divorced him. Lang had furthered his studies of
electronics while in prison and was soon hired by Stark International to work in
its design department.
"New
Ant-Man"
Ant-Man
When his daughter Cassie was
diagnosed as having a serious congenital heart condition, Lang sought the aid of
surgeon Dr. Erica Sondheim. Desperate to help his daughter, Lang decided to
return to thievery.[8] Breaking into the New Jersey home of Dr. Henry Pym, Lang
stole Ant-Man's Suit. Unknown to him, Pym observed the theft and in his guise as
Yellowjacket, followed Lang, curious to see what use he would put the
paraphernalia.[8]
Garbed as Ant-Man, Lang broke into Cross and
discovered Dr. Sondheim was held prisoner by Darren Cross, president of CTE, who
needed Sondheim to correct his own heart condition. Rescuing Sondheim and
defeating Cross, Lang was relieved when Sondheim was able to save the life of
his daughter. Lang intended to return the Ant-Man costume to its owner and turn
himself in, but Henry Pym offered to let him keep them, provided Lang put them
to lawful use.[9]
Stark Industries
Tony Stark recruited Scott to
find out who Justin Hammer really is.[10] When Dr. Bruce Banner asked Iron Man
to help him either be cured or killed. They design a nuclear-powered regulator
that would allow him to control his heart beat preventing transformations into
the Hulk. Scott Lang and Erica Sondheim successfully implant the device in
Banner's chest. After exposing Banner to the emotional overlord inducement
generator they are convinced that the regulator will keep the Hulk reigned in
from now on.[11] However, this was not the case. Tony, Scott, and Sondheim
restrained Banner's transformation, ending with Sondheim's use of sound waves to
return Banner to normal.[12] Iron Man directs Sondheim to remove the regulator
from the Hulk's chest before he wakes up. Unfortunately, Stark is dealing with
his own health crisis, leading Scott to shrink into the Iron Man armor in order
to save Tony's life.[13]
Scott also helped Yellowjacket rescue the Wasp who had
been captured by Dr. Pernell Solomon.[14] Alongside the Avengers, he first
battled Taskmaster.[15]
Fantastic Four
He then met the Fantastic
Four, and with them first journeyed to a "micro-world," and battled there
alongside the Thing.[16] He encountered Rick Jones and Alpha Flight, and then
fought Dire Wraiths alongside Rom and Brandy Clark.[17]
He
helped the Avengers in infiltrating Taskmaster's henchmen-training facility,
battling the Taskmaster alongside Hawkeye, and visited Henry Pym while he was in
prison.[18]
When the Masters of Evil took control of the Avengers
Mansion and captured some of the current team; Lang was instrumental in helping
the Wasp defeat the Absorbing Man and Titania, two villains much stronger and
more powerful than them. The pair attacked a hospital in an attempt to kill a
comatose Hercules [19]
Shrunken Spider-Man
At the Tomorrow Exposition, techno-thieves break in to
steal the Quark machine. With the expo closed, Scott shrinks down as Ant-Man to
take a private tour, but his gas apparently also works on Spidey who shrinks to
insect size. As the thieves attack a guard, Spider-Man battles a spider. Ant-Man
stops the thieves from stealing the Quark field generator's circuit board while
Spidey destroys the attacking automatic insect eradicator. Ant-Man enlarges and
escapes with the circuit board but is slowed by a magnesium flare. Spidey
battles the robot guard dog while Ant-Man summons an army of ants to stop the
thieves. Spidey stumbles across the fracas and helps, webbing the thieves up. As
the police arrive, Ant-Man takes Spidey to a secluded spot to re-enlarge him,
but fails. Spidey is stuck the way he is.[20] While still trapped in his
shrunken size Spider-Man and Scott battled the Scarlet Beetle.[21]
Stane
International
When Stark International was bought out by Stane
International, Lang resigned out of respect to Tony Stark, the company's former
head (and secretly Iron Man.) Lang opened his own electronics business. Later,
he temporarily gave up the business to be hired by the Fantastic Four when their
scientist and leader Reed Richards was missing for an extended period. Lang and
Cassie lived at the Four's headquarters during this time.[22]
Armor
Wars
When Tony Stark discovered that Justin Hammer had
stolen his Iron Man technology and provided it to Force and other villains,
Stark hired Lang to hack into the computers at Transcorp in order to find out to
whom Hammer had sold or supplied that technology. Lang physically infiltrated
the Transcorp computers as Ant-Man, and had to fend off an automated
pest-control system before successfully transmitting the data to Stark.[23]
The Avengers
Lang continued to aid his
superpowered colleagues as needed, such as joining other Avengers associates in
infiltrating the base of the Avengers' enemies of the Triune Understanding,
although this turned out to be a ruse by the Triunes to discredit the Avengers.
He also helped the Avengers against the threat of the villain Kang the
Conqueror, who nearly succeeded in conquering the world. After overthrowing
Kang's would-be regime, the Avengers offered Lang a place on the roster, and he
agreed.[25]
Jessica Jones
#
Scott dated Jessica Jones, the
super-heroine named Jewel who left to become a private investigator.[26] He
assisted her in a matter with Mattie Franklin, one of the many female heroes to
take the Spider-Woman identity. Assisting the duo is S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Clay
Quartermain.[27] Their relationship ended when she revealed that she was
pregnant with Luke Cage's baby.[28]
Jack of Hearts
Lang's place with the Avengers
was not without its personal struggles. Scott was brought into court for a
custody battle with his ex-wife over the safety of his daughter Cassie when she
visited the Avengers Mansion headquarters of the team. Lang also struggled with
his new teammate Jack of Hearts, as the two often clashed over trifling matters.
However, when Lang's daughter was randomly kidnapped by a madman, Jack of Hearts
rescued Cassie at the risk of his own powers consuming him, which ultimately
killed him.[29]
Avengers: Disassembled
Lang felt guilty that he had
only begun to reconcile with his new friend. Later, Jack of Hearts somehow
returned to the Mansion with a message of warning for the team. When Lang
reached out to his friend, Jack of Hearts detonated himself, taking half of the
Avengers Mansion and seemingly Scott Lang with him. This attack was later
discovered to be motivated by the Scarlet Witch, whose mind had become unhinged
due to the magical powers she constantly felt forced to control. Whether this
was truly the corpse of Jack of Hearts or just a magical construct of the
Scarlet Witch remains unclear.
Stature
Cassie subsequently becomes
Stature as a member of the Young Avengers, having apparently taken enough Pym
Particles over the years to enable her to automatically grow and shrink in size
whenever she wants.[32] Ant-Man's Helmet fell into Amadeus Cho's possession for
a time. He wears it with Cassie's blessing, choosing to focus on the insect
mind-controlling abilities.
Children's Crusade
A few years later, the Young
Avengers traveled back in time with an amnesiac Scarlet Witch to the moments
before Avengers Mansion was destroyed and escaped along with Lang, leaving the
Avengers of that time to believe he had perished.[34] This celebration was short
lived however, after Lang witnessed the death of his daughter Stature in battle
with Doctor Doom.[35] Lang then swore vengeance on Doom.
Future Foundation
The Future Foundation would soon be left in the hands
of Scott, after Reed discovered that the cosmic energy that gave him is powers
was decaying, forcing him and the rest of the Fantastic Four to visit another
universe in order to fix the problem. Scott was left with She-Hulk, Medusa, and
Johnny Storm's current girlfriend, Darla Deering, to be the replacement
Fantastic Four for what was supposed to only be approximately four minutes,
unless something went wrong, which of course it did.[37] He later defeated
Doctor Doom, and when the Fantastic Four returned, he left the team.
Original Sin
Following the murder of Uatu the Watcher, Scott was
chosen alongside Black Panther, Winter Soldier, Emma Frost, Gamora, the
Punisher, and Doctor Strange as one of the potential candidates to replace the
original Nick Fury in his role as the defender of Earth.[39] He and the others
attempted to stop Fury after he was revealed to be the Watcher's true murderer.
Ant-Man Security Solutions
As a consequence of a magic spell gone wrong, Doctor
Doom's moral compass was temporarily inverted. In an attempt to atone for
killing Cassie, he chaneled the Scarlet Witch's powers and used them to
resurrect Scott's daughter. She turned out alive and well on Scott's
doorstep.[41] With Cassie returned, Scott tried to adjust his life, and got the
job of Head of Security at Stark Industries. However, after Cassie moved with
her mother Peggy to Miami, Scott ditched his new job in favor of spending more
time with his daughter (against Peggy's will and without her knowledge).[42] As
part of his new life, Scott opened a business called Ant-Man Security Solutions.
Scott battled Grizzly who wanted revenge on Ant-Man due to his betrayal during
the Siege of Asgard, unaware he was not Eric O'Grady. After the misunderstanding
was cleared, Lang offered Grizzly a place at his new company.
Ant-Man Security Solutions
Trouble followed Scott and his
family after Cassie was abducted by Cross Technological Enterprises.[44] With
the help of Grizzly's friend from Villains Anonymous, the Machinesmith, Ant-Man
infiltrated Cross Technologies and fought his way to Darren Cross, whom Dr.
Sondheim was blackmailed into reviving using Cassie's heart.[45] Darren engaged
in combat against Ant-Man while the hero tried to buy time for Sondheim to
transplant another heart into Cassie.
After Cross was forced to flee
when the Pym Particles now in his body caused him to shrink down, Scott shrunk
down to microscopic size, and was guided by Sondheim to attack Cassie's white
cells and allow her body to accept the new heart's tissue. Even though the
procedure was difficult, Scott was finally able to help Cassie survive the
experience. When Peggy and Blake arrived, Sondheim told her that Cassie had
suffered an infraction and Scott took Cassie to her, which they believed.
Although he saved his daughter, Scott decided to distance himself from her so
that she could have a normal life.
Scott couldn't resist the urge
to accompany her daughter, and started stalking her while in miniature size,
something that enraged Cassie after Scott confessed his behavior, and led her to
resent her father even more than when she simply believed he had distanced from
her. Cassie's increasing frustration prompted her to enlist in a mobile app
developed by the Power Broker called Hench that facilitated anybody a
supervillain career, with the intention to shut it down from the inside.
However, Power Broker's revelation of the truth behind Cassie's latest health
problem ensured her collaboration in infiltrating Cross Technologies as Stinger,
in order to shut down Cross' own app, a copy and rival of Hench called Lackey.
Once he learned of Cassie's
whereabouts, Ant-Man assembled a group of supervillains, including his casual
romantic partner the Beetle, to break into Cross Technological to prevent her
from falling into Cross' clutches. The rescue mission was successful, but the
police were alerted of the intrusion. In order to protect Cassie, Scott took the
blame for the situation and was arrested.
Scott faced court, and he was
represented by She-Hulk. However, the prosecutor was Janice Lincoln, the
civilian identity Beetle,[53] who held a grudge against Scott for having failed
to use their sporadic relationship to gain access to Pym Particles. Lincoln
managed to put Scott in a tight spot by using her knowledge on Scott's break in
plan and manipulating every witness account to her favor. The trial was
interrupted by the appearance of Darren Cross, now donning a stolen Yellowjacket
Armor, who wanted to have revenge on Ant-Man for the injuries his son Augustine
sustained during Scott's mission to rescue Cassie from them. Even though Scott
and his allies fell to Yellowjacket's power, Stinger managed to defeat him by
forcing him to ingest the Pym Particle-neutralizing pills that Scott had been
taken while incarcerated. The trial resumed, and the surprising testimony of
Peggy Rae turned the tide in Scott's favor, allowing him to walk away as a free
man. Even though Scott's business was shut down, having forged a new
relationship with both Cassie and Peggy allowed him to begin a new lease on
life, with his daughter joining him in his adventures, together as Ant-Man and
Stinger.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Pym Particles: Ant-Man carried
a supply of Pym Particles in his belt, allowing him to reduce himself to the
size of an ant, approximately one-half inch in height, by means of a rare group
of sub-atomic particles, the source of which is as yet unknown, which he is able
to contain in magnetic-field "canisters" (the shape of the magnetic lines of
force were made visible by the confined particles, whose concentration caused
them to behave like a gas).[63][3] These particles, whose wavelength is in the
mental range when released, allow Ant-Man to will himself and other objects to
reduce in size or enlarge. The mechanics involved having most of the mass of the
nucleus of each affected atom convert into energetic particles which take up
orbit around the nucleus - thus, although gravitation do not affect these
particles, the mass of the original volume remains intact.[63]
This means a punch delivered
by the half-inch high Ant-Man would feel like the blow of a normal-sized man.[3]
Ant-Man's reducing particle has no time limit to its potency.[63]
Abilities
Electrical Engineer: Scott has a masters degree in
electrical engineering.
Master Thief: Scott is a
skilled thief, even before gaining the Ant-Man suit he was able to infiltrate
and hack advanced security systems.
Strength level
Scott possessed the normal
human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engaged in moderate
regular exercise. At small size, his strength is equal to an ant's. As
Myrmidon, he possessed superhuman strength (at least Class 10, strong enough to
incapacitate the Thing with one blow) and durability as well as extendable
blades on his wrists.
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Ant-Man's Suit:
Ant-Man's Helmet: Ant-Man also
wore a cybernetic helmet designed by Henry Pym permitting him rudimentary
communication and control of insects, allowing him to lead hundreds of ants to
overwhelm any single opponent.[3] He could broadcast to a range of about one
mile (1.6 km), depending on the materials surrounding him. His helmet also
contained sound amplification equipment which also shifted the frequency of his
voice so that he could be heard by normal-sized humans despite his diminutive
size, as well as providing its own oxygen supply.
Weapons
Ant-Man's Wrist Gauntlets Ant-Man's wrist gauntlets
enabled him to fire
bio-electric blasts of adjustable force. His original helmet was able to fire
'disruptor' blasts of
concussive force that Lang said were less powerful than the stings of The Wasp.
Notes
Wanting to devote more time to his daughter, Ant-Man
turned down membership
offers from both the Avengers and Fantastic Four, though he eventually accepted Avengers membership.
Hope Pym
Team affiliations
Revengers
Notable aliases
Red Queen
Abilities
Size manipulation
Flight
Bio-electric energy blasts and
extendable claws on her gloves
Skilled hand-to-hand combatant
Hope
Pym is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by
Marvel Comics. The daughter of Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne in the MC2 universe,
she is first depicted as the supervillain Red Queen.
Fictional character biography[edit]
After the deaths of their parents,
Hope Pym and her twin brother Big Man (Henry Pym Jr.) became outraged when
people began referring to A-Next as the "next generation" of Avengers. Using
their parents' fortune, the twins put together the supervillain Revengers
team and gained access to the Avengers Mansion via their parents' security
codes. When they ambushed A-Next, Hope set about to torture Cassandra
Lang, feeling that she's the Avengers' rightful heir. Hope was finally
stopped when Henry prevented her from initiating the mansion's self-destruct
sequence, which would have killed both A-Next and the Revengers.
Powers and abilities
As the Red Queen, Hope Pym uses implanted
bio-wings to fly. Also, she has bio-electric blasters installed on the
gloves on the back of her hands, and extendable claws built into her gloves.
However, she apparently does not have the ability to alter her size.
Janet van Dyne (Earth-616)
In accordance with the naming conventions,
it has been suggested that this page be moved to:
Janet Van Dyne
(Earth-616) (Discuss).
Real Name
Janet Van Dyne
Current Alias
The Wasp
Aliases
Jan, the Winsome Wasp, the Wonderful Wasp, The Wondrous Wasp, "Waspie", Doctor
Spectrum, Pixie, Janet Pym, "Fashion Fly",[1] "Tinkertoots"[2]
Relatives
Dr. Vernon Van Dyne (father, deceased);
Unnamed mother (deceased);[3]
Blaine Van Dyne (uncle);
Bertram (uncle);[4]
Amelia Van Dyne (aunt);
Ruth (aunt);[4]
Sally (cousin);[4]
Dr. Henry Pym (ex-husband);
Nadia
Van Dyne (step-daughter);
Ultron (self-declared "son");
Jocasta ("first
daughter-in-law");
Alkhema ("second daughter-in-law");
Vision
("grandson");
Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch) (former "granddaughter-in-law");
Katie Summers (alternate reality daughter)
Affiliation
Pym Labs, Agents of Wakanda; formerly Avengers Unity Division, Avengers
(founding Member), Lady Liberators, Defenders, Avengers West Coast, Avengers
(Heroes Reborn), Mighty Avengers (Initiative), Axis, Partner of Ant-Man
Base Of
Operations
Pym Labortories, Cresskill, New Jersey; formerly Avengers
Mansion, Manhattan,
New York City; New York, Schaefer Theater, Manhattan,
New York City, New York;
Stark Tower; Avengers Compound, Los Angeles and
Hydrobase.
Status
Identity
Public Identity
Citizenship
American
Marital Status
Divorced
Occupation
Adventurer, scientist; former TV show host and fashion designer
Education
College graduate
Characteristics
Gender
Female
Height
5'
4" (Variable)
Weight
110 lbs (50 kg) (Variable)
Eyes
Blue
Hair
Auburn
Unusual Features
Wings grow out of her back when she shrinks to less than 4' tall
Origin
Origin
Human implanted with Bio-Synthetic Wings, bio-chemistry altered to naturally
produce bio-electric energy, mutated through repeated exposure to Pym Particles
allowing her body to produce them naturally
Universe
Earth-616
History
Early Life
Janet Van Dyne was the daughter of
world-renowned scientist Vernon Van Dyne. Early in her life, she was a
flighty, self-centered dilettante living luxuriously on her father's
fortune. She had an on-and-off romantic relationship with the world-renowned
soldier-of-fortune called Paladin. When an alien brought to Earth during one
of her father's experiments murdered the elder Van Dyne, Janet contacted his
colleague, Dr. Henry Pym.
Wasp Origin
She told Pym of her resolve to bring her father's killer to justice. Pym
revealed his secret identity as Ant-Man, and Janet underwent a biochemical
process involving his Pym Particles that allowed her to shrink to insectoid
proportions and implanted Bio-Synthetic Wings. Furthermore, Pym outfitted her
with wrist devices which allowed her to discharge blasts of compressed air
that she called her "wasp's stings".
Early career
As The
Wasp, Jan and Hank tracked down and defeated the murderous Kosmosian,
banishing it to its home dimension. Pym and Van Dyne gradually fell in love;
Jan reminded Pym of his deceased first wife, Maria. Pym and Van Dyne
became crime-fighting partners in their costumed identities, fighting
menaces like the Egghead, the A-Chiltarians and their robot Cyclops,
the trumpet-playing criminal Trago and the Porcupine. They were
two of the founding members of the Avengers (along with Thor, Iron Man and
The Hulk) after responding when Hank's helmet picked up Rick Jones' fateful
call for help. It was, in fact, the Wasp who suggested the name "Avengers"
for the group that had gathered. In a further milestone in Avengers
history, Jan and the other founders (minus the Hulk) were the discoverers of
the great World War II hero, Captain America, still frozen from the last
days of the war. Being a fashion designer, the Wasp would become known
for her frequent costume changes throughout her career as a superhero.
The Wasp and Ant-Man in
their first outing together
Jan's attitude towards crime fighting was, at
first, very carefree. She saw it as her way of attracting attention from
Hank. Still the shallow socialite early in her career, Jan would often
comment on the attractiveness of Thor to try and elicit jealousy from her
partner. The studious Pym began to experiment with Pym Particles, and
found that he could cause himself to grow beyond his normal height to giant
sizes. Soon, both crime fighters had been exposed to the Particles long
enough to be able to change size at will rather than rely on gas capsules or
potions, and Jan could fire her stinger blasts without the aid of wrist
devices. Changing his costumed identity to "Giant-Man", Pym eventually
experienced bodily strain because of the process' physiological effects. Because
of this, Pym decided to take a break from costumed adventuring. With the
stress of constant threats from Pym's enemies such as Egghead,
the Human Top (later Whirlwind) and the Black Knight, as well as
confronting Kang the Conqueror and the Masters of
Evil with the Avengers and surviving a brush with death
after having been shot by a Maggia agent,[26] Jan was ready for a break
herself. Meanwhile, Thor and Iron Man also took leaves of absence from the
Avengers, leaving Captain America to preside over a new incarnation of the
team. Jan remained in her civilian career as a fashion designer, with
Pym continuing his scientific pursuits.
Sometime later, however, Pym and
Van Dyne learned that the Namor the Sub-Mariner was heading for New York
City. Fearing trouble, they decided to alert the Avengers. The Wasp was
captured by first Namor's foe, the undersea barbarian leader Attuma, and
then by the Collector. In order to help the Avengers rescue Janet, Pym
decided to use his growing power again, donning a new costume and adopting
the new name of "Goliath".
Marriage and divorce
Pym had
always loved Janet, but various inhibitions kept him from proposing to her -
feelings of inadequacy due to her wealth chief among them. One day, while he
had still not fully mentally recovered from the stress of accidentally
creating one of the Avengers' greatest foes in the form of Ultron, Hank had a
lab accident with experimental gases. These caused a reaction in him that
broke his inhibitions down, and induced a severe case of schizophrenia. This
was his second breakdown, the first having been after his first wife, Maria,
had been killed. Believing he was a new person named "Yellowjacket", Pym
broke into Avengers Mansion and told the team that he had killed Henry
Pym[29] When the team attacked him, he captured the Wasp and escaped. Soon
after, the Avengers were shocked to hear that Janet, who suspected it was
Pym all along, was going to marry him. Their wedding at Avengers Mansion was
attended by a who's-who of active superheroes at the time. Immediately
following, the Avengers were attacked by the villainous Circus of Crime.
Janet later felt guilty at having taken advantage of Hank's mental state to
finally get married, but the couple was happy... at first.
Wasp was
once temporarily possessed by the Power Prism fragments, briefly acting as
Dr. Spectrum.
Hank later had a third breakdown, during which he was
captured by Ultron, reverted to his earliest days as Ant-Man, and made to
attack the Avengers. During the fighting, it was the Wasp who took down her
wayward husband. Janet later suspected that this, being brought down by his
own wife, might have further exacerbated Pym's fragile mental state. She had
begun seeing a therapist on the side, hoping for insight into how to help
Hank's ego.
When the Avengers were battling the Elfqueen, Hank
blasted her in the back during a lull in the fighting while Captain America
was trying to talk her down.[32] This began another round of fighting that
caused Captain America to charge Hank for reckless behavior under the
Avengers by-laws, since bystanders could have been killed. This began Pym's
fourth nervous breakdown. He decided that if he could build a robot to
attack Avengers Mansion, he could defeat it and be a hero in the eyes of his
teammates. He included a special hidden weak spot on the robot just for the
occasion. When Jan protested, Hank lashed out, brutally striking his wife.
His plan went awry, and when the robot attacked the mansion, it was the Wasp
who disabled it after Hank was overpowered. In the subsequent court-martial,
Pym was stripped of his Avengers membership. Meanwhile, Jan began divorce
proceedings.
Continued Avengers service and Chairmanship
Over
the years, Janet had become a seasoned hero, a far cry from the ditzy
thrill-seeker she had been while first teaming with Pym as Ant-Man. She
continued service with the team after Hank's fourth breakdown despite the
tremendous stress of the situation. After the divorce, she at times revisited
her old dallying romance with Paladin.
The Wasp was elected as
chairman of the Avengers, a position she held for a long while, having been
molded into a savvy and able leader. Janet and several other Avengers were
among the group of heroes summoned to Battleworld by the Beyonder to fight
in his Secret Wars. During the conflict, the Wasp appeared to be seduced by
Magneto after he captured her, but she was merely playing along in order to
find out his plans. Temporarily overpowering Magneto and his new allies the
X-Men, she escaped in an alien aircraft that soon crashed. Jan took refuge
with the outcast Lizard. The Wrecker gravely wounded her when the Wrecking Crew
was dispatched by Doctor Doom to retrieve the Lizard. Left in a death-like
state, she was revived by the alien healer Zsaji.
While Avengers
chairman, Jan led the team in discovering Jean Grey, an X-Man long thought
to be dead. Her teammate Black Knight had an unrequited crush on her for
some time, while another, Hercules, chafed at being given orders by a
woman.
The most serious test to the Wasp's leadership ability came
when the Masters of Evil under Baron Helmut Zemo attacked and conquered
Avengers Mansion. Hercules was beaten into a coma by the Masters, and
admitted to hospital, and Zemo sent two of the most powerful Masters,
Titania and Absorbing Man to finish him off. With the help of the second
Ant-Man, the Wasp defeated the two far stronger villains. With every other
active team member incapacitated and a small army of supervillains holding
their headquarters, it was up to the Wasp to assemble a rescue squad and
mount the assault to retake the mansion.
The Wasp soon took a leave
of absence, but was abducted by the goddess Artemis on the orders of
Hercules' father Zeus, who blamed the Wasp for his son's condition. The Wasp
and the rest of the Avengers stood against Zeus and some of his offspring
until he saw sense and ended the hostilities.
Eventually Hank's
mental balance returned and he was reinstated as an active Avenger under the
name Doctor Pym. Janet was briefly assigned to the West Coast branch
alongside Hank after this. The two managed to rekindle a friendship and,
some years later, a romance. While on a trip to Las Vegas, however, Jan turned
down a marriage proposal of Hank's; she said she would not marry him again.
After sustaining severe injuries during the Crossing, Pym put
Janet through the same process that had originally given her her powers.
This temporarily mutated Janet into an almost completely wasp-like form. In
this form, she was among the Avengers who seemingly gave their lives to
absorb the energy of Onslaught, in reality being shunted to an alternate
dimension. She was later returned to normal by Franklin Richards, and helped
to re-assemble the team after this event. Following a membership evaluation
after dealing with Morgan le Fay, Wasp was left in a reservist role for a
time. She was pulled into the Destiny War along with Hank Pym, successfully
leading a diverse team of Avengers from various times and realities, and
eventually re-attained full membership and even the chairmanship of the
team.
Janet hosted "America's Next Superstar" for a time. After
he rejoined the team, Jan had a dalliance with Hawkeye, which left Hank
reeling. She soon returned toher longtime, if rocky, flame. Around this
time, Jan also began using Pym Particles to grow to immense heights, just as
Hawkeye (as Goliath) and Pym had done.
An offhand remark from
the Wasp to the Scarlet Witch regarding the latter's "children" accidentally
ignited Wanda's breakdown that left the Avengers disassembled. During the
chaos that ensued, the Wasp was badly injured by her good friend She-Hulk
who had been driven into an uncontrollable rage, leaving Jan in a brief
coma. It was Hank who brought her to the hospital and stayed at her bedside
as she recovered. During this time they seem to have finally fully
reconciled. Shortly thereafter, Pym received a fellowship at Oxford, and the two
moved to England to reconcile and take a break from crimefighting.
Conflicting reports put Jan and Hank back as a couple during this period,
and perhaps even remarried. However, their time together did not last for
long. Tired of his dedication to his work, she eventually left him and
returned to the U.S. to resume her own career as a fashion designer.
Civil War and the Mighty Avengers
During the superhero Civil War,
Janet (who had always been open about her identity) and Hank both supported
the Superhuman Registration Act and thus joined Iron Man's Pro-Registration
Superhero Unit, with Hank helping spearhead the movement. She hosted a
pro-registration reality TV show, America's Newest Superhero. Despite
being on the Pro-Registration side, Jan was distraught when her friend Bill
Foster, a leader of the opposing Secret Avengers, was killed in battle by a
clone of Thor.
At the end of the Civil War, Iron Man and Ms. Marvel
recruited Janet to the Mighty Avengers. She participated in the retaliation
against the Mole Man's biological creations, but when Ultron infected Iron
Man by downloading itself into his Extremis armor and held its own against
the remaining team, she resorted to calling her ex-husband Hank Pym for
help. Janet and Hank were not technically on very good terms even as friends
and she was unaware that a Skrull impostor had replaced him for the last
several months. She continued to serve with the Mighty Avengers against an
alien symbiote-infected populace in New York, and even arresting Doctor
Doom.
During the Skrull invasion on Earth, Jan, along with her
Mighty Avengers teammates and the New Avengers, confronted a Skrull
spaceship in the Savage Land and opposed many Skrulls who appeared as
various superheroes dressed in older versions of their costumes. Both
Avengers groups were taken back to New York by Mister Fantastic and Agent
Abigail Brand of S.W.O.R.D. to confront the Skrulls in a final battle. What
Janet was unaware of was that a growth serum that 'Hank Pym' (actually the
Skrull Criti Noll in disguise) had given her a month earlier was tampered
with and was designed to transform her into a monolithic, explosive
bio-weapon. Criti Noll survived the battle long to activate the new growth serum
in a desperate attempt to destroy the Earth following the supposed death of
his queen Veranke in the final battle. Growing hundreds of feet tall with
highly visible, and unstable, energy searing out of her body, Janet's former
teammate and fellow founding Avenger Thor used his hammer to minimize the
damage of the explosion by turning the energy emanated by her body back to
herself so she exploded. Thor swore to avenge her death.
Return
Months later after the war of the Avengers against the X-Men, she was
revealed to be alive. Apparently when Thor hit her with a lighting, the
process of expansion reverted sending her to the Microverse where she used
her Avengers Identi-card in order to alert the Avengers of her presence.
Without knowledge of which Avenger sent the signal, they asked for help from
Giant-Man and traveled with him to the Microverse, where they finally found
Janet who was fighting someone named Lord Gouzar. After defeating Lord
Gouzar and liberating the Microverse from his tyranny, Janet and her fellow
Avengers returned to their normal universe. She then became a member of the
Uncanny Avengers, and had a romance with her teammate Havok. In
addition to serving on the roster, she privately funds the team in order to
avoid the problems that would come with government sponsorship.
AXIS
Following the World War
Hate in which Avengers and X-Men alike joined forces to defeat the Red
Skull, a magic spell cast by the Scarlet Witch and Doctor Doom inverted the
moral axis of numerous heroes and villains. Wasp was one of the Avengers who
became tyrants. However, she was then captured by Captain America, who
drained the Pym Particles from her body to use them to shrink and capture
anyone who opposed him.
The Wasp was later retrieved by Havok when
the inverted X-Men stormed the Stark Tower. Alex tried to convince his
brother to spare Wasp's life from a gene bomb the X-Men planned to detonate
which would've killed every person on the Earth who wasn't a mutant.
After the bomb's detonation was prevented, Havok freed Wasp and tried to
escape with her, claiming he was the one who defused the bomb. After
realizing he hadn't done such thing, Janet turned on him and then rejoined
the Axis to prevent Steve Rogers from helping the inverted Red Skull
reinvert the affected heroes and villains. When a reinversion spell was
cast, Wasp became good once again. However, Havok didn't (as he had been
accidentally shielded by Iron Man), and used her as a leverage to escape
from the heroes.
All-New, All-Different
After the Multiverse
was reformed Wasp confronted Wolverine and her clones called the Sisters
when they tried to steal an Ant-Man suit. Upon Wolverine clearing things up,
Wasp agreed to shrink down and destroy the nanites in Zelda's body. While
Wasp and Wolverine made their way through Zelda's body, Captain Mooney of
Alchemax up and shot Zelda causing Wasp and Wolverine to exit the body. The
two of them then knocked out Captain Mooney.
Wasp later caught up
with the Uncanny Avengers and confronted the Hank Pym/Ultron after helping
to fend off the monsters in the subway. When Wasp asked the Hank Pym/Ultron
about the recent events, she figured out that Ultron was in control of Hank
Pym when Ultron guessed wrong. The rest of the Uncanny Avengers were
informed of this causing Cable to pressure Hank Pym enough for Ultron to go
on the attack and reveal his true self.[59]
Powers and Abilities
Power Grid [67]
Intelligence
3
Strength*
5
2
Speed
3
Durability
2
Energy Projection
4
Fighting Skills
4
* Strength increases when she shrinks or grows
Powers
Size Reduction: Due to long-term exposure to Pym Particles,
The Wasp could reduce herself in size, down to the dimensions of the insect
from which she takes her name, roughly 1/2 inch in height. She usually
chooses not to retain her standard density while at this reduced mass, but
can choose to do so at will. The "lost" mass is shunted to a pocket
dimension for later retrieval. Additionally, her strength was boosted while
she is at reduced size, to the extent that she can bend a one-inch diameter
steel bar almost double. Her size allows her to be easily unnoticed in most
cases, allowing her to become stealthyin some cases.
Bio-Synthetic
Wings: Due to small implanted insect wings, the Wasp could fly at incredibly
fast speeds. These are functional when she reduced herself in height, and
can remain so until reaching a height that is a nearly foot shorter than her
normal height. Her flight speed can also allow her to gain a form of superhuman
reflexes and agility, being able to easily evade targets and attacks.
Wasp's Sting: The Wasp could generate powerful bio-electric blasts from her
hand that have been shown to be capable of cutting through high-density
structures and is able to cause extreme pain to superhumanly strong and
highly durable beings and can pierce their skin.
Insect
Communication and Control: Through the use of her retractable antennae, the
Wasp could communicate with and control certain higher insects, in a manner
similar to Ant-Man's Helmet. She rarely chose to utilize this ability, however.
Size Addition: In addition to being able to shrink, Wasp could grow
significantly in size as well. The growth process requires the rapid acquisition
of bodily mass, presumably from an extra-dimensional source. This
extra-dimensional mass fortifies all of her cellular tissues, including her
bones and muscles, enabling her to support her increased weight, and giving her
superhuman strength. Perhaps due to the bodily strains that her ex-husband
Hank experienced as a side-effect of such powers, Janet uses this power only
in emergencies, preferring to shrink to her wasp-sized form.
Abilities
Talented Fashion Designer: Janet was a very talented fashion
designer. During her early days as the Wasp, she would constantly make new
costumes for herself and wear different ones for almost every new mission.
Over the years her talent earned her great acclaim in the fashion world.
Janet's talents also extend to designing costumes for other superheroes;
especially her Avengers teammates, including Firestar and Justice. She
possessed enough costumes of her own to fill either an entire closet or two.
Multilingual: Janet could speak fluent English, Spanish,[60][61]
Hungarian,[62] French and Italian.[63] She has also taught herself to speak
the language of the Microverse.[64]
Expert Combatant: Janet had
adapted to a special kind of hand-to-hand combat that was created by her
ex-husband Hank Pym, which takes advantage of the fighter's insect size
against a much larger form and physique enabling them to strike pressure
points before the opponent even realizes what happened. She was also trained
in multiple martial arts and unarmed combat fields by Captain America,
making her into an adept combatant.
Strength level
Janet has the
strength of a normal human female of her age, height, and build who engages
in moderate regular exercise. The Wasp's strength was boosted when she
reduced in size, and increased geometrically when she chose to use her
growing powers. At 10 feet tall, she could lift (press) 1,000 pounds, at 25 feet
tall she could lift (press) 10 tons, and at 100 feet tall, she could lift
(press) 50 tons. The higher she grew past 25 feet, the more of her strength
she had to use simply to support her own enormous mass.
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Wasp's Suit: At first Janet needed the
suit to release the Pym Particles that allowed her to shrink but due to
repeat exposure she was able to produce the particles herself. During her
early days as the Wasp, she would constantly make new costumes for herself
and wear different ones for almost every new mission.
Avengers
Identicard
[Expand]
Former Equipment
Doctor
Spectrum's Power Prism: for a time she wielded the Power Prism.
Transportation
Quinjet
Weapons
[Expand]
Former
Weapons
Sting Gauntlets: Jan required wrist devices to use her "Wasp's
Sting".
Trivia
Wasp chose the name Avengers for the team.[11] The
Vision also took his name from a description of him by the Wasp.[65]