All posts from January 17, 2009
“It’s not that there aren’t any good Hank Pym stories, it’s just that his solo run as Ant Man/Giant Man was pretty forgettable.
Dude can shrink and talk to ants, that’s not particularly interesting or compelling. But when he got put into the Avengers, there were some good stories. He’s kind of an also-ran, in that he can shrink and grow, and he gave his girlfriend powers. For some reason he gave his girlfriend better powers: not only can she shrink, she can fly and ‘sting’ people. And now the two of them are hanging out with Iron Man and Captain America and Thor and a lot of people who are way, way cooler than him.
So he kept on trying to be cooler, changing up his persona to be Giant Man and Goliath. He tried to prove he was a science whiz and invent things like an artificially intelligent robot, but that turned out to be Ultron. Who turned against his ‘father’ and humanity and keeps doing horrible things.
He has a breakdown and decides to become Yellowjacket and makes like he isn’t even Hank Pym, he’s some new badass superhero that’s way cooler than Hank. He even makes a big deal of shit-talking himself as “Yellowjacket”. Eventually he drops the ruse, but he’s still not sure if he’s really cut out to be a hero. And Ultron keeps coming back and doing more and more terrible things. Ultron also starts messing with Pym’s fragile psyche, to the point that he’s a detriment to the team. Captain America kicks him off the team, so he decides to use all his science know-how to build another deadly robot, but this time it’s just programmed by him so he can easily defeat it and prove to everyone what a great hero he is. This plan goes terribly, and in the middle of it falling apart he has a breakdown and backhands his wife.
This is of course the only thing anyone ever remembers about him, though afterwards he has a moment of clarity, pleads guilty to his stupid “killer robot” plot and serves his time in jail. He’s released and realizes he’s not cut out to be a superhero, and dedicates himself to scientific research and support.
It’s a pretty good character arc, though it’s told over like fifteen years of Avengers comics, and it’s all been pretty thoroughly thrown away every time someone wants him to come back and be a superhero.
But at his core, he’s a pretty classic “feet of clay” Marvel super hero.”
