Henry Pym
Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym, commonly known as Giant-Man or Ant-Man, is an American superhero and scientist who specializes in size-changing chemicals, using them to grow or shrink himself and gain a tactical advantage in battle. He also uses various technological methods to commune with ants, using their omnipresence around the city to learn of crimes as they happen, as well as leading them as soldiers against his foes. When shrunk to the size of an ant, he retains the strength of a full-sized man, making him proportionally superhuman. When fighting as Giant-Man, he grows to twelve feet tall, the limit beyond which he becomes weak and unable to support his own body. On occasion he has been forced to grow to as much as forty feet, leaving him at a severe disadvantage in combat. He is crimefighting partners with the Wasp, who developed an unrequited love for him from the formation of their team. He has gradually warmed to her romantically even though he hesitates to show it, even planning to propose marriage at one time. The two are founding members of the Avengers. He is also the widower of Maria Pym.
Biography
Origin
By the early 1960s, Pym was married to Hungarian Maria Trovaya, who had escaped the communism of her home country. The two had their honeymoon in Hungary, recognizing the danger but believing the past to be behind them. Alas, Maria was captured and killed by communist agents. Pym frantically sought Maria's killers, but succeeded only in driving himself mad and spending a night in jail. For years to come, Pym would recall the words her father had told her, "Go to the ants, thou sluggard;"[note 1] he took this very literally, becoming inspired to fight crime by shrinking himself to the size of an ant.[1]
Doubted and criticized by his scientific peers, Henry Pym nonetheless persisted in pursuing his goal of creating a serum to change one's size at will. He eventually succeeded, in a sense, but his experiments resulted in him becoming the size of an insect at a speed too fast for him to counteract it and apply an antidote. Pym frantically ran outside and was soon assailed by ants, colossal at his size, and chased into their ant hill. One ant mysteriously showed sympathy for Pym and helped him out of the ants' domicile and back into his laboratory, where Pym applied his growth serum and vowed never to use the chemicals again.[2]
Some weeks after his initial serum test, Pym decided that his creation was too valuable to humanity to abandon forever, storing the chemicals in a safe. He also began an intense study of ants, and developed a cybernetic helmet that tuned into the ants' wavelength and allowed him to communicate with them. However, the government soon enlisted him in developing an anti-radiation gas—a project that quickly gained the attention of the Soviets. Communist agents arrived at Pym's lab, but Pym devised a plan to repel them with his new helmet and a costume made of unstable molecules to protect him from ant bites. Using his shrinking serum, Pym returned to the ant hill and used his helmet to recruit the ants—successfully, except in the case of one large worker ant. The ant forced Pym into combat, and Pym discovered that he possessed the same power he did at full size, lifting and defeating the ant with trivial ease. Pym led the rest of the ants back to his lab, where the communists had bound his assistants and made significant progress in assembling his anti-radiation notes. Pym encouraged his army of ants to attack the invaders while he freed the assistants, who turned the tables and bound their enemies for later retrieval by authorities. Pym returned to his office and to normal size before anyone noticed the difference, officially dubbing his new alter-ego, "Ant-Man."[3]
1962-1963
- Full article: Biography of Henry Pym, 1962-1963
Pym spent the following year and a half or so fighting crime as Ant-Man. Over that time, he battled such foes as the Porcupine, the Scarlet Beetle, his earliest nemesis Egghead, and even Doctor Doom alongside the Fantastic Four. He allied with Janet van Dyne, who came to be known as his sidekick, the Wasp. Janet was immediately infatuated with Hank, but his feelings toward her were more muted, as he still recovered from his wife Maria's death. The two also joined a larger band of superheroes to defeat the malevolent Loki, allying with Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk in a team that Wasp coined as the Avengers. Hulk exited the Avengers early on after their defeat of the Space Phantom, upset with his treatment by the other members. Near the end of 1963, Dr. Pym took his Ant-Man growth formula in the other direction, developing the twelve-foot Giant-Man persona.
1964
- Full article: Biography of Henry Pym, 1964
Initially, becoming Giant-Man left Pym a gangly, awkward, inefficient crimefighter, which made fighting his new foe the Human Top more challenging than needed. He soon gained his footing however, and Giant-Man became a powerful and agile new hero, able to climb tall buildings and cover long distances at a blistering speed. His feelings for Wasp became more intense, even considering proposing marriage to her at one time. Egghead and the Porcupine continued to be repeated nuisances to Giant-Man and the Wasp, along with new villains like the Black Knight and the Magician. Untethered by being part of a team, the Hulk proved to be a recurring threat to the Avengers, despite Giant-Man and Wasp's best efforts to persuade him back to their side. Following the Hulk's departure, the Avengers were joined by the legendary World War II hero, Captain America.
Notes
- ↑ Maria's original words were, "Go to the ants, thou dullard," but this is a slight misrepresentation of the Bible verse Proverbs 6:6, which Henry recalls correctly.
See also
References
- ↑ Tales to Astonish #44a: "The Creature from Kosmos!" (June 1963) Lee, Stan and H.E. Huntley (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Heck, Don (i), Simek, Artie (let).
- ↑ Tales to Astonish #27a: "The Man in the Ant Hill!" (January 1962) Lee, Stan and Lieber, Larry (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), D'Agostino, Jon (let).
- ↑ Tales to Astonish #35a: "Return of the Ant-Man." (September 1962) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Duffy, John (let).