So I catch sight of not only Hank Pym riding a … something technological down to its explodey fate, but an article over at Atomic’s Comics blog by way of Ye Olde Comick Booke Blogge who found a bunch of old corny shots of the Wasp mooning over Thor and powdering her nose in the face of danger. Well, they don’t call her the ‘winsome’ Wasp for nothing.
But he does have a good point: no matter what Hank Pym does, for some odd reason we can’t let go of the fact he smacked his wife in a moment of mental duress. She’s forgiven him, the Avengers forgave him, what is up with comic readers?
Is it the fact we’re attracted to bad eggs? Is this the same reason the name Joey Buttafuco is now embedded into the American consciousness and who the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby is more about the money than the child? Is it societal or … is that really all we know about Dr. Pym? Was that the moment of excitement in the guys’ career?
Well, of course not but I can agree that he’s just not being used to the fullest extent. That Bendis (or was it Millar?) thought having the guy stand next to Captain America in Avengers group shots was hinky because he was a wife beater is kind of where the conversation ends when really, there is a lot to the guy that makes him a real ‘Marvel’ hero.
Okay, just to get it out of the way: yes, Hank Pym, while creating a robot that only he could destroy to attack his friends as a way to impress them and earn their trust, smacked his wife across the face hard enough to cause bruises. And I’m not condoning the act, but let’s look at the bigger picture. HE WAS TRYING TO HURT THE AVENGERS WITH A KILLER ROBOT. He was in a panic because they were going to kick him off the team because he jumped the gun and KILLED A WOMAN. There are larger factors at work than a beaten wife, the man was ruining his life due to a mental breakdown, let’s give the guy a break. Janet forgave him, so can we.
The first time I ever heard of Hank Pym he was trying to kill himself. I got a bunch of West Coast Avengers comics at a yard sale along with some ofther books, but there was only one with a guy in a red jumpsuit holding a gun after a werecat turned him down. This wasn’t what I expected out of an Avengers comic and it had me at the get-go; you mean to tell me some people just aren’t good at being a superhero? Back then, it was hard knock life but you loved your job and here was Hank Pym holding a pistol with the intention to kill himself.
Not only that, but next issue he was counseled by a mexican superheroine (a Catholic no less!) to have faith in himself, causing Hank to pick himslf up and try out being a hero under who he really was, a scientist. He carried cars and winches and cool science stuff in the pockets of his super-jumper and was pretty cool. Sure, he’s no Batman and you won’t see his name on a lunchbox, but it just seemed to a little Yours Truly that he wasn’t just out to help his friends or those in need, but himself as well.
That was so cool.
Looking at his very first story in Tales to Astonish, Hank Pym was never meant to be a superhero. The story, “The Man in the Ant Hill”, is written in an almost cautionary tale of hubris and how not to take the little things for granted. At the end of the story, after being chasedby ants, threatened with death and barely making it out alive, Hank Pym decides his shrinking and growing formula is far too dangerous for mankind and swears never to use it again. Next story out, he’s donning a costume. Not the usual beginning for these kind of things. From the very start he’s fighting against his base nature to take a risk he wasn’t prepared for in order to be a better person, a hero. Doomed to failure, but the fight is respectable.
I just wish someone had really hooked into that. Now that people seem to be reveling in the fact that Quicksilver used to be bi-polarly evil and using it to fuel his recent change in personality from pre- to post- Avengers: Disassembled, why couldn’t we look back to the same period of time and see the struggling superhero, Hank Pym? Someone who has all the tools, but maybe not the talent? For someone the lifestyle is a fight in more ways than one, but the results are well worth it, to humanity and to yourself.
Though it looks like Avengers: the Initiative seems to think that some big flashy heroic act is how Hank Pym really wants to be remembered, I’m going to remember him for sitting in that room, hearing good advice, and making that big step to live.
2 Comments
I really think it would be in both Wasp and Pym’s best interests to be kept very far away from each other for oh, about a decade or so. Everytime they’re on the same coast, they seem to wind up getting back together, or thinking about getting back together, only to ultimately decide that they still aren’t past all their history after all.
It’s one of the things I like about West Coast Avengers - they were on separate coasts, and mostly had no contact (occasional long-distance video phone conversation aside). Each could do their own thing, including Hank trying to be a scientist super-hero (as you noted).
Just bought the new Yellowjacket figure last week, so of course he’s doomed.
Now I need to find that old Marvel Team-Up issue where he’s seemingly blown up, and had been experimenting on his wife without her knowledge…