Posts Tagged ‘ Hank Pym ’

Ain’t it Cool is reporting that The Hurt Locker‘s Jeremy Renner may be signing on to the Avengers movie as Hawkeye.

Not a bad bit of casting; this rumor surfaced months ago but was debunked. However, AICN seems to think that that rumor was regarding negotiations, while this rumor is about actually signing up.

Sadly, I suspect that Hawkeye is less likely to be wearing his traditional purple togs, and more likely to be wearing something along these lines instead:

In other casting news, last week Bleeding Cool ran a story about Nathan Fillion being a lock for Hank Pym – which would be nice, but if I want any Whedon alum playing the Avenger’s batshit crazy scientist I’d rather it be Alan Tudyk.

But then, it is Bleeding Cool…

So let me get this straight: Eternity contains everything, including Hank Pym.

And because Hank Pym thinks everyone hates him…

Yeah, okay. I can live with that.

But really, Eternity loves Hank Pym!

Why? Because he’s Scientist Supreme!

Er…well, the title feels a little forced, but I guess I can live with that too. After all, it’s not like Hank’s the smartest guy in the room; Eternity admits that Reed Richards is a lot smarter but an explorer (presumably the Explorer Supreme!) and Stark’s an Engineer (Supreme!). I have a hard time thinking Stark’s brighter than Pym though, and Eternity doesn’t say he is – it’s just that these are the guys that Pym compares himself to most.

The fact that they’ve both been massive dicks to him in this series is probably another reason that Eternity calls them out.

Tangentially, you know who Pym doesn’t see as his equal?

That’s right, baby. Because Pym knows that no-one is equal to Doom.

Anyway. So it turns out that while Reed and Stark have the role of Explorer and Engineer locked down, Pym’s the Mage.

Er…like magic? He uses science like magic? So he doesn’t have to explain how he does what he does, kind of like how Forge could make anything before Warren Bloody Ellis blew him out his glory hole?

You know what? I like Hank Pym. I always have even with his many, many, many flaws – so I’m okay with this new role and the new-found confidence it instills.

You know what I don’t like?

Creepy ‘that’s-the-brain-patterns-of-your-dead-ex-wife-in-a-robot-your-robot-son-built-for-a-mate-you-weirdo-perv’ Pym-Jocasta moments.

At least Speed doesn’t like it either…

I was one of those who was looking forward to Dan Slott’s take on the Avengers when it was announced that he was taking over Mighty Avengers when Bendis left to take over Thunderbolts create Dark Avengers.

I’m an Avengers fan since the days of Roger Stern’s stint as scribe, and I’ve read/now own a good chunk of what came before that, so I was all up for a return to an old school feel for the book – something that Bendis’ Mighty never achieved, in spite of the initial claims that it would provide that feel.

Instead, we got a weak and muddled three-issue opening arc which dealt with magic, Wundagore Mountain and Modred the flamin’ Mystic, perhaps the least useful magical character in the MU. As someone who doesn’t like much magic outside of Dr Strange, this wasn’t an ideal arc for me – but more than that, something felt off about Pym’s portrayal.

It wasn’t the new codename or outfit – in spite of Hercules’ concerns. It wasn’t even in the way that Iron Man reacted to him leading the team; it was in Pym’s reactions to everyone else.

Let’s see…he’s lost Jan and is hanging out with the robot whose brainwaves are based on hers. He’s desperate to prove himself as a hero, apparently to partly honor Jan’s memory but also apparently for himself.

He’s also overbearing and more than a little condescending to the younger members of the team, including but not limited to Cassie, who’s been quite successfully proving herself a hero for a while now.

He grossly over reacts to Jocasta shutting off their lab to protect it – to the point where you have to wonder if Slott’s really on board the Pym redemption train as he’s claimed to be.

Oh, and not only is he displaying some very erratic behavior, building a robot called Salvation Two (presumably because Salvation One went so well), but he’s also picking a fight with Reed Richards.

I mean, granted Richards was being uncharacteristically dickish, but still…

And, oh yeah, his team’s being led round by the nose by Loki.

What really bugs me is that Reed and Stark, prior to the Skrull invasion would never have treated Pym this way. They both respected his scientific prowess, regarded him as a friend and treated him as an equal. But now they’re both acting like heels and Pym’s disintegrating.

It’s not an Avengers that appeals to me; it’s not what I thought Slott would deliver, it’s making me actively dislike one of my favorite characters and to be honest, it’s not a lot of fun.

I’m disappointed, and if things don’t turn around in this FF arc, then I think I’m actually going to do something I’ve never done: drop an Avengers book.

So I wasn’t 100% on the money with my post-Secret Invasion predictions but I was pretty damn close.

You know how there’s a Secret Invasion: Requiem issue being solicited with no hint as to who’s being mourned?

You know, Hank Pym’s a bit of a douche.

Look at the evidence. He falls in love with a pretty young socialite (apparently when she’s very young) who just happens to look like his dead/ex/spy/monster wife.

When her father’s murdered and young Janet Van Dyne decides to join the ant-powered Pym on his scientific adventures, he naturally straps her to a contraption to give her super-powers. Later on, he’d unexpectedly up her powers by giving her a ‘sting’ without telling her then later on he’d mutate her into a Wasp-like creature to save her life (but we don’t talk about that).

Long after, after three costumed identities, co-founding the Avengers and years of neglecting jan in favor of his lab, the repressed Pym has a schizophrenic break and marries her while pretending to be the man who killed Pym.

And Jan goes along with it. No saint herself, that one.

Ah, the Silver Age! (Yes I know that this has been revisted in Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in an attempt to make it a bit more…realistic is too strong a word, but I’m going with the original intent here.)

Along the way in those years, Pym managed to create Ultron a maniacal killer robot with a father fixation. He also felt constantly overshadowed by the other Avengers, believing himself useless.

That led to a downward spiral where he had anothe semi-psychotic episode, creating another robot to attack the Avengers just so he could save the day.

And then there was the back-hander that has defined Pym ever since in the mind of readers and writers alike. During this semi-psychotic break, he slapped his wife when she tried to stop him, sending her flying across the room.

Pym hit rock bottom pretty soon after. Fired from the Avengers, he was soon framed by Egghead and imprisoned, although he was eventually cleared of the charges against him. After that, he retired from superheroics – only to be drawn back in to look after the West Coast Avengers’ compound by Hawkeye.

Of course, Hank still had issues…

…although he was persuaded not to commit suicide by part time Avenger Espirita. He stuck around with the Whackos, being studly with Espirita and Tigra before reuniting with Jan. The pair later ended up on the main team with Hank resuming his Giant-Man role (and, later Goliath) before being split into two people – meek, scientific Goliath and brash, reckless Yellowjacket.

They were eventually reintegrated, and Pym continued as Yellowjacket. Back with Jan, he indulged in quite a bit of kinky sex before she decided to uncharacteristically shag Hawkeye behind Hank’s back.

Shortly after, the Avengers Disassembled and Hank and Jan left for England where she drank a lot and he got involved with a pretty young thing who turned out to be a Skrull sent to replace him.

And that’s all she wrote. We still don’t know what happened to the real Hank…but thanks to this week’s Mighty Avengers we do know what happened to the Skrull who replaced him…

…he thought that the Skrulls would lose the war because Hank Pym’s mind started to overwrite his. Dugan-Skrull of course thought he was just absorbing Pym’s batshit crazy complexes, but I have another theory.
I think that Pym’s a bit of a dick, by and large. He’s flawed, arrogant and generally a bit of an idiot despite being massively intelligent.

The thing is, his heroicness, his thinking the best of people, his smartness and willingness to defend people actually overwrote Skrull programming. His thoughts actually came to matter to the Skrull.

And he wasn’t the first…

It sounds like the Pym Skrull has been replaced more than once – so he has this effect on all of them. It doesn’t sound like this has happened to the other Skrulls, Mar-Vell aside, and I like that.

I like that Pym’s a hero in spite of his flaws. Yes, he’s got problems. Yes, he’s got a past that he regrets. Yes, he screws up.

But in spite of all of that, he’s a hero and that heroic nature even shines through the Skrull sent to replace him. That might not be how Bendis intended, but it’s what I’m taking away. Hank Pym is still one of my favorite characters…

…now I just hope he’s still alive somewhere.

You may (or may not) know me.

If you do know me – even just a little – chances are that you’ll know I write. Not professionally, outside of reports for my job, but because I enjoy it and because I keep telling myself one day I’ll do something with it.

Recently I sat down and drew up a list of characters that I’d like to take a crack at if the opportunity presented itself. Not surprisingly, many proved to be Marvel, and many proved to be B and C listers. And a couple of Ds. In lieu of a real post, thought I’d share just a couple of ideas…

Hank Pym – Pym’s a polarizing character; a lot of people (including some writers) can’t get past the backhander he gave Jan years ago and it’s basically become his defining attribute over the past ten years, even moreso than when it actually happened.

But here’s the thing – this is a guy who’s made mistake after mistake after mistake – Ultron, Yellowjacket, Egghead…he’s almost self-destructive in the path he takes. Now take that and add in his identity issues, his genius, the sci-fi aspects to the character (his origin is essentially a twist on The Incredible Shrinking Man), his powers, his communication with insects, Kosmos – and you’ve got a character that’s got legs if handled properly.

Have him separated from the MU for a while. Give him a purpose, a direction, a goal and keep him out of the way of too many of his regular support characters. Have him take a starring role in his own 4-issue mini-series, instead of a back-up role in The Irredeemable Ant-Man (excellent book, by the way), or being the character that’s brought in when an unstable scientific type is needed. Define the character without relying on other character’s reaction to him; that’s the ticket.

Hey, you can even go darker with him. Let him explore the anger inside if needs be, as long as he comes to terms with it – preferably without the aid of a magic crystal…

Sub-Mariner - I love Namor as a character. He’s regal, he’s an ass, and he has dominion over 70% of the Earth. Forget Black Panther, this is a monarch I want to read about. He has a pretty good support cast and villains and ties – in one way or another – to almost every character in the MU that you can think of through either the FF, the Avengers, the Defenders or the Invaders. Once again, what’s needed is a hook.

He’s been played as a monarch and he’s been played as an exile – but he hasn’t been played as an icon. Have him be worshipped by his people, have them be the family that he’s lost (Dorma, Namorita – who knows what will happen to Namora now she’s back?) – and then put him in an impossible situation.

Have him discover that if he continues down the road he’s on, he’ll be the end of his people’s way of life. Have him get comfortable – finally – with who and what he is, then yank the carpet out from under him. Give the man a prophecy to fulfill that puts him at odds with the rest of the MU. Let him be facing the destruction of his people within his lifetime – and it’s all his fault.

Just some thoughts for openers.