Henry Pym

"Superheroes, what a goddamn joke!"

- Hank Pym

Henry "Hank" Pym is an entomologist and physicist who developed the Ant-Man suit after discovering the Pym Particles. He is a founding member of The Avengers. He is also the husband of Janet van Dyne, and the father of Hope van Dyne.

Ant-Man Prelude
In 1987, a group of radicals in the Soviet-controlled East Berlin discovered a piece of an old HYDRA technology; the leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D. decided to send an agent to Berlin and stop them from reverse-engineering it. Howard Stark confronted Pym about giving S.H.I.E.L.D. his Ant-Man Suit. However, Pym was unwilling to give his suit to anyone else, so Agent Peggy Carter had to convince him to go to Berlin personally. To see if the suit actually worked, she fired a few bullets at Pym, and he became small like an ant in the blink of an eye.

In Berlin, Pym successfully snuck past the Berlin Wall only to be spotted by a guard dog. Pym managed to escape however by jumping on an anti-personnel device which then fired him to safety. He made his way into the radicals' headquarters by controlling a flying ant. He discovered that the group had not even built the device yet. He then heard screams and found a group of HYDRA scientists torturing a prisoner. Hank intervened and defeated them, liberating the prisoner in the process. Back at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, Stark thanked Pym and told him that was his last mission but Pym refused realizing there were more problems in the world. Still only trusting himself to wear the Ant-Man suit, Pym decided to continue to do field missions.

Ant-Man: Larger Than Life
To be added

Thor
When Jane Foster's equipment was stolen, Henry Pym was referred to by Erik Selvig as the friend that he was going to email that has had previous experience with S.H.I.E.L.D., though his name was ommited from the scene.

Ant-Man
To be added

Character Traits
To be added

Relationships

 * The Avengers - Founding member.
 * Erik Selvig - Friend and colleague.
 * Scott Lang - Successor.
 * Darren Cross - Former protege turned enemy.
 * Hope van Dyne - Daughter.
 * Janet van Dyne - Wife.
 * Peggy Carter - Friend.
 * Howard Stark - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Superior.

Appearances/Actors

 * Marvel Cinematic Universe (2 films)


 * Thor (Mentioned only)
 * Ant-Man - Michael Douglas


 * Marvel Cinematic Universe (2 comics)


 * Ant-Man Prelude (First appearance)
 * Ant-Man: Larger Than Life

Behind the scenes

 * When Edgar Wright was first considering actors for an older Hank Pym. Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan and Gary Oldman were all considered before Michael Douglas was cast.

Trivia

 * Nathan Fillion was in the running to play Hank before it was decided the character would not appear in The Avengers and never auditioned. He was a fan favorite amongst the comic book community to portray Hank.
 * In the comics, Hank is roughly the same age as his Avenger teammates, while in the movie, he is older.
 * In the comics and film, Henry is the discoverer and user of Pym Particles.
 * In the comics, Pym's goes by many different alter-egos including Yellowjacket, Ant-Man, and Wasp. Yellowjacket will be use by Darren Cross as the supervillain's name. Ant-Man will be used by Scott Lang. Wasp will presumably be used by Janet Van Dyne, although she, like Lang, used that name in the comics as well as the film.