Hank Pym

"This is your chance. To earn that look in your daughter's eyes. To become the hero that she already thinks you are. It's not about saving our world, it's about saving theirs. Scott, I need you to be the Ant-Man."

- Henry Pym

Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym is an entomologist and physicist who developed the Ant-Man Suit. For a time, he worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. as a consultant and became the first Ant-Man. Later he formed his own company, Pym Technologies and passed the title of Ant-Man down to Scott Lang.

Early Life
A young promising scientist, Henry Pym was recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. to work as a consultant. He eventually developed a serum and a suit that could shrink a human being to the size of an ant, yet maintain his original strength.

Mission in Berlin
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.

Tragic Loss
"Superheroes, what a Goddamn joke!"

- Henry Pym

Years later, during his experiments with the Pym Serum, an accident occurred that killed his wife. As a consequence, his relationship with his daughter became strained afterwards.

"Experiences" with S.H.I.E.L.D.
Since Henry Pym had worked with S.H.I.E.L.D. in the past, when Jane Foster's equipment was confiscated by S.H.I.E.L.D., Pym's friend Erik Selvig offered to email him to consult the situation.

Hiring a Thief
"Scott, I need you to be the Ant-Man."

- Henry Pym

Pym hired Scott Lang to steal the Ant-Man Suit from Darren Cross.

Former Powers

 * Ant-Man Suit
 * Size Manipulation: Using his developed technology, Pym was able to reduce himself to approximately the size of an ant. He still maintained his regular sized strength and durability during his shrinking.
 * Insect Manipulation: Pym could communicate with organisms the size of insects, especially ants, allowing him a rudimentary form of control over these insects.

Abilities

 * Genius Level Intellect: Pym was able to make Pym Particles and the Ant-Man suit by himself.
 * Expert Businessman: Hank made his own successful company, Pym Technologies.

Family

 * Janet van Dyne - Wife
 * Hope van Dyne - Daughter

Allies

 * Scott Lang - Employee and Pupil
 * Pym Technologies
 * Luis - Employee
 * Erik Selvig - Colleague and Friend
 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Howard Stark
 * Peggy Carter

Enemies

 * Darren Cross - Former Protege

Trivia

 * In the comics, Hank Pym was one of the founding members of the Avengers along with his wife, the Wasp.
 * In the comics, Hank Pym was traditionally the creator of Ultron; however, Joss Whedon has stated that in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ultron's origin will be different and he will be created by Tony Stark.
 * Hank Pym was mentioned in Thor, yet his name was cut from the film.
 * Hank Pym's identity as Yellowjacket from the comics will be instead used by Darren Cross as the supervillian's name for the film.
 * Pym and Lang are currently the only superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to have both been married and eventually had children.

Behind the Scenes

 * Nathan Fillion was in the running to play Pym before it was decided the character would not appear in The Avengers and never auditioned.