Dr. Henry Pym was driven to battle injustice and inhumanity by the murder of his first wife -- Maria Trovaya, a political dissident from Hungary. His scientific genius and knack for invention made possible such pursuits.
Naively believing Hank's American citizenship would protect her, Maria traveled to her homeland with her husband shortly after their wedding. Confronted by the fascistic secret police, Dr. Pym was knocked unconscious and his wife murdered.
Returned to the United States, a distraught Pym discovered a rare group of subatomic particles he was able to entrap in two separate serums through the application of magnetic fields. One formula would reduce the size of people and objects; the other would restore them to normal height. Testing the serum on himself, he discovered it was far more powerful than he had hypothesized. Reduced to the size of an insect, Pym found himself trapped in an anthill and pursued by its inhabitants. Following his escape, he restored himself to normal. However, his brush with death led him to conclude the formulas were too dangerous to exist.
Weeks after Pym destroyed his creations, he reconsidered his rash decision and began to recreate the serums in secret. Inspired by his astonishing experience, he undertook a study of ants. Culminating months of work, Pym devised a cybernetic helmet allowing him to communicate with organized insects via psionic electrical waves.
His innovations were put into practice when enemy intelligence operatives, interested in another of his projects held him hostage. As the agents searched his lab, Pym stole away and donned his cybernetic helmet and costume. Shrinking to the size of an insect, Pym entered an anthill commanding the swarm to attack his captors and free his assistants. Successful Pym was inspired to begin a crime fighting career as Ant-Man.
When an alien entity from Kosmos murdered a fellow colleague, Dr. Vernon Van Dyne, Pym revealed his heroic identity to the scientist's distraught daughter, Janet, who had a striking resemblance to his murdered wife. To avenge her father's death, Pym genetically altered Van Dyne, granting the ability to sprout insect-like wings when she reduced size using his Pym Particles, becoming the Wasp. Helping Ant-Man track down and defeat her father's killer the two became partners.
Eventually the diminutive heroes' crime fighting partnership resulted in a much deeper relationship, and they eventually fell in love. Shortly after the duo helped found the Avengers, Pym developed a new serum that enabled him to increase in size and mass becoming Giant-Man.
Eventually the two would retire when the dangers of their chosen profession proved too great and Pym began to suffer health problems due to his increase in mass as Giant-Man. Remaining a scientist for the team he pursued technological excellence, a pursuit that resulted in his greatest failing, the robot Ultron. The living machine inadvertently gained awareness and emotions. Believing itself as the next step in evolution the robot turned against its creator, becoming one of the Avengers' greatest adversaries.
Long in love with Van Dyne, Pym repressed a second personality forcing him to resist marriage. When a freak laboratory accident triggered a radical psychological shift, he adopted a new identity: Yellowjacket.
In a state of psychological distress he claimed to have "murdered" Henry Pym, and in the guise of Yellowjacket kidnapped Van Dyne and proposed marriage. Aware it was Pym, she played along so as not to exacerbate his condition. The couple were married at Avengers Mansion, which was attacked immediately thereafter by the Circus of Crime. Shocked at seeing Van Dyne in danger Pym was stunned back to his normal personality, and he helped the Avengers defeat the big-top terrorists. Despite the strange circumstances of their union, the two agreed to stay together. Their rocky marriage ultimately ended in divorce, largely due to Pym's emotional instability and guilt over the creation of Ultron. However, the two are romantically linked once again.
Ultimately, Pym discovered that both he and Van Dyne no longer required the Pym Particles to activate their powers. Developing a microscopic arsenal of weaponry and other devices he reunited with his true love in the Avengers as Goliath.
Current Identity:
Henry Pym (Ultron Cyborg)
Previous Identities:
Dr. Henry Pym
Ant-Man
Giant-Man
Yellowjacket
Goliath
The Wasp II
Henry Pym (Avengers A.I.)
The Successors of Henry Pym:
Ant-Man II
Ant-Man III
Goliath II
Goliath III
Yellowjacket II
