Hank Pym Appreciation

[Monty_Cristo]

I can understand your preference on the Giant Man front, Monty, but I think it was the perfect identity change for Hank. I'm with you in that I'll always by far prefer him with a shrinking based identity, but I can't imagine him not having been Giant Man, it's just such a natural character beat for him with his feelings of powerlessness, not even Hulk level strength has the iconography of 'you can't pick on me now' like growing to 60 feet tall & that's exactly the kind of crutch that Hank needed earlier in his life. I definitely don't like him reverting to it though.

i can't dispute any of that. Hank Pym makes perfect sense as Giant-Man. it's the natural conclusion of someone with inferiority complex creating a size-changing formula. he's iconic as the big man in the Avengers photo spreads. but it's that transition that disqualified him from my favorite characters list. it's what separates him from Scott. Hank's personality tends to match his costumes. that just tends to be one of them that i don't personally relate to. but, like i said, it's a great addition to the Avengers lineup.

You make a good point about how Hank could've developed away from the Avengers & I'd of loved to have read more of Hank scienceing (new word) his way out of insane situations like he did in his book, but I think we both know that even in the days when Marvel could publish a wider range of titles that would've been a tough sell. And as such we'd be relying on guest appearances in other books to pick up the experience to join the nascent West Coasters, which again to me seems unlikely he'd be used often enough for his growing experience to have been shown rather than just inferred.

possibly. but he didn't grow at all when he joined the West Coast team. he was utilized as an altruistic mad scientist. that's kind of what i see as his ultimate role. there's more to a character's life than maintaining a solo series. Scott Lang has never had a solo series. his career played out in guest-appearances in Avengers and occassional cameo in Iron Man's book. he still made it into the Fantastic Four and Heroes for Hire. he turned down Avengers membership twice, before joining. and he's since been part of the Defenders. to me, this is a successful career. this is how i like to see him utilized. i would have enjoyed all of Pym's infrequent appearances; provided he met those qualifications above.

P.S. it should also be said that i considered Jan to be his anchor to the Avengers book. even if he hadn't been on the team, he would have been part of Avengers lore by-proxy. he'd still create Ultron for the Avengers to deal with. he'd still get mixed up with Egghead and the Masters of Evil. the only thing changing is the status of he and Jan. they'd operate more independently of one another. he could have appeared in Spider-man's title; with Peter serving as a lab assistant to make money. maybe during the 90s, Pym would lead a rogue faction of A.I.M; scaring the hell out of his costumed acquaintances. there are plenty of ways to use him w/o the Founding Avenger title. he's Reed Richard without the family unit reigning him in.

[Dr. Sonic]

over the weekend, i brainstormed my hatred of Henry Pym. etc etc etc.

first off, that's a terrible way to spend your weekend.
Secondly, it kind of stinks that you seemed compelled to lord over the Hank Pym Appreciation thread with constant anti-Pym sentiment.
Why not make a Scott Lang appreciation thread or something?

[Monty_Cristo]

first off, that's a terrible way to spend your weekend.
Secondly, it kind of stinks that you seemed compelled to lord over the Hank Pym Appreciation thread with constant anti-Pym sentiment.
Why not make a Scott Lang appreciation thread or something?

you should be more appreciative of the traffic. and i haven't expressed any anti-pym sentiment in this thread. i'm trying to figure out what you and others like about the character; in hopes of finding common ground. if i were expressing anti-pym sentiment, i would have brought up the spousal abuse. now go reread through my posts.

[Dr. Sonic]

you should be more appreciative of the traffic. and i haven't expressed any anti-pym sentiment in this thread. i'm trying to figure out what you and others like about the character; in hopes of finding common ground. if i were expressing anti-pym sentiment, i would have brought up the spousal abuse. now go reread through my posts.

So magnanimous of you to provide the traffic, but how can you say you haven't expressed anti-Pym sentiment when the initial post clearly states 'I brainstormed my hatred of Henry Pym'?
You don't have to like the character, and it's likely true that this thread would languish without your input, but it sometimes feels like you're acted as a sort of vanguard trouncing the character any time someone makes a comment about him.
It's basically the opposite approach one would want to take were they actually trying to find a common ground.

[Monty_Cristo]

So magnanimous of you to provide the traffic, but how can you say you haven't expressed anti-Pym sentiment when the initial post clearly states 'I brainstormed my hatred of Henry Pym'?

what if i had said, "I reexamined my hatred of Henry Pym?"

[Dr. Sonic]

what if i had said, "I reexamined my hatred of Henry Pym?"

sure. semantics.
I think it's perfectly fine to dislike or even hate a comic character. And to be honest, I'm sort of arguing for the sake of it. But I think 'appreciation' threads should be for those who like the character and want to discuss him or her without having to defend the merits of the reasons for it. I mean, I hate the character of Jason Todd and think it was a terrible idea to bring him back. But I'm not going to go into a pro-JT thread or a Red Hood and The Outlaws thread and start lambasting the character because all it would achieve is to bum people out.
Does that make sense?

[Nomads1]

Hank Pym never worked as a solo character for 2 reasons:

1) Hank in his own book was kind of an overdog.

In comparison Spider Man was friendless , Hulk was a Man monster, Iron Man had a bum ticker. Daredevil was blind. Thor's dad was always pushing him around. Hank biggest problem back in the day was his hot, rich girlfriend
teying to distract him. Where the rest of the Marvel heroes had these neuroses, his were kinda non existant( his dead wife didn't come up much back in the day).

2) I think Hank and Janet were meant to be like Nick and Nora Charles, Husband and Wife Detectives. Except for that analogy to work, Hank would have had to be more loose and disreputable (ironically his crazy Yellow jacket persona fit that bill). And they would have had to actually be detectives (having a rich girlfriend/wife is real handy when you keep getting thrown in jail by angry cops).

Unlike DC, Marvel didn't really do the detective genre in comics.

So as a result Hank and Jan were characters stuck in the wrong genre almost. Being science fiction super heroes only made them like...half the Fantastic Four. You could have given Reed and Sue a book and it would have amounted to the same thing nearly.

Intresting analysis.

Peace

[Nomads1]

I mean, I hate the character of Jason Todd and think it was a terrible idea to bring him back.

That makes two of us.

Peace

[Monty_Cristo]

sure. semantics.
I think it's perfectly fine to dislike or even hate a comic character. And to be honest, I'm sort of arguing for the sake of it.

yes, i know.

http://forums.comicbookresources.com...1#post16097721

But I think 'appreciation' threads should be for those who like the character and want to discuss him or her without having to defend the merits of the reasons for it.

that sounds more like a O jerk than a discussion. but i'll respect the sanctity of the thread.

I mean, I hate the character of Jason Todd and think it was a terrible idea to bring him back. But I'm not going to go into a pro-JT thread or a Red Hood and The Outlaws thread and start lambasting the character because all it would achieve is to bum people out.
Does that make sense?

you would never go out of your way to express dislike of a character. hypocrisy totally makes sense to me.

http://forums.comicbookresources.com...1#post16097721

[Godlike13]

you would never go out of your way to express dislike of a character. hypocrisy totally makes sense to me.

http://forums.comicbookresources.com...1#post16097721

LoL, he was praising him there.

[Monty_Cristo]

LoL, he was praising him there.

that was the tail end of the insults.

[Godlike13]

Well there was no insults in that post, just praise despite not being a Scott Lang fan. If u want to call him a hypocrite for going out of his way to express dislike of a character maybe next time don't link a post of him doing the opposite.

[Vic Vega]

Right now, Pym is in regular Avengers and Secret Avengers.

But after that, where will he be appearing?

New Avengers is definitely out, the window is closing on the other Avengers book and Arena and Young are youth books.

That just leaves Uncanny, Dark and Secret.

Where do you guys think he will end up?

[Godlike13]

Ya, Hickman has already ruled him out of his Avengers epic, and out of Uncanny, Dark and Secret i can see maybe Uncanny. As their Q.

[Blind pugh]

Since people have told me that Remender is a Hank fan Uncanny seems most likely. Secret would be interesting though, if only to see what happens when SHIELD go tinkering with his brain.