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I've said it before in other threads but I guess now is the perfect time/place to talk about why I love Hank Pym. I can basically sum it up with a sentence from Frank Miller (who's talking about Daredevil but this post isn't about Daredevil, plenty of people like him): "It's a wonder he isn't a villain". Hank Pym is the most shat upon character in Marvel Comics and possibly comics as a whole that I can think of. I mean, he (and Wasp) practically started the loving Avengers instead of letting them all go their separate ways at the end of Avengers #1!  and he beat Loki, which he admits was sheer luck but whatever, a win is a win. So why can't he get any respect? Why am I phrasing this rhetorically I'm on a comic forum not loving Buzzfeed, we all know:  Hank Pym is a wife beater. And that's the end-all be-all of his character. But why? It's been 34 loving years since Avengers #213 came out, if you believe Jim Shooter, the slap was never supposed to happen. You'd think this would fade into obscurity, almost like Avengers 200, as a comic moment that's hosed up and should be forgotten. I mean no writer nowadays seems to remember when Reed Richards hits his wife or children:  (the one with him hitting Franklin is technically a What If so I guess 616 Reed is off the hook for that one) And no Spider-Man writer is ever going to mention the time Peter hit a pregnant Mary Jane:  but Hank Pym doesn't get a pass. Reading other sites, there is kind of a clear reason why, that being that Ant-Man doesn't really have any defining moments like Reed or Spidey. There's no "great" Ant-Man story as opposed to those other guys, but then there can't be a great one, because every writer since '81 seems to want to write a Hank Pym redemption story. Or, to completely rip off a Mightygodking post : quote:Everyone wants to write the redemption arc, but nobody seems to want to write the post-redemption arcs. All right though, I've been posting about how Hank Pym's a fuckup for far too long. But here's why I like him: He never gives up. Going back to that "It's a wonder he isn't a villain" quote, it totally applies to Pym. I mean, to start off with, his first wife died before he even put on a suit.    (Hey, Tales to Astonish #44 came out in 1963. Maria Pym, née Troyava: World's first fridging?) then after he joins the Avengers he starts to feel inadequate compared to his peers. (After all, the other non-slap reason Ant-Man doesn't get respect because he's Ant-Man, and his powers blow if you're uncreative)  then he develops actual schizophrenia and hits Jan and everything goes downhill from there. He develops the world's first AI, which immediately goes rogue and becomes one of the Avengers' greatest foes, and eventually destroys everything until Wolverine comes back in a lovely event and helps Hank kill Ultron. He has writers make him a laughing stock and people in-universe make sure to mention all his mistakes to his loving face all the time,    and you know what he does?    He puts on his doofy costume and gets back to work superhero-ing. And that, to me, is pretty neat. edit: oops I posted the same image twice TwoPair fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Jan 21, 2016 |
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Jan 20, 2016 16:42
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