Hank Pym

Marvel is finally doing something interesting with Hank Pym for the first time in years. He's becoming the Wasp. You can read more about it here. Just be warned there are spoilers.

I first encountered Hank Pym as...Hank Pym in the West Coast Avengers. He was the resident Jarvis being brought in by Hawkeye in the first issue of the ongoing series. Then he gradually became a super powered uncostumed adventurer until John Byrne came on board and made him the resident Reed Richards (Scientific genius/team leader).

From there he eventually moved over to the main Avengers title when the West Coast book was cancelled and became Giant Man again. For those paying attention, he wasn't supposed to be able to use his Giant Man powers any more due to the strain on his heart. He did improve his formula and restricted his size changes to deal with this problem, but it was a weird time in Avengers history.

Then during the awesome Kurt Busiek/George Perez run, he became GiAnt-Man.

In recent years he's become the Yellowjacket again. I'm really not sure why he would choose this identitty. Yellowjacket was the identity Hank was using while he was experiencing a mental breakdown and suffering a MPD issue. Really. Also, this was the time he and Janet Van Dyne (the original Wasp) got married and the identity he was using at the time he began abusing Jan.

So why this identity? I'm not really sure. I've only been following the Avengers ephemerally since Kurt Busiek left, so I don't really know what's been going on with Hank.

However with recent events that have come to my attention, this move makes a lot of sense. Also, it looks like they're taking him back to his super adventurer days from the early West Coast Avengers. I know I'll be keeping one eye on this change of circumstances for one of Marvel's most underrated heroes.