With the recent announcement that Ant-Man’s Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) will return once again to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with their own movie in 2018, appropriately titled Ant-Man and The Wasp, we take a look back at the top stories the duo has had during their long tenure in the Marvel comic books.

Avengers #1

While their introduction into the MCU happened after Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America had already hit the scenem, in the comics, Ant-Man and the Wasp were two of the original members of The Avengers. Loki, having already had more than a few tussles with his brother, decided to venture to Earth and attempt to play the Hulk against Thor in a battle royale. At the same time, Iron Man heard a remote signal from Hulk’s sometimes sidekick Rick Jones, informing him of the warpath the green goliath was causing. Both Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne later joined Tony in trying to subdue Bruce Banner’s more destructive half. Now, at this point in time, Pym and Janet were holding the roles of the insect tag team, but they still held their own with teammates and enemies, some of whom were oftentimes much more powerful than they were.

As the Hulk took a detour from his path of destruction by becoming a circus clown (seriously), the Avengers assembled with Iron Man, Ant-Man, Wasp, and Thor trying to talk some sense into him. Eventually, all parties involved realize that Loki was behind everything, took care of business, shook hands, and decided that maybe it would be better for the world if the superheroes assembled decided to stay as such (well for a few issues that is, until everyone realized that the Hulk wasn’t the most stable of people). Obviously, Pym and Van Dyne didn’t receive the limelight that their flashier counterparts did at the time, but they still have been stalwarts of the team for a good portion of the team’s history and were essential components of their ranks.

Ultron Unlimited

It’s difficult to delve into the history of Ant-Man and the Wasp without also chronicling their failures, Ultron being one of the biggest. One key difference between the comics and the Marvel Studios film Avengers: Age of Ultron is that in the movie, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner were responsible for Ultron’s creation, while in the books, he was created by Hank Pym alone, with Hank and Janet forced to deal with the consequences of the homicidal robot’s existence. Ultron had something of an Oedipal complex during his time, often kidnapping the Wasp and attempting to put her brainwaves into a robot of his own that would eventually become his bride. It even worked once, as Ultron created a robot wife for himself named Jocasta but it wasn’t until Ultron Unlimited that everyone realized just how serious a threat he had become. Deciding to create his own nation, Ultron eradicated a country and set up shop, creating thousands of duplicates of himself and attempting to eradicate mankind once again.

Riddled with doubt and guilt, Pym decided to attempt to end Ultron himself, nearly getting his teammates killed in the process. Janet was luckily able to give him some emotional support in finally taking down his “son,” and Ultron was literally beaten to death thanks to Pym’s size and some gadgets he had created for just that occasion. Ultron returned to hassle the Avengers once again, but this story acted as a turning point for Pym, and was another example of the “on again, off again” relationship that Pym and Van Dyne held. Speaking of which….

Avengers #213

avengers-213

To be honest, many of the Ant-Man/Wasp stories weren’t exactly sunshine and rainbows, with this being the prime example. During a time when Hank Pym was dealing with some exceptionally difficult personality issues, he adopted a new identity called “Yellowjacket”. As we know, in the MCU film Ant-Man Yellowjacket was his own separate entity in the form of Darren Cross, portrayed by Corey Stoll, but this is where the identity got its start. Pym’s new character came with a new costume, new abilities, and a penchant towards villainy as he began falling further and further into madness. With Janet beginning to notice that something was really off with Pym, she questioned what exactly was going on, only for Pym to backhand her and go into full on antagonist mode.

This arc went into unexplored territory for its time, and it’s a black mark on the character of Pym that can never quite be forgotten, but it made for a very interesting story revolving around domestic abuse. This moment may have also been a defining reason as to why Scott Lang was the character Marvel decided to fill the shoes of Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Pym filling the role of mentor rather than the lead. To be honest, Pym and Van Dyne’s relationship is the definition of unhealthy, and this was one of the first big breaks for the pair. It’s also interesting to note that Scott Lang’s Ant-Man didn’t have too many interactions with this Wasp in the comics, which is why we keep having to go back to Pym for this list.

Ant-Man and the Wasp...Sort Of

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Image via Marvel

First we had Hank Pym, then we had Scott Lang, but there was actually a third Ant-Man in the form of one Eric O’Grady. O’Grady was a onetime S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who decided to take a new version of Pym’s suit for a joyride, resulting in the crudest version of the character to date. Fun fact, O’Grady’s first appearance was written by none other than Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead. In this story, Janet Van Dyne was presumed dead, and so Hank Pym had taken the role of the Wasp to honor her memory, while O’Grady was using his powers as Ant-Man to mostly check out women in the shower. This mini-series was extremely tied into all the big events that had been happening during that decade for Marvel: Secret Invasion, Civil War, Dark Reign, and so on and so forth.

The crux of the series was for Pym to attempt to save the soul of his departed friend/former superhero Bill Foster, aka Black Goliath from the claws of the Advanced Idea Mechanics, A.I.M. Meanwhile, O’Grady just stumbled into the situation and got a tongue lashing, and a beating, from the understandably irate Hank Pym, from who he had stolen the suit. Ultimately, the two are able to foil A.I.M., save the soul of their departed friend, and come to uneasy terms about continuing their respective careers in one another’s presences.

Avengers #60

During their original appearances, Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne had something of a “will they, won’t they” vibe going. While Pym was lost in science, Van Dyne was lost in fashion and hitting on nearly every man the pair would come into contact with. It made for a difficult period between the two, but fans knew, considering they were practically tied at the hip, that their wedding was only a matter of time. The two could not be more different from one another, but sometimes opposites attract! At this time, Pym had just adopted the Yellowjacket persona, so the rest of the Avengers weren’t too thrilled when they received invitations to a wedding between a supervillain and one of their own.

Nearly every character in the Marvel Universe makes an appearance and, of course, the wedding is crashed by a team of supervillains who happen to populate a circus act, appropriately enough called the “Circus of Crime”. The ragtag band is beaten by nearly every hero in attendance and the wedding goes through as planned, but it begins the cementing of the terrible relationship between the two. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Ant-Man film was able to hint at Pym’s temper and the relationship he had with the original Wasp, but it should be interesting to see if Pym and Van Dyne’s relationship in the comics heavily influences the relationship between Scott and Hope moving forward.

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Image via Marvel