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Hank Pym

1,431 appearances · Silver Age · 1962–2026 · 73 key issues

Who is Hank Pym?

Brilliant biochemist Hank Pym discovered the subatomic 'Pym Particles,' which he harnessed to shrink or grow at will. After adventuring as Ant-Man and Giant-Man, he adopted the Goliath identity to battle threats as a towering founding member of the Avengers.

Few characters capture the restless, brilliant ambition of Marvel's Silver Age quite like Hank Pym, who burst onto the scene in Tales to Astonish #35 in 1962, conjured by the legendary team of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. A founding Avenger, Pym has spent over six decades sharing panels with the mightiest names in the Marvel Universe — Captain America, Iron Man, and the Wasp among his most frequent companions — accumulating more than 1,100 catalog appearances and an impressive 73 key issues that collectors prize. His presence is woven deep into the fabric of The Avengers and Captain America, making him one of the most enduring scientific minds in superhero comics. Whether you're a seasoned collector or just discovering Marvel's Silver Age roots, Hank Pym rewards exploration at every turn.

Identity

Real name. Henry Jonathan "Hank" Pym

Powers. No innate powers; genius biochemist/inventor. Discovered "Pym Particles" enabling size-changing (shrinking to insect size as Ant-Man, growing to giant size as Giant-Man/Goliath); cybernetic helmet to communicate with/control ants and insects; later identities Yellowjacket (bio-stingers, flight) and the Wasp.

Teams & affiliations

Avengers

★ First appearance

Tales to Astonish #27

Jan 1962

Part of the Ant-Man legacy

Hank Pym is one of 3 heroes to carry the Ant-Man mantle. See the whole Ant-Man family ▸

Scott Edward Harris Lang

Eric O'Grady

Trivia

Hank Pym's Yellowjacket identity debuted in The Avengers as a dramatic, temporary 'new' persona, initially written as though Pym had undergone a complete personality change — a move later regarded as one of Marvel's more infamous identity shifts.marvel.fandom.com
Beyond his own heroic career, Pym holds the grim distinction of having created Ultron, making him one of the rare superheroes whose legacy includes inadvertently birthing his own archnemesis and one of Marvel's most enduring villains.marvel.fandom.com
Few Marvel characters can match Pym's roster of alter egos — Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket, Wasp, and Scientific Adventurer — an unusually fluid string of identities even by Marvel standards that has become a defining thread of his history.marvel.fandom.com
No single panel has shadowed Hank Pym's comic history quite like the one depicting him striking Janet van Dyne — a domestic-violence controversy that became one of Marvel's most debated moments and permanently colored how later writers and readers approached the character.marvel.fandom.com
Stan Lee has written more of Hank Pym's comics than any other writer in our catalog — 141 issues.