With That Yellowjacket Reveal, What If? Acknowledged Ant-Mans Dark History
After two weeks of rollicking adventure, Marvel Studios’s animated series What If…? took a dark turn with Episode 3. I mean, the episode’s titled “What If… the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?” It’s hard to turn that premise into a feel good episode!
As the episode unfolds—and spoiler alert for the rest of this article—Nick Fury deduces that a serial killer is crossing off names on his Avengers recruitment list. This mystery murderer chose Fury’s busiest week ever to strike, picking off the would-be super-team one-by-one between the events of Iron Man 2, Thor, and Incredible Hulk. Fury eventually finds out who’s behind all the mayhem, when a frazzled Hank Pym steps out of the fog and reveals himself to be totally out for blood.
This moment comes as a surprise because of a few storytelling choices. He’s an old man played by Michael Douglas, for one thing. Also, Michael Douglas didn’t join the MCU until 2015’s Ant-Man. If you watched these movies as they came out, you might not put the cardigan-wearing super scientist on the same level as Nick Fury and the characters that originated the franchise. Basically, if you only know Hank from the movies, “cold-blooded murderer” probably isn’t how you’d describe him. And just in general, you might forget that a Phase 2 character like him could pop up in a Phase 1 story, but such is the beauty of What If…? It’s a great reveal, is what I’m getting at.
But there’s another layer to this reveal, one that anyone familiar with this character’s comic book history will realize the instant we see this animated Hank unleash his fury at Fury. This is the MCU adapting the absolute worst aspects of Hank Pym’s comic book character—and that’s evidenced by the fact that Hank’s wearing the Yellowjacket suit and not his old Ant-Man suit. That costume change is a big, big deal.
In the movies, Yellowjacket was the alter ego of Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) and the villain of the first Ant-Man film. In the comics, though, Yellowjacket was originally the moniker adopted by Hank Pym after exposure to some personality-changing gas caused him to completely lose it.
In 1968’s Avengers #59-60, an amnesiac/maniacal Pym attacks the Avengers as Yellowjacket, tells them all that he killed Hank Pym, kidnaps Wasp—and proposes to her. They then get married ASAP. Wasp figured out that Yellowjacket was really her boyfriend Pym, but Pym doesn’t come around until after the vows when a bunch of supervillains attack. Pym theorizes that he must have inhaled those toxins while thinking about how much he loved Jan? And since he’d always been too afraid to propose… his new, antagonistic self decided to? So… yeah. Ya didn’t see that in the movie!
Believe it or not, it gets worse—way worse! Even though the Yellowjacket codename and costume clearly had bad vibes, Pym kept them around. He even rejoined the team seven years later in Avengers #137. He served on the team alongside his wife until 1981’s Avengers #212-214—the issues that made Hank Pym a permanently damaged character. Here’s the necessary trigger warning for domestic violence.
Over the years, Pym had become increasingly volatile and violent. Not only was he being a dick to his teammates, he was also verbally abusing his wife. After using extreme force against a foe after they’d essentially surrendered to Captain America, Pym faced court martial. The thought of losing his spot on the Avengers sent Pym into a panic and obliterated what little mental stability he had. He decided to hastily whip up a killer robot (remember: Hank Pym created Ultron in the comics), send it to attack the Avengers during his hearing, and then ol’ Yellowjacket would save the day. That did not happen. Instead, Jan tries to get Hank to stop this dangerous deception and…
Reprehensible and, even in the grand scheme of superhero comics, unforgivable. It was also, unfortunately, a mistake. Jim Shooter, former Marvel Editor-in-Chief and the writer behind that issue, revealed in his blog that he did not write the scene as it infamously played out.
In that story (issue 213, I think), there is a scene in which Hank is supposed to have accidentally struck Jan while throwing his hands up in despair and frustration—making a sort of “get away from me” gesture while not looking at her. [Artist] Bob Hall, who had been taught by John Buscema to always go for the most extreme action, turned that into a right cross! There was no time to have it redrawn, which, to this day has caused the tragic story of Hank Pym to be known as the “wife-beater” story.
Needless to say, Yellowjacket’s plan did not work and he was expelled from the team. And in issue #214, Janet Van Dyne tells Hank Pym that she is getting a divorce.
Comics being comics, Pym underwent gradual rehabilitation as various writers—presumably ones who grew up loving the size-changing scientist/adventurer of the 1960s—tried their best to atone for that panel.
When it came time to adapt Ant-Man into a movie, this whole storyline from 30 years prior is most likely why Scott Lang—the second Ant-Man in the comics—was chosen for the lead. This allowed Marvel to introduce an older Hank Pym played by Michael Douglas, one bearing little resemblance to his comic book counterpart (except in flashbacks). As played by Douglas, Hank’s a little curmudgeonly and short-tempered, sure, but he’s not a deadly threat to everyone around him.
That brings us to What If…? and this Yellowjacket reveal.
Freed from the burden of the main continuity and having to deal with the fallout, What If…?’s premise allows for exploration of parts of the source material that have thankfully been banished from the MCU. Hank Pym’s instability, insecurity, mental health issues, and abusive tendencies are all integral to the character in the comics, but not something you can responsibly deal with in a comedy like Ant-Man. In this episode, we get to see that dark side of Hank… and thankfully we don’t have to deal with him in live-action anytime soon.
I hope.
This post first appeared on Nypost.com
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