Real Name: Doctor Henry "Hank" Pym

Class: altered human / hi-tech hero

Occupation: scientist, adventurer

Affiliations: founding member of the Avengers, ex-husband to the Wasp ; former member of the Defenders

Scale of Operations: worldwide

Powers: Pym is a brilliant scientist in both the feilds of robotics/cybernetics and biochemistry. During his carreer, he created robot Ultron, explored and repaired the Vision often, and created much of the Avengers' equipment. Another robot, Rover, was a jet with rudimentary artificial intelligence and sophisticated offensive capabilities.

His greatest scientific acheivement, however, led to several costumed identities. He discovered the "Pym particles" that enabled mass to be shunted or gained from an alternate dimension. By imbibing special capsules of Pym particles, Pym was able to shrink to half-inch size and adventure as the Ant-Man and, later, to grow to 30-foot size and adventure as Giant-Man and Goliath. He later switched from using capsules to a Pym particle-filled gas, but eventually his body had absorbed enough particles to shrink and grow at will. As Yellowjacket, Pym used his shrinking ability along with a bio-energy gun (used incorporated into blasting gauntlets.) In his insect guises, Pym also used a communication device in his helmet that allowed him to communicate and control insect life (mostly ants.) At one point, Pym found himself able to use the Pym particle field about his body to shrink and grow objects in contact with him, and he carried various high and low tech equipment in his jumpsuit. Currently, he can only shrink and grow objects that have been specially-treated with Pym paticles beforehand.

History: Henry "Hank" Pym was a brilliant scientist who spent much of his time in his lab. At one point, he met and married the beautiful Maria Travonoya. Unfortunately, when travelling in her home country of Bratislavia, she was captured by revolutionaries, and, despite Pym's efforts, she was killed.

Upon his creation of so-called Pym particles, he found himself shrunk to a fraction of an inch and had to escape from an ant hill. He fashioned a costume and began to adventure as the hero Ant-Man, and often ran up against the villain Egghead. About the same time, he created the robot Ultron-1,who brainwashed Pym into forgetting this acheivement, revealing itself many months later as his archenemy.

In the meantime, he was contacted by the father of Janet Van Dyne to help Van Dyne in his scientific experiments, and he soon fell in love with Janet, who reminded him of a young Maria. When her father was captured by the aliens he was trying to contact, Pym as Ant-Man came to rescue him. Ant-Man revealed his identity to Janet, and Pym convinced her to join him as his partner, engineering her body to become his sidekick as the hero Wasp.

Ant-Man and the Wasp were on hand to battle the monster Hulk with heroes Thor and Iron Man, when the Wasp suggested they form a team, the Avengers. Pym continued to fight alongside the Avengers, but soon felt outclassed by the powerhouses of the team and created the identity of Giant-Man. Later still, Pym proposed to Janet, and the two breifly left the team for their marriage. Pym found himself back in the Avengers, creating another identity of Goliath. Although he usually preferred abstain from adventuring to stay in his lab, he continued to fight off-and-on alongside the Avengers because the Wasp always wanted to.

Years later, Pym, who was undergoing severe mental stress, had an accident in his labratory, breathing in chemical fumes. His sanity warped, and created a fourth identity: Yellowjacket. He returned to the Avengers, kidnapping Janet and forcing her to marry him. When he was confronted by the Avengers and brought back to his right mind, Pym and Janet decided to let the marriage stand. They adventured with the Avengers, and later, they enjoyed a brief tenure alongside the heroes of the Defenders.

Pym's mental problems continued to worsen. He returned to the Avengers, determined to prove himself alongside the heavyweights of the team, which only added to his stress. At one point, he struck Janet, and later, during battle with the misguided Elfqueen, Pym lashed out at her just as she was about to surrender. The Avengers began a court-martial process for Pym, who, losing his sanity, created a robot to destroy the Avengers-- but built with a failsafe that Pym would activate to "save" his friends and regain his status. The ploy failed, and the Wasp, who discovered Pym's treachery, saved the team. Pym promptly quit, and the Wasp filed for divorce. Pym was further oppressed as his old enemy Egghead framed Pym for stealing nuclear devices, leading to Pym's arrest. Egghead led the villain team Masters of Evil in freeing Pym from his trial, further implicating him in villainy. Pym soon defeated the Masters singlehandedly, redeeming himself, but he decided against rejoining the Avengers. Pym later would ally with them when his expertise was needed. Over time, his relationship with the Wasp was reconciled.

Later still, Pym found his body could not handle the stress of constant size-changing, and retired from costumed crime fighting. He still joined the Avengers, however, when they opened their West Coast branch, in order to oversee the facilities and the scientific research. Growing more despondant, however, he soon decided to commit suicide, but was stopped by their associate Firebird (then Espirita,) who helped him to reconcile the two areas of his life-- costumed crime fighting and scientific research. As Hank Pym, Scientific Adventurer, he would use the aura of Pym Particles his body produced in order to shrink and grow objects around him, and he rejoined the Avengers full-time, often acting as field leader.

Although he stayed with the West Coast branch for some time, Pym soon found himself actively adventuring from the New York mansion. Later still, Pym and other size-changing heroes and villains were caught up in an invasion attempt from the natives of the dimension Kosmos, the place where Pym particles stem from. The outcome left Pym able to grow again but not to shrink, and he resumed his old Giant-Man identity.

Continuing to adventure alongside the Avengers, his relationship with the Wasp steadily improved, becoming very platonic romantically. Their relationship hit a rough spot during the battle with the time-traveling villain Kang (in actuality, Kang's rival Immortus posing as Kang) when, in order to save the Wasp's life, Pym performed radical life-saving experiments which transformed her into a bug/woman hybrid.

Pym was on hand with the other Avengers who seemingly sacrificed their lives to absorb the energies of the being known as Onslaught. In reality, he was shunted to another dimension. When he and the other heroes were restored to Earth, Pym found that he was capable of his full range of size-changing abilities, although he could not shrink and grow other objects unless he specifically treated them in his labratory. He and the Wasp also returned to their previous romantic relationship.

Pym helped reorganize the Avengers with the Wasp and their teammates, stopping the menace of the sorceress Morgan Le Fey. He then agreed to stay on as a reserve member, returning to his labratory work full-time. Pym and the Wasp would join with the Avengers on an as-needed basis, such as helping them thwart the villainous Grim Reaper. During this time, Pym switched to his Goliath identity once again.

Pym's research was monitored by Ultron, who later kidnapped Pym and other of its so-called "family." Ultron revealed that Pym had used his own brain patterns as a template for Ultron's intelligence, and Ultron intended to do the same with all members of its "family" when building a new robot army with Pym's latest research. Ultron was confronted by the Avengers, who freed Pym and allowed him to deliver the blow that defeated Ultron. Soon after, Goliath and the Wasp rejoined the Avengers full-time.

At one point, when investigating the machinations of the barbarian sorcerer Kulan Gath, who had transformed a South American village into a version resembling his native time period, Pym was transformed into a giant version of his Yellowjacket identity. Also he was quickly restored to normal, the reversion back to himself had unconsciously allowed the Yellowjacket identity to form for itself a body out of the extradimensional mass Pym used to grow. Pym had long sought to suppress the impulsive, egotistical Yellowjacket and instead rely on rationality and prudence, and now the two sides of his personality shared the same mass in the form of two separate bodies. "Yellowjacket" surreptitiously helped "Goliath" and the Avengers escape Kulan Gath, and he secretly followed them back to their Mansion headquarters. Soon, Yellowjacket kidnapped Goliath, imprisoning him and taking his place as Goliath among the Avengers.

Although many of his teammates recognized "Goliath's" strange behavior, no one suspected the truth. Yellowjacket would occasionally succumb to debilitating pain, a stress of drawing upon the same mass. The strain eventually became too much, and Yellowjacket began to fade away. Unaware of what was happening, the Avengers found only one source of help, their former enemy, Jonathan Tremont of the Triune Understanding. Tremont helped Pym confront the two sides of personality, and he merged together to restore himself to normal. Pym rejoined the Avengers and assumed his Yellowjacket identity once more, claiming that it would be as Yellowjacket, the identity that gave him the most problems, that he would face his problems and find out if he was truly cured.

Pym was instrumental in helping the Avengers defeat the time-travelling Kang, who had nearly succeeded in conquering the Earth.