Hank Pym
Hank Pym is one of the most visionary innovators of the modern era. His contributions to science have struck out in bold directions, but the consequences of his research have had proportionately negative impacts.
Born in 1952, Hank Pym was a prodigy from a young age. He was awarded doctorate degrees in robotics and physics before he was 25. In 1977, he married Maria Trovaya, a political refugee from Hungary. Maria was killed by Soviet spies in front of Hank, and their daughter Nadia Pym kidnapped. This incident shaped a worldview that was simultaneously cynical and hopeful, and drove him to contribute to the SHIELD mission of global peace.
Pym's most astonishing breakthrough came in 1981, shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Working with Dr. Vernon van Dyne, Pym was conducting research into the interstitial space between dimensions. They discovered a technique for 'shrinking' objects by creating a controlled displacement of certain molecular components. Van Dyne was killed by an alien intruder who broke through an early experimental crack in spacetime, leaving Pym with the sole knowledge of the Pym Particle.
Dubbing himself 'Ant-Man', Pym began engaging in covert espionage on behalf of SHIELD. He developed a specialized suit that would allow him to survive the compression process, and created helmet that could access the gestalt intelligence of an ant colony. This gave him formidable and invisible allies everywhere he went.
In 1978, Pym married Janet van Dyne, daughter of Dr. Vernon van Dyne. She discovered his secret identity as Ant-Man early on, and Pym created a second suit for her. Dubbing herself 'The Wasp', Hank and Janet were early members of the organization Stormwatch, a Department of Extranormal Affairs contingent of metahumans. Janet and Hank were a frequent duo, until Janet became pregnant in 1980 and took a brief leave of absence to care for her daughter.
In 1985, Janet divorced an increasingly bitter and violent Hank. She was awarded primary custody of their daughter, Hope. Janet began striking out on her own, working in the fashion industry as well as being a covert operative for Stormwatch.
In 1986, Hank Pym was recruited by the Department of Defense to work on a special project with Howard Stark. The goal was to create an artificial intelligence that could serve as the nuclear football for the President. Such an AI would not find itself influenced by psychics or magicians, or fire missiles due to erratic decisions-- or, they reasoned, fail to fire the missiles because of a moral dilemma. Hank and Stark dug out research into synthetic intelligence from the notes of Nikolai Tesla and, using Zero-Point Energy constructs, developed a self-aware AI. They created several different synthetics during the prototype process, culminating in a final version that met all the standards they had set. They christened this synthetic creature Ultron.
However, Pym had used his own brain patterns as an imprint model for growing the Z-point lattice. Unaware of early onset psychosis from his frequent use of the Pym Particle, the imprint resulted in a wholly flawed and unethical machine intelligence. Ultron escaped their control and fled into the world. Janet was lost on this mission as her suit regulator malfunctioned, banishing her to the Quantum Realm.
This drove Hank to a nervous breakdown. He destroyed all the collected work he and Stark had performed, along with Tesla's original lab notes and prototypes, as well as all resources the government had accumulated on the topic. Unable to reproduce Tesla's work without Pym, Stark was forced to abandon the AI project entirely. This set back AI research by decades, though it led to the creation of bio-organic machines that utilized animal brains as processors. These proto-sapients would eventually develop into the Sentinels.
Hank retired wholly from his role as Ant-Man and returned to pure research and development. Pym Technologies made him a modestly wealthy man for many years, even as Hank threw himself obsessively into trying to find Janet. He even recruited a talented young post-doc, Roy Palmer, and swore him to secrecy while demanding his assistance in finding Janet. His continued mental deterioration and obsessive personality cost him many friendships and eventually harmed his corporate image.
This led to a strained relationship with Hope, and in 2010 Hope cast the deciding vote for an injunction on behalf of the Pym Technologies Board of Directors to freeze Hank out of his own company.
In 2012, Pym's mentee, David Cross, sought to weaponize the Pym Particles as an alternative to the Sentinel protocols. Pym and Hope recruited Scott Lang to become the new Ant-Man. Scott helped stop Cross and prevent the Pym Particles from being put in the wrong hands.
