Ant Man

Fictional character biography

Over the years a number of different characters have assumed the title of Ant-Man, most of whom have been connected with the Avengers.

Hank Pym

Biophysicist and Security Operations Center expert Dr. Henry 'Hank' Pym decided to become a superhero after discovering a chemical substance (Pym Particles) that would allow the user to alter his size. Armed with a helmet that could control ants, Pym would shrink down to the size of an insect to become the mystery-solving Ant-Man. He soon shared his discovery with his girlfriend Janet van Dyne, his crime-fighting partner as the Wasp. The duo would become founding members of the Avengers, fighting recurring enemies such as the mad scientist Egghead, the mutant Whirlwind, and Pym's own robotic creation Ultron. While Pym is the original Ant-Man, he has adopted other aliases over the years including Giant-Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket, and Wasp after Janet's presumed death in Secret Invasion. Leaving his original persona vacant, his successors have taken up the Ant-Man role while Pym explored these other identities.

Scott Lang

Scott Lang was a thief who became Ant-Man after stealing the Ant-Man suit to save his daughter Cassandra "Cassie" Lang from a heart condition. Reforming from his life of crime, Lang soon took on a full-time career as Ant-Man with the encouragement of Hank Pym. He became an affiliate of the Fantastic Four, and most recently became a full-time member of the Avengers. For a period of time he dated Jessica Jones. He was later killed by the Scarlet Witch along with the Vision and Hawkeye in Avengers Disassembled, and his daughter took up his heroic mantle as Stature in the book Young Avengers. He returned to life in 2011 in the mini series, The Children's Crusade, but lost his daughter when she heroically sacrificed herself to stop a super charged Doctor Doom, who would later revive her during the AXIS event.

Eric O'Grady

Eric O'Grady is the third character to take up the Ant-Man title. O'Grady is a low-level agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who stumbled upon the Ant-Man suit in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters. A man of few morals and willing to lie, cheat, steal and manipulate in order to get ahead in life, Eric stole the armor for his own selfish plans, which included using his status as a "super-hero" to seduce women and humiliate and torment others. He had his own short-lived title before being part of other teams such as joining Avengers: The Initiative as his first team and then joining The Thunderbolts but more recently Secret Avengers, where the character perished heroically while defending a child against the villain known as Father.

Television

Film