I never read any Avenger titles so I have no clue what Ant-Man does on the Avengers. What does he do next to such powerful heroes like Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, etc?

He sits in the Avengers Tower and watches football.

If you mean Hank Pym, he can use his powers to shrink to get into places and situations that others can't. Uses his powers to grow to move quicker and take on larger threats. Communicates with insects to distract or attack enemies(getting in their eyes, clogging up weapons, etc. He can make things shrink by touching them, he has weapons that shoot energy, is able to create powerful robots that can take on people as powerful as the Avengers(Salvation 1 and Ultron), and once created an aircraft with A.I. built in. He's also generally a genius, and a good enough scientist to be named Earths Scientist Supreme. I think he also knows Judo.

He did some of these things whilst not in his Ant-Man identity, but it's all still the same person, so it probably counts.

the underestimating of Hank is really starting to get old

before it was known that tony stark was ironman, hank was the resident smart guy of the team. since then hes still a smart guy but hes not the one everyone thinks of when they think about the avengers

QFT. I suggest you read Age of Ultron #10A.I great story of Hank.

Now I see why we need respect threads for superheroes.

@thefirstlantern: I did, and I'm now reading Avengers A.I. :)

@gor724: He's the Avengers' Aquaman. He has to resort to building megalomaniacal robots and slapping his trophy wife around to keep from being overwhelmed by boredom. And that was the Comic Code-regulated 60s, 70s, 80s! Who knows what he's capable of these days!

He only slapped Jannet once.

And he's regretted that decision every single god damn day since.

Every time it seems like he'd get some development away from that NOOOOOO someone brings it back up and screws it all up again.

The guy created god damn Ultron, he does not need anymore Pathos. LET! IT! GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

*Raegnukes*

@guardian_of_gravity:

As president of the Egghead Defamation League, I say thee NAY!

@v_scarlotte_rose: How much hank is in that title? I want me some hank.

@thefirstlantern: He hasn't really been out on missions, but he gets a decent amount of panel time.

@v_scarlotte_rose: I would really enjoy just a series of him. Written by Mark Waid.

Pym is a brilliant scientist, and has made great contributions to the team. Plus he's one of the founders.

Also the entire thing was a misunderstanding between the writer and artist. He was never supposed to hit her.

Smacky Smackerton's genius is tiny next to the cranial contents of Egghead. I see nothing to disprove that.

Sadly Ant-Man/Hank Pym is basically Marvel's Aquaman. People see that he's called "ANT-Man" and instantly think he's lame without reading a single thing about the character.

People ask why was Ant-Man a founding member of the Avengers, and I love how Dan Slott in his Mighty Avengers run explains that really Hank Pym was the leader of the original team. Hank Pym is far from just a guy who can shrink and talk to ants...but people never tend to look past that, which is a shame.

@riot_sqrrl: What about Reed and Spider-Man. They get a free pass? Just because you're too lazy to read about a character doesn't mean you should go around spreading stupid crap like that.

Wow. You take this way too seriously. You should maybe interact with some people offline occasionally.

And maybe you should learn how to use the reply function when posting. It lets people know you're replying to their message.

I agree that Henry Pym has suffered a lot since the character's inception, dealing with the loss of his first wife, Ultron, going through the mental breakdown that led to the creation of Yellowjacket, the rivalry with Egghead (which was a big part of Pym's evolution, @riot_sqrrl), and the second breakdown that led to him hitting his wife. He has dealt with all of this much better than, say, the Scarlet Witch did with all of her trauma. However, @pietromaximoffistheman, I don't understand what you mean about Reed or Peter. When were they ever accused of spousal abuse? A free pass for what? Also, I think you might be escalating things with @riot_sqrrl unnecessarily. His comments are vague generalities, but nothing there to suggest he?/she? hasn't been reading. @guardian_of_gravity, I agree sqrrl's statements were less predicated on logos, but authorial intent aside, shouldn't an editor have caught it before it saw print? Regardless, Marvel let it stand and writers have been running with it for decades. The Ultimate Henry Pym was definitely far more sick in the first Millar Ultimates series in his treatment of Jan, but the Earth-616 version was culpable for his own actions. He shouldn't really be punished for them anymore, by fans, by writers, or even by Janet Van Dyne (recalling Bendis/Cho Mighty Avengers run). I hope Marvel dispenses with all of this convoluted time travel shit and does something revolutionary with Hank Pym that doesn't involve Ultron or the Wasp. Whatever happened to Dr. Nemesis? Bring back that dude.

@misteranderson: Reed is a way worse husband than Hank ever was tho he's more verbally abusive, also when he isn't insulting his wife directly he just talks to her like she's an idiot.

@joshmightbe:

Sue has left Reed more than once, most recently during Civil War, and she has made a non-coercive decision to remain with him. Reed Richards has received no free pass. But why Spidey? Peter made decisions with both Mary Jane and his aunt's well-being in mind. He never abused MJ verbally or physically. I didn't think this discussion was about which fictional character makes a better mate, but whether or not @riot_sqrrl was wrong to recall attention to the domestic abuse of Janet Van Dyne (who also exercised agency). When did the focus change?

@misteranderson: Spidey has hit MJ before

@peppeyhare:

I would be interested to know when and under what circumstances, but these examples only seem to show that fandom should forgive Hank and move on, as both characters committed these acts and are still held in high regard by fandom. Continuing this discourse about who is the better comic book husband is meaningless.

@pietromaximoffistheman:

Whatever, dude. Feel bigger?

@squares

Sorry I didn't observe proper formatting. Hope that atones.

@misteranderson

Please don't defend me. This site's users are not fans of me, so even vaguely taking my side will only get you in trouble. Besides, I don't agree. The conversation was why Henry Pym was on the Avengers roster with gods, super-soldiers, and high-tech wonders. I guess I'm not the only one guilty of being "a lazy reader."

@riot_sqrrl:

You're right. My bad. Also, I suspect that Comic Vine users are probably indifferent to you. I see that you're trying to be funny, but the site has a very specific purpose in having a conversation about an avenue of pop culture that sometimes isn't taken seriously, so detracting from that seriousness invites their frustration. You aren't the first, and you won't be the last. You're just the latest. Stop feeding it, and eventually, you can probably interact here again without "fearing" any snarkiness. And I wasn't defending you so much as interrogating some of the flawed logic being thrown around. I don't really care if users dislike me or not because I don't know any of them, and they don't know me.

@riot_sqrrl: Was that smacky thingy a joke?

It's amazing how shallow some people are.

@cameron83:

An entomologist who branches out into robotics and AI gives him a lot of utility! And then, his power set on top of that...?

lol yup

Even his small powerset is very useful. If he wanted,he can just go up in someones brain,right? Although he would never really do that (I think).

@cameron83:

lol Not unless he was going through some kind of Identity Crisis. ...Or it was the Vision's brain.

lmao

@misteranderson: Look it up. Pictures of Reed back slapping Sue, and he's neglected her a lot, while Hank was nothing but apologetic. Also Spider-Man hit pregnant Mary Jane across a damn room. That's a lot worse than Hank did. But who continues to get the most shit for no reason? Hank.

@pietromaximoffistheman:

Perhaps fans find it easy to forgive Reed and Peter because their wives did. Janet didn't forgive Hank. She left.

Im not saying he's lame, or he sucks, I just wanted to know what he does on the team since I barley read Avenger titles.

Oh, when I made that comment I wasn't speaking of you specifically, I was speaking of how people in general think of Ant-Man/Hank Pym. Most people who have never read a comic about him simply see him as this guy who can shrink and talk to ants and they judge him according to those things, yet they never seem to notice that Hank Pym is one of the smartest minds on the planet, rivaling the likes of Tony Stark and Reed Richards. What he brings to the Avengers is just that, his intellect. Originally when the team first formed, Iron Man's identity wasn't publicly known therefore he couldn't show how smart he was because it would reveal that he was Tony Stark, this made Ant-Man the team's resident genius and even after Tony become publicly known as Iron Man, Hank Pym is still considered one of the most brilliant minds in the Marvel Universe. Probably the biggest example of how smart he is would be him being chosen as Earth's Scientist Supreme, exceeding other more popular scientist such as Reed Richards or Tony Stark, because at the core of it Hank Pym was a true scientist. Reed Richards is an explorer and Tony Stark is an inventor, but Hank Pym strives to use science to make the impossible possible and that is why he is considered one of the greatest, if not arguable the greatest mind on the planet.

He has tons of powers but his greatest gift is his mind.

@pietromaximoffistheman: Reed gets a pass because he was trying to free Sue from mind control. But you're point is still valid. Hank has earned some forgiveness.

@gor724: him and Janet formed the avengers. I won't go in to explaiing every little reason he is or was or should be but there is good reason bud

@kdub_inc_: little late here bud. The guy posted a year ago and is inactive now. :)

@comicdude360: yeah I just joined and am so enthusiastic that I neglect to read the post dates lol

@war_killer: you mean the eternity that was actually Loki in disguise? I agree with you overall but it ticks me ofv when people use false info to try and prove a point.

The whole thing was his idea in the first place!

What false info are you talking about? I was going literally off of the issues from Mighty Avengers were Hank Pym was chosen by Eternity as Earth's Scientist Supreme. When was it revealed that it was actually Loki in disguise, because I only remember Loki pretending to be Scarlet Witch?

@war_killer: Loki admits to duping Hank in Mighty Avengers 26 or so I've been told

Loki isn't the best source for truth.