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Why Hank Pym Became Yellowjacket In the Comics? Explained

We know Hank Pym as the inventor of the Pym Particles (Ant-Man’s shrinking Technology) and the first Ant-Man. But what if he turned bad? What if he went down a more villainous path? The third episode of the latest Disney+ series What If…? makes us ponder this question. He also wore the Yellowjacket suit in the comics. So, if you want to know Why Hank Pym Became Yellowjacket over there, then you’ve come to the right place.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

The third episode of What If…? explores the possibility, “What If… the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?” We know Hank Pym was a superhero who saved millions of lives on various occasions. But what if he turned bad? MCU features Hank Pym as a scientist, inventor, and former superhero. But in a separate universe, Hank Pym actually turned into a villain where he destroyed the Avengers Initiative even before it started.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE YELLOWJACKET?

Why Hank Pym Became Yellowjacket

MCU introduced Hank Pym to us in 2015’s Ant-Man where he recruited Scott Lang as his successor as Ant-Man. Scott was specially chosen by Pym for a special mission, to steal the Yellowjacket made by Pym’s former assistant, Darren Cross. Cross developed this combat suit to sell it to the highest bidder, who was HYDRA in this case. When Pym got the news, he decided to stop him from exposing his technology to the world. Scott took on the mantle of Ant-Man while Cross put on the Yellowjacket suit. In the end, Cross’ suit malfunctioned due to a ‘bug’ in his system and he was left shrinking continuously. He might be stranded in the quantum realm and we might appear again the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Hank Pym is a brilliant scientist but MCU has never shown him more than the former Ant-Man. MCU has not really focussed on his character as much as they did on Scott Lang’s. But the third episode of What If…? explores his character from the comics, especially the time he took a darker path. In this timeline, Hope Van Dyne works as a SHIELD agent and dies on the field. Naturally, Hank Pym blames SHIELD for her death and tries to avenge her. He takes upon the name of Yellowjacket and uses the suit to get back at SHIELD. He tries to kill every candidate of SHIELD’s biggest program, the Avengers Initiative, and succeeds to do so. The interesting thing to be noted is that there’s a similar arc in the comics as well. Although the reasons for Pym going rogue are a bit different.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN THE COMICS?!

While working in his lab, Hank Pym dropped several vials of chemicals which made a compound. When these compounds were inhaled by him, they caused a personality disorder. Changes were induced to his mind that made his intentions more villainous and less heroic. As a result, he takes up the mantle of Yellowjacket and spread the word that he had killed Dr Pym. Not revealing his true identity, he proposes Janet Van Dyne who actually knew about his accident. To our surprise, she accepted the proposal. On the wedding day, Pym, who was one of the Avengers back then, and the other Avengers gets attacked by the Ringmaster and his Circle of Crime. Going through this trauma shakes up his memory and he comes back as his true self.

Why Hank Pym Became Yellowjacket

In the spur of the moment, he uses the suit to fight the Ringmaster and his minions. The Yellowjacket suit is mainly associated with the evil elements but this storyline featured it on the good side. Since this plot was not introduced in the MCU, the creators had to change things up a bit to make it work. Yellowjacket is mainly associated with the MCU but watching Pym wearing it was fascinating.

Easter Eggs Time- Though we still don’t have any news regarding Yellowjacket or Darren Cross, a big version of the helmet of the suit was visible in The Void (in Loki). Anyways, Hank Pym will be back in the third installment of the Ant-Man franchise.

What did you think about the latest episode of What If…? Do let us know in the comments.

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Parth Suneja

The Force is strong with this one.
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