In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scott Lang and Nadia Van Dyne take over the identities of Ant-Man and Wasp from Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, respectively. That makes sense, as one of the key parts of Hank Pym's comic book career has been coming up with superhero identities and then passing them on to new people, something that he has been doing for over four decades now.

With so many identities over the years, it is sometimes hard to keep track of all of Hank Pym's identities, so we thought it would be nice to give you an easy to follow history of them all, starting from his pre-superhero origins!

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NOT A HERO YET

Hank Pym made his debut in 1961's Tales to Astonish #27 (by Stan Lee, Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers), which came out right around the same time that the Fantastic Four was debuting, so there really weren't any superhero comics at Marvel. They had a variety of genres, like westerns and teen humor, but their most popular titles were science fiction and horror anthologies.

Henry Pym, then, was a fairly typical scientist in these types of stories. A guy who invented a shrinking serum and got caught up in the world of ants...

These stories were all meant to be one-off stories, though.

ANT-MAN

However, when the Fantastic Four made it clear that superheroes were going to be a big part of the future of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee decided to re-visit the Henry Pym character and in 1962's Tales to Astonish #35 (by Lee, Kirby and Ayers), they had Henry Pym become a superhero named Ant-Man...

Ant-Man became the lead feature in Tales to Astonish (which still had science fiction stories as back-ups in the comic). In Tales to Astonish #44, Ant-Man gained a partner in crime in the superhero known as the Wasp. Wasp and Ant-Man were then founding members of the Avengers. The original team included the super-strong Hulk, but he quickly left the team. Lee likely believed that it would be more interesting to see Hank step up and become the new "strong man" of the group.

GIANT-MAN

That led to Tales to Astonish #49 (by Lee, Kirby and inker Don Heck), where Hank worked on his shrinking serum and turned it into a growth serum, turning him into Giant-Man!

However, after Giant-Man and the Wasp began to share Tales to Astonish with the Hulk (who had had his own series in the early 1960s that was canceled after just six issues, but he was now making a big comeback), they soon lost their spot in the book entirely as Namor the Sub-Mariner took over their spot. They then took a leave of absence from the Avengers entirely.

GOLIATH

In Avengers #28 (by Stan Lee, Don Heck and Frank Giacoia), Lee brought Hank Pym and the Wasp back to the Avengers, only now Hank got a brand-new costume and a new name, Goliath!

Perhaps feeling that Giant-Man was too powerful, Lee made it so that Goliath had a limit to how large he could grow. However, Hank also got trapped in his "Goliath" form for a while, which really messed with his head.

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YELLOWJACKET

Once Hank regained the ability to return to his normal size, the mental problems he was going through led to him snapping and creating a second, alternative persona known as Yellowjacket in Avengers #59 (by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and George Klein) that claimed to have killed Goliath.

The Wasp realizes that this is really Hank in disguise. She goes along with his delusion and agrees to marry Yellowjacket. When Hank comes to his senses, he decides to keep the Yellowjacket name.

This was his first persona that was not built around shrinking or growing (although Yellowjacket could grow), as his main powers in this identity were the ability to fly and the bio-electric blasts that he had. He was sort of a variation of the Wasp, really. Yellowjacket became a major part of the Avengers.

BACK TO ANT-MAN

However, in 1971, Hank decided to abruptly go back to his Ant-Man persona in Avengers #93 (by Roy Thomas, Neal Adams and Tom Palmer).

This was because Ant-Man had become the lead feature in the Marvel comic, Marvel Feature. He got a new costume in that series.

That series did not last very long, though.

BACK TO YELLOWJACKET

Therefore, in 1975, Hank went back to the Yellowjacket identity and actually temporarily joined the Defenders!

BACK TO ANT-MAN

Suffering from mental problems, again, though, Hank was manipulated by his own creation, the robot Ultron, into returning to his Ant-Man identity and attacking the Avengers in Avengers #161 (by Jim Shooter, George Perez and Pablo Marcos)...

He recovered his sanity by the end of the story.

BACK TO YELLOWJACKET

With his sanity returned, Hank rejoined the Avengers along with the Wasp in Avengers #170 (by Jim Shooter, George Perez and Pablo Marcos).

However, a year later, the United States government took control of the Avengers roster and Hank lost his spot. Wasp kept hers. She served on the team without him for another thirty issues before Hank re-joined the team, still in his Yellowjacket identity.

His mental problems popped up again and Hank was put on trial by his teammates for his actions during a battle. The deranged Hank built a robot to attack the Avengers, with the theory being that he would destroy it, save the others and be allowed to remain on the team. When Wasp questioned this plan, he slapped her. When the plan was uncovered, he quit being an Avenger and being Yellowjacket entirely.

DOCTOR PYM

He moved to Los Angeles and became the science adviser for the West Coast branch of the Avengers. He continued to suffer from mental problems and attempted suicide. His life was saved by the hero, Firebird. He realized that he had a new lease on life and he decided to join the Avengers again, but now he would just use his scientific abilities plus his ability to shrink and grow things. In 1987's West Coast Avengers #21 (by Steve Englehart, AL Milgrom and Joe Sinnott), he took on the new identity of simply Doctor Pym!

He served with the team for the next four years before taking a break from superheroing period.

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BACK TO GIANT-MAN

Hank ended up back on the East Coast, where he served as a science adviser for the East Coast Avengers. In a pinch in Avengers #366 (by Bob Harras, Steve Epting and Tom Palmer), Hank went back into action as Giant-Man!

He served on the Avengers until the Avengers seemingly died during the 1996 Onslaught crossover. In reality, they had been sent to an alternate Earth.

GI/ANT-MAN

When the Avengers returned to Earth in 1998 and relaunched their title in Avengers #1 (by Kurt Busiek, George Perez and Al Vey), Hank debuted a new look that was ostensibly still Giant Man, but it was a mixture between Giant Man and Ant-Man, so we're calling this period Gi/Ant-Man.

He and the Wasp got back together and served as reserve members. During this time period, he and the Wasp were caught up in a time-traveling adventure that saw them paired up with other Avengers from different points in history. One of these Avengers was Yellowjacket, plucked out of time soon after he debuted.

RELATED: Hank Pym and the Wasp Leave the Avengers Together a Lot

BACK TO GOLIATH

When the Avengers went through a roster shuffle in Avengers #27 (by Busiek, Perez and Vey), Wasp and Hank were called back to the team. Hank decided to go back to his Goliath name.

During this time, Hank was split into two beings, Goliath and the swashbuckling Yellowjacket. Goliath remained on the Avengers.

BACK TO YELLOWJACKET

Hank, though, could not remain in two bodies anymore, so he dealt with his clashing personalities by merging together into a "whole" version of Hank Pym in Avengers Annual 2001.

Then, in Avengers #45 (by Busiek, Manuel Garcia and Bob Layton), the merged Hank decided to keep the Yellowjacket identity.

This was quite possibly the longest-lasting of Hank's various identities, as he maintained the Yellowjacket name for the next eight years or so.

There was a brief period where he showed up as Doctor Pym in Dwayne McDuffie and Scott Kolins' Beyond! miniseries, but he had retired from the Avengers again during that point in time, so we'll just assume that that was a downtime thing.

This period saw Hank replaced by a Skrull during the Civil War crossover.

WASP

During the Secret Invasion crossover, the real Hank returned just in time to see his ex-wife, the Wasp, sacrifice herself to save her fellow heroes in the final battle against the Skrulls.

Inspired by her sacrifice, Hank took on the new identity as the Wasp in Secret Invasion: Requiem #1 (by Dan Slott and Khoi Pham).

He led the Mighty Avengers as the Wasp and even helped to form Avengers Academy, a new school to train future Avengers (starting with young heroes who would be most likely to become supervillains otherwise).

BACK TO GIANT-MAN

During his time on the staff at Avengers Academy, Hank went back to his Giant-Man identity in Avengers Academy #7 (by Christos Gage, Mike McKone, Dave Meikis and Scott Hanna)...

Outside of some brief appearance with the Illuminati as Yellowjacket, Hank remained as Giant-Man for the next few years, including a stint on the Secret Avengers.

ULTRON

In a story set right after Secret Wars (but released before that story ended), the graphic novel Avengers: Rage of Ultron (by Rick Remender and Jerome Opena), Hank tried to destroy all artificial life on Earth as penance for his actions in creating Ultron. Instead, at the end of the series, he found himself literally merged with Ultron!

He went off into outer space to keep Ultron away from Earth. He returned in Uncanny Avengers #9 (by Gerry Duggan and Pepe Larraz), with him now ostensibly wearing Ultron as armor...

In reality, though, it was Ultron who was in control of his shared body with Hank.

Recently, during Infinity Countdown: Prime #1 (by Duggan and Mike Deodato), we see Hank Pym's soul is still distinct from Ultron, so there is hope for Hank Pym still to return....

The only question is...what identity will he use? We vote for Bucky. No one's using that name now, right?