Though he is best known as Ant-Man, Hank "Henry" Pym has gone by many names, worn many costumes, and over the years been a hard character to pin down to certain traits. He was never the strongest or smartest Avenger, and he often did not have a strong enough character to carry a title on his own separate from the Avengers, establishing a tendency to fade to the periphery of the Marvel Universe.
Outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pym is perhaps most infamous for an act of domestic violence against his wife Janet van Dyne, the Wasp, and the character has never really recovered from that reputation ever since. But the character might be the most effective when he's his most detestable, and the depiction of the character in the Ultimate Marvel universe may have already proven that.
Over the years, Marvel tried various attempts to retcon or lessen the widely-discussed moment where Pym flailed his arm during a spout with his wife and struck her in the face. Though Pym's act of domestic abuse was not originally planned to become the infamous installment in comics history it became, Tom Brevoort said previously that Marvel knew the domestic abuse angle would stick because "that was the most interesting thing that had ever happened to that character."
No matter what reinventions or new identities or alien imposters the publisher tries, the character inevitably seems to come back to a forced confrontation with his worst moment. It's particularly hard to grapple with in the age of Disney's MCU adaptations where many fans may come to the character for the first time from a more innocent interpretation, but part of what makes the morally abominable act so interesting is just how ugly and hard to look at it is. The domestic spout stuck because the idea of a member of the premier superhero team doing such an awful thing is inherently interesting, and in the 1610 universe of Ultimate Marvel fans got to see that play out.
The Ultimate iteration of Hank Pym is worse than ever, but he's also far more realistic and interesting. The character is portrayed here to have a history of domestic abuse, with his and Janet's violent relationship going back to their college days, and though Pym's bipolar disorder is not brought up as the sole cause or excuse for his behavior, it is nevertheless factored in to his complex character. He struggles with his insecurities to feel worthwhile amidst a team of gods and legendary heroes, and when the news breaks about his violence against Janet he's forced to live with that reputation, much as the character has in the minds of fans.
At one of his lowest points in Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's Ultimates 2, Hank Pym even joined a group of wannabe heroes calling themselves the Defenders, boasting about his status to impress the unpowered cosplayers, and even came close to defecting to a coup of the United States government. At his best he was never that great of a guy and at his worst he was downright terrible, and the Ultimate universe never bothered trying to give him a true redemption. When he finally went out in an act of self-sacrifice it was as ugly and blemished as his life had been, coated in suicide-vest wearing duplicates of Multiple Man as he strode out to sea to take the brunt of their attack.
In retrospectives of the Ultimate universe, Pym is pointed to as an illustrative example of just how dark and gritty the 1610 universe could be. He never had a solo title and rarely had the spotlight in Ultimates, but his flaws and crazy moments made for startling and effective points of contrast with his teammates that serviced the overall story and made everyone involved more interesting.
The character had a direction and purpose from start to finish. In comparison to the mainstream version of the character, this Hank Pym is ultimately much more interesting, and may be an example that his 616 counterpart would do well to emulate.