The MCU Just Ruined A Perfect Original Avenger Story

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Marvel’s What If…? episode 3, “What If…The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?”

Marvel’s What If…? just ruined a perfect story for one of the original Avengers in Marvel Comics, Hank Pym. For episode 3 of the animated Disney+ series, Marvel finally gave Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym a chance to wear the Yellowjacket suit. In the movies, Pym was denied the chance to go down this road, as the title was given to Darren Cross in Ant-Man instead.

In Marvel Comics, Yellowjacket is one of several different costumed identities that Hank Pym used in his superhero career, with the others being Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, and the Wasp. As for his MCU counterpart, it appears that he’s only associated with the Ant-Man mantle. Thanks to Marvel’s What If…? encompassing a wide range of alternate scenarios, the show seized on a chance to finally make Pym Yellowjacket – but with a twist. Driven by anger and a need for revenge, Pym maliciously assassinated Nick Fury’s candidates for the Avengers initiative before being defeated in a team-up between Fury and Loki.

While there is a precedence in Marvel Comics for Hank Pym’s Yellowjacket becoming mentally unstable and taking a bad turn, the particular direction Marvel took with the episode didn’t make the best use of the ideas it took inspiration from. Similar to the MCU character, the comic book version of Yellowjacket let his anger issues lead him down a dark path. After having a mental breakdown, Hank hit his wife and programmed a robot to fight the Avengers (just so that he could “save” them from it). The biggest difference between this and what unfolded in Marvel’s What…If? is that while both storylines saw Pym wreck his own life, only one took redemption off the table.

Marvel’s…What If…? episode 3 transformed Hank Pym into a full-blown villain, whereas the comics destroyed his heroic reputation, but didn’t go as far as making him an outright supervillain. That’s important, because the best part of Yellowjacket’s Marvel Comics story isn’t his downfall – it’s how he tried to make up for it. What made this arc in The Avengers comic so interesting is that it took a distinguished hero down a self-destructive journey, made him hit rock-bottom, and then gave him an opportunity to rebuild himself. Because of his costly mistakes, Pym was easily framed for a crime he didn’t commit, forcing him to single-handedly take down the Masters of Evil and clear his name.

The efforts of a misunderstood, fallen Avenger to regain lost trust, forgive himself for his actions, and fight against seemingly impossible odds is often thought of as the definitive Hank Pym story in the comic books, which is why it’s a shame that the MCU went a bit too far Marvel’s What If…? by having him murder innocent people. If it hadn’t taken this approach, the series could have found a way to eventually adapt a truly great redemptive arc for one of Marvel Comics’ original Avengers.

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