It’s going to be awhile before people can talk about the goings-on in the Marvel Universe without stepping back towards Civil War. It was a huge jump forward for heroes and villains across the board and certainly shifted a lot of perceptions of fan favorites. Iron Man being nominated for ‘Best Villain’ by a few comic awards, the Fantastic Four rearranged while Sue and Reed reconnect, one big Star Spangled Hero removed from the landscape entirely, it’s all rather dire and I just keep getting the feeling that there was something else…

Oh yeah.

A man most known by your average fan for beating his wife was voted ‘Man of the Year’ by Time Magazine for his ‘global revolution’. Shown shaking the hand of Black Panther, a man in his own title fighting at the side of Captain America is now shaking the hand of a major architect in the new era of heroes. Tony Stark and Reed Richards have gone on about their futurist tendencies and sat in the inner circle of the Illuminati, it’s Hank Pym who’s on the cover to take honors with a historic award.

Let’s face it, it’s not exactly who we were expecting. In fact, that little throw away fact might have even been glossed over in the wake of Captain America’s surrender and Tony Stark’s glorious success. Why Hank Pym? For two men who were willing to turn their backs on friends and family in order to create this Brave New World, how did someone as deeply troubled as Dr. Henry Pym wind up on the cover of Time magazine?

Despite achievements otherwise, most people tend to remember Hank Pym for what he’s done wrong rather than right. for some odd reason we can’t let go of the fact he smacked his then wife and fellow adventurer Janet in a moment of mental duress. Through some very interesting twists and turns of storytelling, we’ve seen a little into the mind of Hank Pym the hero and multiple writers have tried to heal this one moment in his history. The Wasp has forgiven him, the Avengers forgave him, why can’t we as readers let this go?

Is it the fact we’re attracted to bad eggs? Is this the same reason the name Joey Buttafuco is now embedded into the American consciousness and who the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby is more about the money than the child? This new Marvel Universe tends to hinge on a lot of bad decisions made for the right reasons and we as society have this guilty pleasure with seeing icons fall from grace. But is it societal or … is that really all we know about Dr. Pym? Was that the moment of excitement in the guy’s career?

Well, of course not. Warren Ellis once noted that Marvel heroes are defined by their tragedies and it’s true that Dr. Pym’s been defined by his. But it’s what comes after the tragedy, how they handle the breakdown, loss of life and family or civil liberties that really defines a Marvel hero in my humble opinon and because of that, Hank Pym is most certainly the guy the Futurist Crew would want shaking hands with Black Panther.

The first time I ever heard of Hank Pym he was trying to kill himself. I got a bunch of West Coast Avengers comics at a yard sale along with some other books, but there was only one with a guy in a red jumpsuit holding a gun after a werecat turned him down. This wasn’t what I expected out of an Avengers comic and it had me at the get-go; you mean to tell me some people just aren’t good at being a superhero? Back then, it was hard knock life but you loved your job and here was Hank Pym holding a pistol with the intention to kill himself.

The next issue, this moment on the brink was handled by La Espirita, urging Hank to have faith in himself; he made it out of his moment of doubt and picked himself up, trying out the idea of being a hero under who he really was, a scientist. He carried cars and winches and cool science stuff in the pockets of his super-jumper and was pretty cool. Sure, he’s no Batman and you won’t see his name on a lunchbox, but it just seemed to a little Yours Truly that he wasn’t just out to help his friends or those in need, but himself as well.

In a world where societal architects look to the far sighted future, Hank Pym needs to live in the now, for his sense of self and the strong desire to do right by the world. While Reed and Tony make speeches and scrawl out mathematical equations, Hank Pym is directing the next generation of heroes in person as a chief administrator at the Initiative’s Camp Hammond. And whether or not that’s actually Yellowjacket actually plummeting to his death on an actual spaceship, I’m going to remember him for more than a crazy death stunt.

I’m going to remember him as Man of the Year.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 25th, 2007 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Marvel, The Fifth Color, Version 1.0 Blog@. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.