As promised, June 5’s Ultimates #1 assembles the first roster of the new Ultimate Universe’s main superhero team, including the debuts of the new Ultimate Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne.
And along with leading very different civilian lives from their mainstream Marvel Universe counterparts, the new Ultimate Hank and Janet also provide a fresh slate for the characters’ emotionally and morally complex relationship.
Spoilers ahead for Ultimates #1
Ultimates #1 by writer Deniz Camp, artist Juan Frigeri, color artist Federico Blee, and letterer Travis Lanham primarily follows Tony Stark/Iron Lad, Reed Richards/Doom, Sif, the wounded Thor, and the still-thawing Captain America as they work to find a way to fight the Maker when he finally breaks free of the stasis field in which he and Howard Stark/Iron Man are both trapped.
As previously shown, they release the collected superhuman origins that were stolen by the Maker, preventing the rise of nearly all superheroes and villains aside from those committed to the Maker’s cause. It’s also shown that, along with knowing that the Maker personally manipulated the events of their world’s history to prevent most superheroes from getting their powers, Tony and Doom/Reed also know what the core Marvel Universe is like, including the histories of their own counterparts.
This knowledge, along with the power sources, are sent out to hundreds of potential superhumans – though only a few both accept the call and survive the experience, such as Peter Parker/Spider-Man.
With just a few potential allies for the Ultimates left unaccounted for, the team finds the new Ultimate Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, a pair of exterminators in this world who refuse to kill a family of Moloids living in someone’s basement.
Though their heroic compassion is on display, their lives are a far cry from Hank’s career as a super-scientist and Janet’s reputation as a high-end fashion designer – and from the sad, violent complications of their now-ended romance in the mainstream Marvel Universe.
In the end, Hank and Janet accept the call to arms, activating the orb sent to them by Stark and Doom to become Wasp and Giant-Man, and saving the rest of the Ultimates from Captain Britain (one of the Maker’s lieutenants).
But before accepting his fate as a hero, Pym expresses serious doubts about his ability to live up to the expectations of a superhero, especially knowing, as revealed to him by the data in the orb, that in the core Marvel Universe his relationship with Jan and his place on the Avengers both fell apart after he struck her in anger.
Hank’s regret over his abuse of Janet, and the moral impropriety of a superhero who is also an abuser, became a core tenet of fans’ understanding and reception of Hank Pym for years to come, even after characters in the story attempted to move on.
It’s perhaps no surprise then that some fans have maintained their distance from Pym as a character as a result of his abuse of Janet, and it’s also no surprise that when confronted with the stark truth of his mainstream Marvel counterpart’s actions, the Ultimate Hank has some misgivings about putting himself in any situation that may eventually lead to a repeat of those actions on Ultimate Janet, calling himself “dangerous.”
Hank is finally spurred to take up his rightful powers first by Janet, who accepts hers without hesitation, and then by the newly unfrozen Ultimate Captain America, who tells Hank that he has the power to be his own man, and that the sins of the core Marvel Universe Hank Pym are not his to bear.
Strangely, though the mainstream Marvel Universe Hank Pym’s reputation as a spousal abuser has followed him throughout the last few decades – enough that the Ultimate Hank Pym doesn’t trust himself to be a superhero at first – the original intent was never to depict Hank hitting Janet, according to the story’s writer, Jim Shooter.
In a story related on Shooter’s personal blog way back in 2011, Shooter explains that he originally wrote the scene, which appears in 1981’s Avengers #213, to depict Hank accidentally striking Janet while trying to brush her off – a much gentler, though still somewhat shocking exchange.
However, he lays blame for the escalation of the scene at the feet of artist Bob Hall, who Shooter explains was taught as an artist “to always go for the most extreme action,” resulting in Hall depicting Hank full-on hitting Janet.
With no time to correct the art before the publication deadline, Hank Pym became an out-and-out physical abuser, a shameful misdeed to be reckoned with throughout the remainder of Pym’s career along with a litany of other more fantastical sins, including creating the evil AI known as Ultron.
Though Hank has had some rehabilitation in the MCU, and even in the mainstream Marvel Universe to some degree, the Ultimate Hank Pym’s awareness of his own mistakes and abuses and his unwillingness to repeat them may finally lead to a comic book Hank Pym who is able to both reckon with his core Marvel counterpart’s actions, and move beyond the moral stigma attached to the character.
Ultimates #2 goes on sale July 10.
Both Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne make the list of the best Avengers members of all time.
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