Although they're an iconic couple, Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne's relationship is pretty dire, considering their most famous moment involves a case of domestic violence.
It's not just the fact that Scott Lang has overtaken Pym as the more iconic size-shifting Avenger, or that Nadia Pym is the more reputable hero to come from that family, but because Hank and Jan's relationship was so verifiably awful in the comics that Hank's declined over the years. It doesn't help that attempts have been made to rehabilitate Pym both on and off the page either, and while it's clear he wasn't all that there during this actual story-arc, it's not a mitigating circumstance, certainly not for an issue as serious as this.
There are plenty of terrible moments from Marvel's past that could rival Pym hitting his wife, including Reed Richards' constant attempts to patronise Sue Storm back in the sixties, but this is beyond irredeemable.
Here's hoping the MCU's Pym is a more stable one than this...
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
