Hank Pym was a genius, and an unlucky bastard.
He possessed an extraordinary IQ and had developed Pym particles that even Howard Stark could not reproduce.
But he was also terribly unlucky.
When he was younger, he had fallen out with S.H.I.E.L.D. over those very particles.
To prevent a disaster, his wife had shrunk herself to a subatomic scale and entered a missile to stop it from exploding.
Hank Pym had lost the woman he loved, yet his daughter hated him bitterly.
So much so that she had helped his student oust her own father from the board.
For Hank, nothing hurt more than losing his wife and becoming estranged from his daughter.
Though he commanded the powerful Pym particles, he had to live alone in an empty house.
Today, however, he received a message from his daughter for the first time in ages.
It concerned his student, the ambitious Darren Cross.
He had already succeeded in shrinking something. Sooner or later, the achievement once exclusive to Pym particles would belong to someone else.
Hope's relationship with her father was strained, but she did not want Pym Technologies to become someone else's creation either.
"We need to stop him," Hope told her father when she returned home. "Your way."
"No, that won't work." Hank's gaze shifted evasively as he looked at his daughter. "We have better options."
Hope took a deep breath. "This is the fastest way. He's almost finished his research. In six months at most, he'll have replicated it."
"I don't know what Wick brought him, but ever since he showed up, Cross's research has advanced by leaps and bounds."
Wick.
Hearing that name, Hank Pym recalled the mysterious shareholder.
With magazines and news outlets relentlessly covering him, Wick's identity was hardly a secret.
Unless it was absolutely