Since Ant-Man first appeared in Tales to Astonish issue 27 in 1962, there has been three individuals
to take up the Ant-Man mantle.
The first, Hank Pym, is arguably the character with the most turbulent history, whereas Scott
Lang, the star character of the MCU films, continues to grow in popularity.
There was also Eric O’Grady, the third Ant0Man, too.
Like most other heroes, the character has also accumulated various versions throughout
his tiny adventures, so today, we’re taking a look at a handful of those with our list
of the top 10 alternate versions of Ant-Man.
Note that we’re looking at alternates of both Hank Pym and Scott Lang, but aimed to
keep Hank’s other aliases and their alternates – ie, Giant Man or Yellowjacket variations
– off of this list, although sometimes those lines get a bit blurred with good old Hank.
So with all that in mind, let’s jump in!
10 Black Ant We’re starting off this list with the only
Eric O’Grady alternate we’ll be discussing today – Black Ant.
Black ant was a life model decoy of O’Grady’s who replaced the hero after he died in Secret
Avengers issue 23 in 2012.
Black Ant appeared in issue 24, sent to join the Avengers by the Descendants as a double
agent – the Descendants being the ones responsible for O’Grady’s death to begin with.
His true identity came out after Black Widow figured out that he was a robot working for
the Descendants.
But no one believed her since Black Ant (who was still operating under the Ant-Man mantle
at that time) had saved the Avengers’ lives, including Hawkeye, so she left the team in
protest in issue 32 of the series.
Shortly afterwards, the life model decoy switched his alias to Black Ant, and turned on the
Avengers, and he eventually died in conflict afterwards.
But he came back, and resurfaced during the Secret Empire story arc, initially being a
part of Hydra’s Avengers, but switched sides during the final battle.
9 Scott Lang (Earth 2149) Zombie Ant-Man!
Earth 2149 is also known as the Zombieverse, which came to be after an alternate version
of Sentry punched his way – yes, punched – into this universe, bringing a disease
that turned everyone into a flesh-eating zombie.
Scott was summoned by SHEILD as part of a resistance against the situation.
He was presumably sent to fight back the zombies, but later, the character is seen as part of
the zombie hoard going after Magento and his group of survivors at the Baxter Building.
8 Henry Pym (Earth 12091) While not much is known of Earth 12091’s
Henry Pym, the character is arguably one of the coolest alternate versions of Ant-Man
– at least, aesthetically speaking.
He’s a humanoid ant.
Henry is part of the Avengers Federation, a group that consists of Captain America,
Scarlet Witch, Wasp, Thor, Vision, Quicksilver, Hawkeye, and of course, Ant-Man.
Wasp also has some anthropomorphic wasp traits.
The Earth appears in the limited series Space: Punisher, in which we follow Frank Castle
and his adventures in Space, encountering all sorts of weird alternates of familiar
faces.
7 Henry Pym (Earth 398) Earth 398 is a reality that was created and
warped by Morgan le Fay, altered to exist in the medieval times.
The Avengers still exist, but they believe themselves to be part of the Queen’s elite
guard known as the Queen’s Vengeance.
Herny, while technically operating as an alternate of Goliath, his suit is more of a throwback
to his Ant-Man threads minus the antenna.
He, too, is a member of the Queen’s Vengeance.
Eventually, the Avengers all regain awareness of what has happened, and Scarlet Witch, with
the help of Wonder Man, alters reality back to normal and defeats Morgan.
6 Lego – Earth 13122 Of course there’s a Lego version!
Every hero has a Lego version!
Technically part of Earth 13122, Lego Ant-Man is Scott Lang, and has the exact same origins
as the MCU Scott Lang.
Where his story deviates though is that he aided the Avengers in saving the world from
Ultron in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes: Avengers Reassembled, a series of animated shorts featuring
Marvel characters and the Avengers in Lego form.
The premise for this series is geared towards younger audiences – the Avengers are about
to throw a party at Avengers Tower when Captain America realizes Iron Man is acting weird,
and it’s revealed that he’s being controlled by Ultron with the help of Yellowjacket.
5 Scott Lang (Earth X) Earth X is also known as Earth 9997 – a
world in which everything has been mutated due to the release of the Terrigen Mists into
the atmosphere.
This means we get alternates like Black Panther who is an actual Black Panther.
Scott’s transformation isn’t nearly as cool as that, though, unfortunately.
His story, which first appears in Universe X issue 9 back in 2001, follows him taking
refuge in Tony Stark’s factory after his daughter started to mutate.
Later he would take in the mutated daughter of J Jonah Jameson, aka Man-Wolf, who had
been abandoned by her mother after she began to mutate.
It’s also worth noting that Hank Pym exists on this alternate Earth, but as Giant Man,
having previously donned the mantle of Ant-Man in the past.
4 Scott Lang (Earth TRN348) Earth TRN348 has been taken over by Doctor
Doom, Annihilus and Kang, all of whom had formed an alliance for world domination.
There’s a resistance though, led by the Fantastic Four, and that’s where this Scott
comes into play – he’s one of the members.
He also works as an undercover agent for Doom, who had promised Scott a way to bring his
deceased daughter Cassie back to life.
Even though Doom had been the one to kill her.
Lang was part of a plan that involved him impersonating Mr Fantastic to break into Doom’s
headquarters, but it failed due to Lang’s alliance to Doom, causing the Fantastic Four
to be stripped of their powers and ultimately killed.
3 Henry Pym (Earth 9151) This Pym has quite the tragic demise.
So, for starters, Earth 9151 appeared in What If?
Vol 2 issue 25 back in 1991, and featured a story where the god Set went around slaughtering
heroes in a story called What If Set Had Come to Earth?
Only a handful of heroes are left alive as a resistance, and many more have become mindless
drones, including his ‘brides’ – several female Marvel superheroes who are meant to
bear his children.
Gross.
By the end of it, their resistance fails, the brides give birth to Set’s children
– WHO THEN EAT THEM – and the world is consumed by the Children of Set.
How does Pym fit in?
Well, he witnesses the death of his ex-wife Janet only to be eaten by Set himself.
Needless to say, not the best way to go.
2 Herni Le Pym – Earth 311 Henri is from Earth 311, also known as the
1602 universe, which is set during the year 1602.
Mutants are known as the witchbreed, and are considered to be devil worshipers and are
hunted down.
Henri, who is French, is blackmailed by Baron Victor Octavius to try to find a cure for
his hybrid octopus state.
Octavius had taken Janette hostage.
Pym was forced to use the blood of witchbreeds, but before he can cure Octavius, he fully
transforms into his octopus state and goes mad, so Pym uses the elixir he had crafted,
goes big, and steps on Octavius, ending his threat once and for all.
1 Pincer Pincer is Scott Land from Earth 9907 – a
timeline in which Red Skull has won World War 2, and Doctor Doom is now a totalitarian
leader over the entirety of Earth, known as Dictator Doom.
Pincer first appears in issue 10 of A-Next, as one of the antagonists sided with Dictator
Doom.
And he’s a piece of work – he’s a sadistic madman with a stutter, who murdered his daughter
at Doom’s request when the girl refused to swear allegiance to him.
When a different generation of Avengers cross over into their universe, Scott discovers
this version of his daughter goes by the name of Stinger, and he gets all jazzed to murder
her once more, but this time around, she defeats him, and the character dies in issue 11 of
the series.
There we have it, friends!
Which version of Ant-Man is your favorite?
Are there versions of Hank Pym under his other aliases that want us to do a list on?
Alternate versions of Giant-Man, anyone?
Let us know in those comments below!
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