Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Relationship Spotlight: Hope van Dyne & Hank Pym (Ant-Man)


The MCU features all kinds of familial relationships – plenty of the “the family you make” variety, naturally, but also lots of actual family ties as well, such as brothers (Thor and Loki,) sisters (Gamora and Nebula,) brothers and sisters (T’Challa and Shuri,) and fathers and sons (Ego and Peter.)  But when it comes to the Ant-Man franchise, their thing is definitely fathers and daughters.  For the films, they all but have the market cornered on this relationship – there’s also technically Thanos and Gamora-Nebula, but that’s a whole other thing.  Ant-Man is driven by Scott’s desire to regain his visitation rights with Cassie, and another major relationship in that movie, as well as Ant-Man and the Wasp, is the one between Hank and Hope (some Hope-Hank spoilers.)

Our introduction to Hope in the first film features an icy exchange between her and her father at Pym Technologies, where we’re given the information that she was the deciding vote in kicking Hank off his own Board of Directors.  Not everything is quite as it seems – Hope and Hank are making plans together to steal Hank’s technology from Darren Cross, the company’s new CEO, and they play up the antagonism between them to help deflect Darren’s suspicion.  To the outside observer, there’s nothing to suggest that these two would be working on anything together.

But it’s not all an act, either.  There’s been a rift between Hank and Hope ever since they lost Hope’s mother Janet and Hank wouldn’t tell her what happened.  Hope has grown up believing her mother is dead but knowing her father is hiding something about it, while Hank throws himself into researching the Quantum Realm into which Janet disappeared rather than raising his grieving daughter.  The way Hank handled this situation left distance between them, and it left Hope with scars not easily healed.

Janet’s disappearance fuels the other main source of conflict between them:  Hank’s initial refusal to let Hope wear his suit and take on the main role in their planned heist of Pym Technologies.  It’s why Scott is brought into the picture at all, because Hank wants someone else in the suit.  After what happened to Janet, he’s terrified of losing Hope too and would rather risk the mission by sending in someone less trained than risk his daughter, but of course, he doesn’t tell any of that to Hope – Scott is instead the one who realizes and explains his expendability to her.  And without that explanation, Hope only sees her father putting his trust and weight behind an unknown element, a convicted felon with no training, instead of someone with her skills and expertise.  No wonder she’s at first so bitter about being tasked with training Scott.

Ant-Man allows them to get some of these issues out in the open – and, significantly, features a post-credits scene in which Hank unveils the Wasp suit to Hope, proving once and for all that he believes in what she can do and is ready to see her in action.  So, by the time Ant-Man and the Wasp comes around, Hope and Hank are in a much better place.  It again involves Janet, but this time, it brings them together rather than keeps them apart.  Scott’s experience in the Quantum Realm in the first film have ignited their hopes that Janet can be found and retrieved, and together, they throw their time and energy into their search.  Their working partnership is a lot more solid than it was in the first movie, and what’s more, they also lean on one another emotionally.  They both open up more, and as they face the monumental prospect of recovering Janet, they hope/strive together instead of suffer separately.

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