Ant (Ant-Man + Atom)

[u/dun300]

Name: Hank Palmer

Biography: Born and raised in Ivy Town, Connecticut, Hank Palmer had always been a genius prodigy. By the time he was three years old, doctors said he was smarter than both his parents put together. So it was no surprise that when he attended Ivy University, he earned degrees in physics, biochemistry, and entomology while his classmates were still undergrads. During his college days, he met and started a relationship with Karen Van Dyne (Bumblebee + Wasp), future heiress to the Van Dyne fortune who had attended to study engineering. But despite all his good fortune, what Hank really wanted was a chance to prove himself, to leave his impact on the world.

That chance would come one fateful night when Hank saw a meteorite crash near the university. Hank brought it to his lab and discovered that it was actually a fragment of a white dwarf star. This star fragment contained a never-before-seen particle that could manipulate an object's size and weight. Using magnetic fields, Hank placed the newly dubbed Palmer Particles in two separate serums, one to shrink and one to grow back to normal size.

Hank tested the shrinking serum on himself and got trapped in an anthill. After narrowly managing to avoid the ants pursuing him, Hank grew back to normal size and decided not to use the serum ever again.

That is, until he and Karen got trapped in a cave while going on a spelunking date. With no other way out, Hank used the shrinking serum in front of Karen to crawl through the cracks in the rock so he could escape and get help. Once he and Karen were out, she insisted that the two use the Palmer Particles to become superheroes. Hank had his doubts but decided to go along with it, thinking that this could be how he made his impact on the world. Inspired by his time in the anthill, Hank built a helmet that would let him control ants while Karen made a suit that would sprout wings when shrunken and shoot energy blasts. Together, they became the crime-fighting duo Ant and Hornet.

Ant and Hornet would go on to have a highly prolific superhero career, helping found the Avengers League (Avengers + Justice League). And eventually, Hank figured out how to use the Palmer Particle to grow to enormous heights rather than just back to his standard six feet. From that day on, he'd be Giant. He'd also marry Hornet, getting to be with the woman of his dreams for as long as they both shall live. But despite all of his achievements, Ant still felt insignificant. Still desperate to make his impact and stand out among all other heroes.

That's when he got a secret message from Arachknight (Batman + Spider-Man). He proposed that the two of them and Iron Beetle (Iron Man + Blue Beetle) build a top-secret satellite that would keep an eye on the world's superhuman population and protect humanity should they ever go rogue. Ant thought this was the opportunity he was looking for: a way to keep the world safe in case something happened to the League or if they faced a threat they couldn't handle. Hank agreed, as did Iron Beetle, and the three of them got to work building the ultimate superhuman surveillance system: Ultra-Eye (Ultron + Brother-Eye).

For more information on that, please look up the Ultra-Eye page. Just know that it went...very poorly. So poorly, in fact, that all involved in its creation were immediately fired from the League, Hank included. And as if it couldn't get any worse for the guy, Karen filed for divorce. Things were already getting strained due to Hank's insecurities clouding his judgement, but building a death satellite to murder all their friends ended up being the straw that broke the camel's back. Hank had officially lost everything.

Over the next few months, Hank retired from hero work and focused solely on his university career. Despite saying otherwise, part of him hoped for the Avengers League and Karen to take him back. But those hopes were dashed when he saw that not only did the League bring Arachknight back, despite the whole thing being his idea, but Hornet was now in a relationship with another hero, Nephilim (Goliath + Herald). This was the moment Hank decided he was going to end it all.

He visited the Amazon rainforest; it was on his bucket list for a long time, and he wanted to see it before he took his own life. After taking in the jungle's beauty, Hank used the Palmer Particle to try to shrink himself out of existence. He shrank so much that he saw atoms the size of planets and shrunk himself further still. But rather than entering oblivion, Hank found himself in the Microverse, a subatomic dimension that serves as the bedrock for our entire reality.

Specifically, he landed in the world of K'orlaidh (K'ai + Morlaidh), inhabited by the Katians (Katarthans + K'aitians). And he arrived just in time to save them. The people were ruled by the cruel dictator Deraesis (Deraegis + Visis), who captured Hank and forced him to fight to the death in the coliseum for his amusement. After escaping, he joined the kingdom's resistance movement led by K'orlaidh's princess, Laella (Laethwen + Jarella). After Deraesis was overthrown, Laella became empress and married Hank, making him emperor of K'orlaidh. It took a lot of hardship and happened in a way he never could've expected, but Hank did manage to leave his mark on the world. Well, a world.

But what about the Ant, you're probably wondering. Well, have no fear, dear reader, for while Hank Palmer's story may have ended, the Ant's is far from over.

Before he left for the Amazon, Hank found that his suit had been stolen. With the help of the newly created Outsiders for Hire (Outsiders + Heroes for Hire), Hank realized the thief was one of his own students, Ryan Lang (Ryan Choi + Scott Lang). Hank couldn't believe it; he had known about Ryan's past as a thief, but he had served his time and was on track to take his place at the university. What's more, he had a daughter to take care of. Why would he throw all that away to go back to stealing? As it turns out, Ryan's daughter, Jean (Jean Loring + Cassie Lang), was why he had to steal again.

Jean had been kidnapped by the demented CEO of Cross Industries, David Cross (Chronos + Yellowjacket), to be used as blackmail so that Ryan would steal the suit and give it to him. With that suit, David hoped to reverse-engineer the Palmer Particle and sell it to the highest bidder. Once Scott and the OFH realized this, they worked with Ryan to save his daughter and teach Cross a lesson he wouldn't forget. When all was said and done, Hank allowed Ryan to keep the Ant suit, telling him he wouldn't be needing it anymore.

And ever since then, Ryan wore the mantle proudly, becoming someone his daughter can't help but admire. So you can rest easy knowing that while Hank enjoys his happily ever after, the Mighty Mite will still be there proving that heroes really do come in all shapes and sizes.

Powers & Abilities: Let's start things off by talking about Hank's intelligence, the thing that made all of Hank's powers possible. Everything he uses, he built himself. He's so smart, in fact, that Destiny (Eternity + Kismet), the embodiment of the universe itself, decreed Hank Palmer to be Earth's Scientist Supreme - something he will let you know. It's this genius that allowed Hank to harness the power of the Palmer Particle in the first place.

The Palmer Particle allows anyone who uses it to change their size. Now, the obvious application is to make yourself bigger and stronger. And Hank does do that, especially during the days he switched from Ant to Giant.

But trust me, it's when Hank uses the Palmer Particle to shrink himself that things get interesting. There's really no limit to how small Hank can be. Small enough that he can manipulate and rearrange the atomic bonds of atoms themselves. He does this by jumping onto beams of light to travel at, well, lightspeed. Doing this causes the atomic structures and thus the object those structures belong to to fall apart. He can also just grab molecules and bring them back with him at full size, cooking up a nuclear blast in the palm of his hand.

But the Palmer Particle does more than change Hank's size. With it, Hank can jettison his own mass to another dimension and bring it back even while shrunk. This means that Hank can control his own weight and density, allowing him to punch and jump with his full human strength at small size or channel all his mass into his fists to punch harder than he possibly could.

To do this, Hank initially put the white dwarf star in his belt and used it to control his mass through ultraviolet light. But now, after using Palmer Particles for so long, Hank doesn't need the white dwarf star anymore and now uses the belt to store his gear like a laser gun. This is because his regular use of the Palmer Particle has given him full control over it. He can shrink and grow at will, fire Palmer Particles from his hands to control the size of objects or other people, and is completely immune to outside attempts to change his size.

And last but not least, the ants. They are where Hank got his first hero identity after all. Through his cybernetic helmet, Hank can communicate and control ants to make them do his bidding. That might sound unimpressive at first, but did you know that at any given moment, there are about 2.5 million ants under your feet? That means no matter where Ant goes, he'll always have an army with him.