Created by penciller Jack Kirby, editor-plotter Stan Lee and writer Larry Lieber, Pym debuted in Tales to Astonish #27 (January 1962).

The story was created by editor-plotter Stan Lee, writer Larry Lieber, penciller Jack Kirby, and inker Dick Ayers.

Issue #44 (June 1963) featured the debut of his socialite girlfriend and lab assistant Janet van Dyne, who adopted the costumed identity of the Wasp.

In September 1963, Lee and Kirby created the superhero title The Avengers, and Ant-Man and Wasp were established in issue #1 as founding members of the eponymous team.

[2]Pym began a continuous shift of superhero identities in Tales to Astonish, first becoming the 12 ft-tall (3.7 m) Giant-Man in issue #49 (November 1963).

[6] Following van Dyne's death, a grieving Pym took on yet another identity as a new iteration of Wasp, in tribute to the woman he had married and divorced, in the one-shot publication Secret Invasion: Requiem (January 2009).

Pym's experience in the anthill inspires him to study ants, and he builds a cybernetic helmet that lets him communicate with and control them.

[11] (Three decades later, a flashback shows him adopting the identity out of feelings of inadequacy when compared to powerful teammates Iron Man and Thor.

[25] He is eventually captured by an upgraded Ultron that brainwashes his creator, causing the character to regress to his original Ant-Man costume and personality — arriving at Avengers Mansion, thinking it to be the very first meeting of the team.

[29] Returning 14 issues later,[30] Hank Pym participates in several missions until, after demonstrating hostile behavior toward Janet van Dyne, he attacks a foe from behind once the opponent had ceased fighting.

[46] During the Destiny War between Kang the Conqueror and Immortus, two versions of Hank Pym are drawn in: Giant-Man of the present and Yellowjacket immediately prior to his marriage to Janet van Dyne.

[47] Yellowjacket briefly betrays the team to Immortus and the powerful Time-Keepers try to create a timeline where he will not turn back into Pym,[48] but he rejects this decision in time to help his allies.

[49] Observing the final battle, Libra—who brought the team together by using the Destiny Force to tap into his subconscious awareness of the cosmic balance—reflects that both Pyms were necessary so that Yellowjacket's betrayal could bring the team into the right position to attack the Time-Keepers, while Pym's presence as Giant-Man both provided a stable support and irritated Yellowjacket to provoke his own actions.

[54] As Yellowjacket, Pym is a central character in the Civil War storyline, joining those heroes that support the Superhuman Registration Act.

At the conclusion of the Civil War, Pym is named "Man of the Year" by Time magazine for his role in freeing several captive anti-registration heroes.

[55] Pym becomes one of the administrators at Camp Hammond, a U.S. military base in Stamford, Connecticut, for the training of registered superheroes in the government program The Initiative.

[64] Hank Pym creates Avengers Academy, a program to help train young people with newly acquired superpowers.

[78] During the "Secret Empire" storyline, Pym sets up a base in Alaska and is forced to work through some family issues and relationship strife within the Avengers team.

[86] Sometime later, an old man claiming to be Hank Pym places an artificial personality in Whirlwind's corpse called "Victor Shade".

What he did to Whirlwind was part of an experiment involving killing and reviving villains into becoming members of his Lethal Legion with help from Black Ant.

[7] Pym is the creator of the robot Ultron, whom he created as an experiment after examining Dragon Man, showing his knack for AI and cybernetics.

Pym's costume is synthetic stretch fabric composed of unstable molecules and automatically adapts to his shifting sizes.

[61] Pym also carries a variety of weaponry, provisions, and scientific instruments, which are shrunken to the size of microchips and stored in the pockets of his uniform.

In his first appearance, he claimed to be a master of judo,[7] is skilled in wrestling[90] and karate[91] and has since been seen in combat with opponents of both his own size and radically larger than himself (as a result of his size-changing abilities).

[140] Hank Pym appears in issue 13 of Marvel Adventures: The Avengers as a scientist working for Janet's father with no superhero identity, and was the one who gave his wife superpowers.

[145] In the post-apocalyptic Old Man Logan storyline, which takes place on Earth-807128, Hank Pym (as Giant-Man) is killed by the Red Skull's army of villains.

[146] In addition, his Ant-Man helmet is shown in the possession of a young boy named Dwight, who uses it to command an army of ants to enforce the payment of tolls across a bridge.

[154] Giant-Man later accompanied Iron Lad, Captain America, and Wasp in attacking the White House to confront a follower of Maker's Council named Midas.

In the present, he recruits Scott Lang to become the new Ant-Man, helps his daughter Hope van Dyne become the new Wasp, rescues Janet from the Quantum Realm, and becomes a victim of the Blip.

[170] Additionally, Douglas voices alternate timeline variants of Pym in the Disney+ animated series What If...?,[171][156] with one appearing as Ant-Man and another as Yellowjacket.