Hank Pym still has recurring nightmares of the murder of his
wife Maria when they were on their honeymoon in Budapest….
He applies for additional funding for his experiments in
shrinking matter but he is turned down as he has nothing to show for all his
work. Outside he meets Janet Van Dyne, daughter of a noted scientist. She invites
him to dinner but he declines, having work to do….
That night, he tests his new particles on himself, shrinking
down to mere centimeters high. He flees a mouse out onto his lawn where he
falls into an anthill and finds he can communicate with the ants in a
rudimentary way. An ant takes him back to his lab where he enlarges both of
them—and has to brush off Janet once again, hoping to keep the human-sized ant
undercover….
Eventually he does date Janet while secretly devising a
protective costume and a helmet that allows him to speak with ants. He shrinks
again and heads for the anthill where he is able to converse with the ants—and
when a hostile ant attacks, he learns he retains his full strength. Soon he is
fighting crime as Ant-Man and he takes Janet out to celebrate his new hobby but
declines to mention what it is, which upsets Janet. He mentions his late wife
but that doesn’t make a difference….
Then Janet’s father is killed by something he unleashed and
she wants to avenge his death; she turns out to already know he’s Ant-Man and
he recruits her as the Wasp, after implanting specialized cells that enable her
to grow wings and antennae when she shrinks. The giant monster is attacking the
George Washington Bridge and Wasp takes the neutralizing agent Hank created and
the enlarging serum and smashing them together over the monster’s head, causing
the chemical rain to dissolve it. Back home the two share the losses of their
lives and fall in love….