MCU fans are wondering if Ant-Man, as Hank Pym and Scott Lang both, has died in Marvel Comics too (and even the third Ant-Man, Eric O'Grady, found a tragic end), but only one of the two characters has found a way to come back.
The first man to wear the Ant-Man helmet in Marvel Comics was Henry "Hank" Pym, a scientist and adventurer who invented a method to shrink (and later enlarge) people and objects which he called Pym Particles, on top of a way to communicate with insects. As Ant-Man, Hank became a founding member of the Avengers. Later, his hero career and his personal life took some wrong turns, first when he created the genocidal AI Ultron and then when his depression and insecurities led to Hank's infamous abuses on his wife Janet van Dyne (Wasp). The second Ant-Man, Scott Lang, was an electrical engineer who stole the Ant-Man suit from Hank's home to pay for an expensive surgery for his daughter Cassie. Seeing the heart of a hero in Scott, Hank let him keep the suit, not knowing that his life as Ant-Man would end in tragedy.
Ant-Man's Death Was A Time Travel Trick
Scott ended up ing the Avengers, and he was honoring the legacy of the Ant-Man name. However, when the Scarlet Witch lost her sanity and the control of her powers during Avengers Disassembled, Scott became her first victim. Wanda resurrected Jack of Hearts (who had recently died while saving Scott's daughter), and had him blow up inside Avengers Mansion, where Scott happened to be at that moment. It's a tragic event, made even worse by its apparent randomness and by the fact that Scott and Jack were great friends.
However, during The Children's Crusade, Cassie and the Young Avengers travel back in time with an amnesiac Wanda to the moment before Avengers Mansion was destroyed and escape along with Scott, bringing him back to the present. Hank Pym, on the other hand, has not been so lucky, and his demise (which is even more tragic than Scott's) has yet to be undone. Hank has always been tormented (among many things) by the guilt for the creation of Ultron, the Avengers' arch-foe who has sworn to destroy non-synthetic life.
The Original Ant-Man's Death Was Merging With Ultron
The original Ant-Man's death happens during the special Rage of Ultron, where Hank pays the ultimate sacrifice to stop Ultron from infecting all life on Earth. While Pym distracts Ultron, Vision phases through him to get control of his body. However, Ultron manages to force Hank into the amalgamation and pushes Vision out, causing both to become merged into a single being who calls himself "Ultron Pym" and claims to be a perfect union of his two parts. However, it is later revealed that, in fact, Hank died at the moment of the fusion, and Ultron has simply possesses his corpse and, his madness, convinced himself of being the true Pym.
Marvel's recent Ant-Man 60th anniversary special has brought together all incarnations of the characters plus a new one: Zayn Asghar, the Ant-Man of the future. The positive role played by Hank Pym (a past version of him, before his life was tainted by tragedy) in the story made fans hope that the original Ant-Man will return at some point. In the meantime, Scott Lang is carrying the Ant-Man flag with honor, both in Marvel Comics and in the MCU.
