Yeah, I read the comics. Doesn't mean I have to like it or the way that one scene became Hank's identifying moment. Partially because the artist misinterpreted the scene.
Exactly. As Jim Shooter explains it:
http://www.jimshooter.com/2011/03/hank-pym-was-not-wife-beater.html
In that story (issue 213, I think), there is a scene in which Hank is supposed to have accidentally struck Jan while throwing his hands up in despair and frustration—making a sort of “get away from me” gesture while not looking at her. Bob Hall, who had been taught by John Buscema to always go for the most extreme action, turned that into a right cross! There was no time to have it redrawn, which, to this day has caused the tragic story of Hank Pym to be known as the “wife-beater” story.
When that issue came out, Bill Sienkiewicz came to me upset that I hadn’t asked him to draw it! He saw the intent right through Hall’s mistake, and was moved enough by the story to wish he’d had the chance to do it properly.
The final page can be seen here:
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/04/15/comic-book-legends-revealed-309/
Shooter's in error; it's not a right cross, but a backhand sweep of Hank's left hand (although his right is clenched into a fist). Still, Hall clearly drew it as intentional and extremely forceful.
So it was one isolated mistake (both by the character and the artist) that fandom latched onto and exaggerated into a defining trait of the character, even though it was never meant to be. It didn't help when
The Ultimates took the meme and ran with it, making that version of Pym an actual abusive husband.
