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Hank Pym

Unstoppable Wasp Guide – now available to the public!

February 15, 2023 by krisis

I’m happy to announce that my Unstoppable Wasp Guide is now available to all readers to celebrate the release of Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, in theatres today!

Guide to Unstoppable Wasp, Nadia van Dyne

The Guide to Unstoppable Wasp

This Unstoppable Wasp Guide includes a complete reading order of every Nadia van Dyne appearance, from her debut in Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) 2016, through her stint in The Avengers, into Secret Empire and out into the Champions on the other side – plus, Nadia’s own delightful book, Unstoppable Wasp.

Throughout the reading order, I indicate where some books are very tonally different for the character (a-hem, Secret Empire), in case you’re reading along with the kids in your life. If you’re Not in the mood for a full-on Unstoppable Wasp reading order, I also provided a slimmed-down list of “Greatest Hits” issues so you can get only the core of Nadia’s story without background appearances and cameos.

Nadia occupies an interesting space in Marvel’s mythology. She is Hank Pym’s daughter, but she is not his daughter with The Wasp (Janet van Dyne) that neatly aligns with Hope van Dyne of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Instead, Nadia is Hank’s previously unknown child with his first wife, Maria Trovaya. Maria was introduced via flashback in the Silver Age debut of Janet van Dyne. As Hank recalls in that 60s comic, Maria was abducted by foreign agents on their honeymoon and presumed dead for decades of comic continuity. Even when it was later suggested that she was kept alive and held captive, there was nary a hint of a secret daughter until Mark Waid created Nadia in 2016.

Even if Nadia isn’t the same as Hope, there’s something very clever about how she has been handled. That’s because she has allowed Janet van Dyne to take on a maternal role (even giving Nadia her last name!) without aging her to be the mother of a teenager of her own. While moms absolutely can be (and are) heroes, Marvel is always shy to make a female hero into a mom without artificially aging up her child – as we’ve seen with both Jean Grey and Scarlet Witch!

(Sue Storm remains Marvel’s mom-in-chief, parenting two teenagers who aged up off-panel alongside her during an eight-year gap spent tending to other universes after Secret Wars).

This Unstoppable Wasp Guide exists thanks to the ongoing support of the amazing Patrons of Crushing Krisis. They’ve had early access to the guide for three weeks. Now, the guide is open to the public and updated through the present day.

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Hank Pym, Janet van Dyne, Mark Waid, Marvel Cinematic Universe, New Comic Book Guide, Unstoppable Wasp, Wasp

Wasp, Janet van Dyne – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and reading order for Marvel’s Wasp – Janet van Dyne – in omnibus, hardcover, trade paperback, and digital comics. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated November 2024 with titles scheduled for release through February 2025.

Janet van Dyne is one of Marvel’s first female superheroes, a founding member of The Avengers. and the first Marvel heroine to lead her own solo stories in the Silver Age!

She is the most under-used out of all of Marvel’s iconic Silver Age women, in part because she spent so long being tied closely with Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man (and also her ex-husband). The Wasp in Avengers (1998) #71

Janet debuted as The Wasp in March 1963 as Pym’s co-star in anthology title Tales To Astonish. Her debut is both a creaky artifact of the times and a solid blueprint for her enduring personality.

On one hand, you have widower Hank Pym becoming immediately obsessed with Janet because she resembles his deceased wife, even though Janet is “no more than a child.”

Yikes!

On the other hand, Janet’s headstrong and fiercely-loyal streak is established from her earliest panels. She prefers a companion who is “the adventurous type” rather than spend time with “dull, intellectual book worms.” She also leaps at the chance to avenge her father, proving she herself is also of the adventurous type.

At first, Janet comes off as the most well-rounded of all Marvel woman of the early 60s, all of whom were saddled with a secret lust for their leading man. She strikes out on her own mission in her second appearance and repeatedly shrugs off Hanks’ attempts to infantilize her. Janet is often the driver of action, she reprimands Hank for giving her orders, and her sighs of “Oh, Ant-Man! What do we do next?” often come off as subtle sarcasm.

Hank and Janet were drafted into Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s Avengers alongside other anthology title hit characters Iron Man, Thor, and Hulk – to which they famously added Captain America in issue #4. Janet was immediately minimized in this cast of men, getting none of the moments of bravery and wit she continued to show off in Tales To Astonish. There, just after the debut of The Avengers, she received her own run of solo features from Tales to Astonish (1959) #51-58.

As Scarlet Witch and Black Widow were pulled into the Avengers line-up, Janet felt increasingly sidelined (though she is notable for being an early friend to Hawkeye). She marries in issue #60 and leaves the team for her honeymoon in issue #75. It takes until her return to the team without Hank in issues #150-151 for her to start to have her own plots while in the title

That lead to both the nadir and the early climax of Jan’s reading order. Issue #213 features the oft-referenced moment of domestic violence where a manic, costumed Hank strikes Janet while in civilian clothes, giving her a black eye. Yet, the story is not merely one of Janet being a prop for Hank’s downfall. He is promptly kicked off the team, and in issue #217 Janet proposes herself as the chairman of the Avengers – which Iron Man, Cap, and Thor support unanimously.

Janet’s years as the chair of The Avengers include some of her best moments on the team. They are also the origin of her long-lasting friendship with She-Hulk. From that point forward, Janet always receives some amount of deference whenever she is on an Avengers roster – it continues long after she passes down leadership to Vision (and later to Monica Rambeau, via Cap).

The remainder of the 80s and 90s aren’t a productive time for quality Wasp stories, though they helped cement her status as a fashion designer and socialite. She joined Avengers West Coast, but took a backseat there to the ongoing Scarlet Witch drama. Janet briefly bounced back into the main Avengers squad in the mid-90s, only to be subjected to an inexplicable mutation into an actual wasp-girl (in keeping with the character design trends in the period).

Kurt Busiek and George Perez’s back-to-basics Avengers relaunch in 1998 finally saw Janet put to good use in a modern book where she had room to exist as a character without needing to be a leader. She was a recurring member of cast for over half a decade, until Brian Bendis disassembled the Avengers in 2004. Bendis picked Janet back up for his Mighty Avengers run in 2007, but despite her being a founding member she isn’t seen much outside of the climax of his Secret Invasion – which removed her from storytelling for several years.

Wasp made her return just after Avengers vs. X-Men, which positioned her as one of the classic Avengers to anchor the new Uncanny Avengers squad that combined Avengers and X-Men on a single team. Her initial run with the team during Marvel Now in 2013-2015 is unremarkable; she gets more to do in All-New All-Different Marvel in 2015-2016.

Now completely decoupled from Hank Pym, Janet finally began to see more use as a guest star with interesting plots of her own. She adopts her step-daughter Nadia in a pair of delightful, all-ages Unstoppable Wasp series, and is a partner and equal to Tony Stark in Tony Stark: Iron Man, as well as an occasional Avenger. And, finally, in January 2023, Janet van Dyne got her own solo series!

[Read more…] about Wasp, Janet van Dyne – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Ant-Man & Giant-Man – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for Ant-Man and Giant-Man comic books and omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated August 2024 with titles scheduled for release through December 2024.

Ant-Man was one of Marvel’s first Silver Age superheroes and a founding member of The Avengers, although the character has taken a vastly different path than his enduring Silver Age compatriots Iron Man, Thor, and Hulk.

Scott Lang on the cover of his first solo series, Ant-Man (2015) #1 (textless variant)

Three different Marvel characters have worn the Ant-Man helm, and the only common thread between them is a slightly dubious set of ethics kept in check by their superhero mantles.

The original Ant-Man was Hank Pym, a scientific super-genius who discovered a means to shrink to the size of an ant and control his insect companions. He debuted in a one-off anthology story in Tales to Astonish in keeping with the pulpy sci-fi adventures that preceded the Silver Age in Marvel’s Atlas Era, but quickly made his return when he fit in with Marvel’s new Silver Age super-hero direction.

That made Hank Pym (and his smart and sassy assistant Janet Van Dyne) a perfect founding member for Marvel’s Justice League analog, The Avengers. One insect-size hero was enough, as Pym was quickly upgraded to be “Giant-Man” with the ability to grow super large (and tank for the team in the place of the quickly departed Hulk). Pym anchored the team for its first 16 issues while continuing in Tales to Astonish.

When he later returned to the Avengers, it was with the more hip name of “Goliath” but also in his capacity as a super scientist. It was in this phase that Pym invented Ultron (and, by extension, Vision). However, Pym was also increasingly capricious – frequently changing identities and coming and going from The Avengers.

After Pym abandoned both his Ant-Man and Giant-Man identities, other heroes carried them on. Hawkeye was the first to swipe the Goliath title while Pym was called Yellowjacket. Later, Pym’s assistant Bill Foster would become Black Goliath (and also occasionally Giant-Man).

Scott Lang, an engineer and former criminal, emerged as the second Ant-Man in 1979. He became the primary Ant-Man for a new generation of Bronze Age and Modern Age readers, who knew Hank Pym as an increasingly unreliable and egotistical mad scientist. Lang was never a full-time Avenger, but an occasional hero trying to make up for past wrongs while working for Stark Industries and raising his young daughter Cassie.

Lang would later join the Fantastic Four and become a Hero for Hire, but he never broke out as a solo star past a handful of features in Marvel Comics Presents. That made him a prime candidate to sacrifice to the meat-grinder of Brian Bendis’s Avengers Disassembled in 2005.

In Lang’s absence, another criminal took up the Ant-Man helmet. Eric O’Grady wasn’t much of a scientist, nor was he much of a superhero – he was more motivated by using his power to get out of trouble and harass women. His dubious morality saw him joining Norman Osborn during Dark Reign, but later get his chance of redemption via Steve Rogers in Secret Avengers.

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While Avengers vs. X-Men marked a major status quo shift in the Marvel Universe in 2012, a big change in Ant-Man happened alongside it. O’Grady was out (via the final arc of Secret Avengers) and Scott Lang was back (via Avengers: The Children’s Crusade). That allowed Lang to return front-and-center in Marvel Now as part of Matt Fraction’s replacement Fantastic Four in FF and in Jason Aaron’s Original Sin.

Scott Lang on the cover of Astonishing_Ant-Man (2015) #9

With a feature film on the way for this Scott Lang, who had never even had an entire story arc to himself, Ant-Man graduated to his second ongoing title (and Lang’s first) in 2015. It was quickly cut short by Secret Wars but restarted immediately after.

The present-day Scott Lang Ant-Man is virtually an all-different character from his early 1980s incarnation. He’s much less of a capable engineer and reliable father, and much more of the lovable screw-up portrayed by Paul Rudd in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. [Read more…] about Ant-Man & Giant-Man – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #9, 8, and 7

June 15, 2016 by krisis

Omnibus on ShelfWelcome to another edition of Marvel’s most-wanted omnibuses based on the annual secret ballot by Tigereyes. I covered #10-12 in the last installment.

We’ve broken through to the Top 10 books on the survey. That doesn’t immediately make all of it classic – some of it warrants high demand for other reasons, like a specific creator or filling in a highly-desired gap.

However, today I have three classics for you. For two of the books, that designation is an obvious one. For the third, this might be the first time you’ve ever been asked to consider it as a classic, but I’ve felt that way for over 25 years!

Do you own an oversized tome of the comics starring your favorite character or featuring your favorite story? My Marvel Omnibus & Oversized Hardcover Guide is the most comprehensive tool on the web for tracking Marvel’s hugest releases – it features details on every oversize book, including a rundown of contents and if the volume is still readily available for purchase. [Read more…] about Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #9, 8, and 7

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Alan Davis, Avengers, Black Panther, Captain Britain, Chris Claremont, Collected Editions, Excalibur, Fantastic Four, Hank Pym, Jack Kirby, Kitty Pryde, Man-Ape, Marvel Comics, Nightcrawler, Omnibus, Rachel Grey Summers, Roy Thomas, Stan Lee, Ultron, Vision, X-Men

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