Janet van Dyne

The Wasp Guide to Janet van Dyne – now available to the public!

February 16, 2023 by krisis Leave a Comment

If you thought I was done with guide releases to celebrate the kickoff of Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 5 with Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, you thought wrong! I couldn’t miss the chance to release a guide for one of Marvel’s original leading ladies with my Wasp Guide to Janet Van Dyne.

Guide to Wasp, Janet Van Dyne

This Wasp Guide includes a complete reading order of every Janet van Dyne appearance, from her debut in June 1963 to the launch of her first solo series last month. That’s a lot of Janet van Dyne comics, so I’ve also summarized every one of her team appearances and provided a cheat sheet of her greatest hits if you only want to read issues where she is in the thick of the action.

As with many of Marvel’s Silver Age women on super-teams, Janet is often a bystander, romantic interest, or damsel in distress in her early stories with only occasional starring roles (like her series of solo back-up stories in Tales to Astonish). The big difference is that in 1981 Janet broke free of her romantic plot and became the leader of The Avengers in Avengers (1963) #217!

Even though several other Marvel women had scored their own long-running solo titles by that point, Janet being the chairman of the Avengers made her Marvel’s female character with the most authority across their entire line of books – it would be another five years before Storm formally took on leading the X-Men. As a result, Janet has a period where she is at the center of Avengers stories (and decisions) that makes for a satisfying read.

While Janet was a major part of the end of Secret Invasion as well as the resolution of Brian Bendis’s run on Avengers, she doesn’t have many iconic stories in the past decade until the introduction of her adopted step-daughter Nadia van Dyne, The Unstoppable Wasp. If you read no other modern Janet stories, please read her narration in Unstoppable Wasp (2017) #7-8. Author Jeremy Whitley did a magnificent job of creating a signature voice for a character who had rarely ever gotten the chance to tell her own story in her 60-year history.

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

Unstoppable Wasp Guide – now available to the public!

February 15, 2023 by krisis Leave a Comment

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

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.

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 January 2023 with titles scheduled for release through April 2023.

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).

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!

New for Patrons: Guide to Wasp, Janet van Dyne

January 30, 2023 by krisis Leave a Comment

My newest guide for Patreon supporters of Crushing Krisis is for one of the longest-running women of Marvel. In fact, while researching this guide I realized she may be the first Silver Age female Marvel hero to merit her own series of solo anthology stories! She’s also the first woman with a lengthy stint as a team leader at Marvel. All of that makes it absolutely wild that she has never had her own solo series until this month!!! Find all of those Marvel milestone moments in my brand new Guide to Wasp, Janet van Dyne!

Guide to Wasp, Janet van Dyne
This guide is now available to the public thanks to the astonishing support of Patrons of Crushing Krisis!

I won’t lie – getting this Guide to Wasp done was a battle, even though I got a very early start on it!

That’s because Janet van Dyne has appeared in a staggering 1,296 Marvel comics as of this month, which includes 1,295 comics that were not her own comic.

Building a guide for a character who has mostly appeared in their own series is always more straight-forward than building one for a perennial team member and guest star – even if that character has many series like Wolverine. That’s because their series established their prevailing narrative. Even if Wolverine made three times as many guest appearances in a period compared to his number of solo issues, it will be the solo issues that establish his character arc at that time.

Janet van Dyne has never had that privilege. For a character who is about to celebrate her 60th anniversary, her major character moments are relatively few and far between. [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Guide to Wasp, Janet van Dyne

Unstoppable Wasp, Nadia van Dyne – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and reading order for Marvel’s Unstoppable Wasp – Nadia van Dyne AKA Nadia Pym – in omnibus, hardcover, trade paperback, and digital comics. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated January 2023 with titles scheduled for release through April 2023.

The Unstoppable Wasp seemed like the wrong character at the wrong time for Marvel, but she turned into one of their best and most nuanced new heroes – and one of their best all-ages 616 characters of all time.

Nadia van Dyne (AKA Nadia Pym) made her first appearance with the Avengers on the brink of Marvel’s Civil War II. It was a disorganized time in the Marvel Universe that was about to become even more divisive – both for characters and fans. That’s because Marvel was focusing hard on a new generation of “Legacy” heroes like Sam Wilson as Captain America, Jane Foster as Thor, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, and many, many more.

Nadia was an odd addition to this list. First, because Wasp isn’t nearly as popular as the iconic original heroes of those other legacy characters. Second, because the original Wasp – Janet van Dyne – was active at that moment on another Avengers team in another title. Third, because Hank Pym had recently merged with Ultron in that other Avengers title, so Nadia wasn’t even interacting with him.

And, most-importantly, because Nadia was not the Wasp we had just met in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Ant-Man.

That was Hope van Dyne, who existed in several alternate universe, but never in 616. Nadia was not a re-named young version of the MCU’s Hope. Janet wasn’t her biological mother, and she was like half-Wasp half-Black-Widow due to her training in Russia’s Red Room.

At first it felt like there was no point to Nadia’s existence. She stuck with the adult Avengers after Civil War II rather than join the teen Champions, but the choice didn’t seem to make sense.

Then, Jeremy Whitley came along to launch Unstoppable Wasp. Whitley had years of experience writing YA comics, including the delightful Princeless for Action Lab, and was paired with expressive artist Elsa Charretier.

Together, they found a place for Nadia. She simply wasn’t at her best as a brainy young Avenger. Instead, she was leader and a connector meant to bring together the young women geniuses of the Marvel Universe into her G.I.R.L. labs – Geniuses In action Research Labs. The result was a delightful comic that not only invited a slew of new young women, but also interviewed real life lady scientists in every issue! Plus, it highlighted the narrative power of Mockingbird and Janet van Dyne, oft relegated to being supporting characters or love interests instead of mentors.

Nadia’s first series was short-lived, but as she got pulled into the dour Secret Empire and The Champions on the other side of it her fandom snowballed as readers discovered her via trade paperback collections. As it turns out, kids who love comics about scientists aren’t major Wednesday Warriors. As a result, Whitley returned with Gurihiru, a pair of artists revered by fans for their clean-lined animated style on books like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Power Pack, and The Unbelievable Gwenpool

Whitley and Gurihiru delivered another smashing series. Not only was every issue enjoyable, but it tackled tricky topics like mental illness and disability – all without losing the pure joy of Nadia’s character.

In the wake of her two series, Nadia is occasionally a member of The Champions, sometimes a sidekick to Scott Lang or Janet van Dyne, and often a scientist-on-call for Kamala Khan. Wherever she turns up, expect mad science, optimism, and G.I.R.L. Power!