Comics’ first female Avenger gets title role
The Wasp will become the first female Marvel Comics superhero to get her name in the title of a film with this week’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp.”
And while the film’s Hope van Dyne, played by Evangeline Lilly, is slightly different from any version of the Wasp seen before, the Wasp character has a long background in comics. Michelle Pfeiffer will star as the original Wasp, Janet van Dyne, in the new film. In the films, Michael Douglas plays Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man, and Paul Rudd plays Scott Lang, who became Pym’s successor.
The Wasp was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, first appearing in 1963’s “Tales to Astonish” #44. After her father was killed in an alien attack, van Dyne turned to Pym for help. Pym’s shrinking technology and new tech he had developed for insectlike wings allowed her to become a superhero in her own right.
The Waspbecame a founding member of the Avengers in the September 1963 cover-dated “Avengers” #1, and named the team after the heroes Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Ant-Man and herself teamed up to defeat the villain Loki, Thor’s mischievous Asgardian half-brother.
Over time, she became a key member of the Avengers and even led the team in several notable stories, including “Under Siege” by Roger Stern and John Buscema.
The first inkling that Pym, the original Ant-Man, and van Dyne, the Wasp, might have a superpowered daughter was when Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz created the character the Red Queen for the possible future “MC2” line in 1999. Hope Pym first appeared in “A-Next” #7.
Later, Marvel introduced Nadia “Hope” van Dyne. She’s the daughter of Pym and his first wife, but she later took the last name of Janet van Dyne. She was first introduced in the 2016 “Avengers” Free Comic Book Day issue.
She later starred in a miniseries called “The Unstoppable Wasp,” in 2017 which was the first time a Wasp character was the titled lead in a solo comic book. A second “Unstoppable Wasp” series is set for October of this year. Jeremy Whitley is the writer of both series.
Currently, Janet Van Dyne co-stars in “Ant-Man and the Wasp” where she teams up with Lang, the current Ant-Man in the comics. That series is written by longtime Marvel writer and editor Ralph Macchio, with art by Andrea di Vito. Issue #3 of the five-issue miniseries went on sale this week.