The "wasp" of my title is none other than the character of Janet Van Dyne, best known from Marvel's AVENGERS feature. I gather she's not in the book any more as she recently died, though I feel sure she's neither really nor sincerely dead.
Now a title like "Wasp Wasted" could be a bitch-fit about how modern comics waste all their characters in pointless deaths. But true though that is, my use of 'wasted' is more in tune with its connotation of a threat, as in "You're gonna get wasted!" (At least that's how the word is used in superhero comics: I never heard the expression in real life.)
But who's wasting the Wasp? Brian Bendis may have killed the character, but fans have been consigning the character to the garbage-heap for years before the character's current eradication.
Some of the critics of the character have been guys, like Adam Barnett of COMICS MAKE NO SENSE, which has been known to take unreserved glee at seeing Janet Van Dyne proven to be among the lamest of lame superheroes, which is OK with me since he's so funny doing it. Yet a fair number of female fans, as well fans-turned-pros Trina Robbins and Gail Simone, do their share of the dumping, complaining that the character (a) isn't exactly a powerhouse, and (b) constantly tosses around girly-girl dialogue about going shopping and getting married, etc. The Wasp is usually lumped in with all other Silver Age Marvel heroines as proof that Marvel marginalized their heroines by giving them wimpy powers and making them faint all the time.
I'd have to analyze all the heroines of 60's Marvel in order to answer this generalization, so I'm not going to do so. However, I will note that most of the fans who complain about the Silver Age Wasp do so in the context of her role in THE AVENGERS-- where she was unquestionably out of her league next to heavy-hitters like Thor and Iron Man-- and ignore the features for which she was created-- originally the ANT-MAN feature in TALES TO ASTONISH, which over time was transformed into GIANT-MAN.
There are good reasons why most fans think of the Wasp character in terms of her role in the super-team, though. First, though one feature concentrated on Henry Pym getting small and the other on him getting big, readers didn't want him or his female sidekick either way: the Pym-Van Dyne feature was one of Marvel's few outright flops of the 60s. Most of the TTA tales weren't reprinted until they recently came out in the ANT-MAN ESSENTIALS, so most fans didn't grow up with them. And lastly, they really are among the worst stories in Silver Age Marvel, bereft of much in the way of hidden mythic gems or even plain good craft. Even most of the Kirby stories are stinkers.
Quality aside, though, these stories don't precisely show Janet Van Dyne as being as much of a millstone as many later commentators have claimed. Therefore I went through the ESSENTIALS volume to see just how often the Wasp was relegated to the role of helpless femme, and how often she had showed effective use of her powers-- which in the early ANT-MAN feature, weren't all that much less impressive than the male hero's. (I trust most fans remember the classic SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE sketch that has fun at the expense of a hero with the power to keep his normal human strength at ant-size.)
Of course, this means skipping over a lot of the loonier moments of the stories, such as the time the evil Egghead threatens Ant-Man with that terrifying enemy of the ant w
orld--
Quality aside, though, these stories don't precisely show Janet Van Dyne as being as much of a millstone as many later commentators have claimed. Therefore I went through the ESSENTIALS volume to see just how often the Wasp was relegated to the role of helpless femme, and how often she had showed effective use of her powers-- which in the early ANT-MAN feature, weren't all that much less impressive than the male hero's. (I trust most fans remember the classic SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE sketch that has fun at the expense of a hero with the power to keep his normal human strength at ant-size.)
Of course, this means skipping over a lot of the loonier moments of the stories, such as the time the evil Egghead threatens Ant-Man with that terrifying enemy of the ant w
orld--But some sacrifices must be made.
****
TTA #44-- Wasp, seeking vengeance for her slain father, becomes Ant-Man's sidekick.
He does have to rescue her once from the Creature of Kosmos. No effective Waspaction.
TTA #45-- though Egghead does trap Wasp to lead Ant-Man into the anteater trap, she escapes with his help and attacks the villain and his thugs, using a simple pin for her "sting." The two heroes defeat the bad guys together.
TTA #46-- Wasp leads real wasps against alien guards, but does have to be rescued by Ant-Man
TTA #47-- Both heroes get trapped by "Trago." Wasp stings hell out of the villain's henchmen while Ant-Man overcomes Trago.
TTA #48-- Wasp, stricken with fever, stays out of Ant-Man's first fight with the pernicious Porcupine. However, later she saves him from drowning and they defeat the que
rulous quillster (?) together.
TTA #49-- Ant becomes Gi(ant), but gets captured by the Living Eraser. Wasp rescues him by bringing him his growth capsules (one of the silliest dependencies ever foisted on a superhero, BTW). Giant-Man gets most of the ensuing fight.
TTA #50-- Human Top eludes both Giant-Man and Wasp; no effective action by either
TTA #51-- conclusion of Human Top tale; Giant-Man does it all; no effective Waspaction
TTA #52-- Giant-Man battles the Black Knight and gets rescued from a fall by Wasp. During a struggle between G-M and BK on BK's winged horse, Wasp manages to give G-M the advantage by unhorsing them both, though moments later Giant-Man has to rescue Wasp and let the villain go free.
TTA #53-- Porcupine sticks his quills in again, capturing Wasp to lead the hero into a trap. The two heroes briefly team up, but Wasp gets immobilized and Giant-Man finishes the fight. No effective Waspaction.
TTA #54-- El Toro captures Wasp, who is rescued by Giant-Man; no effective Waspaction.
TTA #55-- Human Top captures Wasp at one point. After Giant-Man releases her, she summons termites that contribute to the villain's defeat. It may be dopey action, but it's action.
TTA #56-- the Magician captures Wasp. After freeing her Giant-Man fights the villain aboard the Magician's blimp. The hero's almost beaten when Wasp, acting on her partner's instructions, lets the air out of the blimp. Dumb Magician is defeated and G-M is almost killed in the crash, but one must admit that the crash is his own idea.
TTA #57-- after over ten issues Giant-Man finally gets the idea to give his partner a "sting" not derived from a hairpin. Egghead maneuvers the two of them into fighting Spider-Man, with Giant-Man getting the lion's share of the action, though Wasp does eventually break up their battle and later takes on Egghead's thugs for her longest solo action-sequence.
On a related note, Wasp has here one of two backup tales where she overcomes an adversary on her own, though in this one she resorts to a trick to do so.
TTA #58--Giant-Man tussles with the alien Colossus while Wasp renders minor aid.
Wasp's second solo backup shows Wasp defeat the Magician.
TTA #59-- Giant-Man fights the Hulk with minor help from Wasp
TTA #60-- Wasp remains on sidelines as G-M fights the Beasts of Berlin; no Waspaction
TTA #61-- Egghead sics a robot on Giant-Man; Wasp renders minor aid
TTA #62-- a thief knocks out Henry Pym and uses the costume/powers of Giant-M
an for felonious purposes. The Wasp defeats him in hand-to-hand combat while Giant-Man has to contain a runaway monster plant.
TTA #63-- Pym and Van Dyne masquerade as a couple running a store to lure out the Wrecker, a villain with a protection racket. The two heroes beat up the Wrecker's two hoods w/o use of super-powers. During the final dust-up the villain immobilizes Wasp and Giant-Man finishes the battle.
TTA #64-- Attuma's newest villainy includes taking hostage a plane on which Wasp is a passenger. The two of them end up battling the villain's soldiers although Wasp is immobilized and Giant-Man finishes the fight.
TTA #65-- Giant-Man and Wasp fight a giant spider, with each alternately saving the other from dire peril
TTA #66-- Madame Macabre kidnaps Wasp to lure Giant-Man into a trap. He frees her but gets trapped himself, at which point she returns the favor and they overcome the villainess together.
****
TTA #44-- Wasp, seeking vengeance for her slain father, becomes Ant-Man's sidekick.
He does have to rescue her once from the Creature of Kosmos. No effective Waspaction.TTA #45-- though Egghead does trap Wasp to lead Ant-Man into the anteater trap, she escapes with his help and attacks the villain and his thugs, using a simple pin for her "sting." The two heroes defeat the bad guys together.
TTA #46-- Wasp leads real wasps against alien guards, but does have to be rescued by Ant-Man
TTA #47-- Both heroes get trapped by "Trago." Wasp stings hell out of the villain's henchmen while Ant-Man overcomes Trago.
TTA #48-- Wasp, stricken with fever, stays out of Ant-Man's first fight with the pernicious Porcupine. However, later she saves him from drowning and they defeat the que
rulous quillster (?) together.
TTA #49-- Ant becomes Gi(ant), but gets captured by the Living Eraser. Wasp rescues him by bringing him his growth capsules (one of the silliest dependencies ever foisted on a superhero, BTW). Giant-Man gets most of the ensuing fight.
TTA #50-- Human Top eludes both Giant-Man and Wasp; no effective action by either
TTA #51-- conclusion of Human Top tale; Giant-Man does it all; no effective Waspaction
TTA #52-- Giant-Man battles the Black Knight and gets rescued from a fall by Wasp. During a struggle between G-M and BK on BK's winged horse, Wasp manages to give G-M the advantage by unhorsing them both, though moments later Giant-Man has to rescue Wasp and let the villain go free.
TTA #53-- Porcupine sticks his quills in again, capturing Wasp to lead the hero into a trap. The two heroes briefly team up, but Wasp gets immobilized and Giant-Man finishes the fight. No effective Waspaction.
TTA #54-- El Toro captures Wasp, who is rescued by Giant-Man; no effective Waspaction.
TTA #55-- Human Top captures Wasp at one point. After Giant-Man releases her, she summons termites that contribute to the villain's defeat. It may be dopey action, but it's action.
TTA #56-- the Magician captures Wasp. After freeing her Giant-Man fights the villain aboard the Magician's blimp. The hero's almost beaten when Wasp, acting on her partner's instructions, lets the air out of the blimp. Dumb Magician is defeated and G-M is almost killed in the crash, but one must admit that the crash is his own idea.
TTA #57-- after over ten issues Giant-Man finally gets the idea to give his partner a "sting" not derived from a hairpin. Egghead maneuvers the two of them into fighting Spider-Man, with Giant-Man getting the lion's share of the action, though Wasp does eventually break up their battle and later takes on Egghead's thugs for her longest solo action-sequence.
On a related note, Wasp has here one of two backup tales where she overcomes an adversary on her own, though in this one she resorts to a trick to do so.
TTA #58--Giant-Man tussles with the alien Colossus while Wasp renders minor aid.
Wasp's second solo backup shows Wasp defeat the Magician.
TTA #59-- Giant-Man fights the Hulk with minor help from Wasp
TTA #60-- Wasp remains on sidelines as G-M fights the Beasts of Berlin; no Waspaction
TTA #61-- Egghead sics a robot on Giant-Man; Wasp renders minor aid
TTA #62-- a thief knocks out Henry Pym and uses the costume/powers of Giant-M
an for felonious purposes. The Wasp defeats him in hand-to-hand combat while Giant-Man has to contain a runaway monster plant.TTA #63-- Pym and Van Dyne masquerade as a couple running a store to lure out the Wrecker, a villain with a protection racket. The two heroes beat up the Wrecker's two hoods w/o use of super-powers. During the final dust-up the villain immobilizes Wasp and Giant-Man finishes the battle.
TTA #64-- Attuma's newest villainy includes taking hostage a plane on which Wasp is a passenger. The two of them end up battling the villain's soldiers although Wasp is immobilized and Giant-Man finishes the fight.
TTA #65-- Giant-Man and Wasp fight a giant spider, with each alternately saving the other from dire peril
TTA #66-- Madame Macabre kidnaps Wasp to lure Giant-Man into a trap. He frees her but gets trapped himself, at which point she returns the favor and they overcome the villainess together.
TTA #67-- Wasp and Giant-Man are attacked by the Hidden Man, but Wasp isn't present for the big fight between hero and villain. No effective Waspaction.
TTA #68-- Wasp helps keep Giant-Man from taking a long fall. Later the Human Top shows upn spoiling for a fight and Giant-Man almost takes another high dive; when Wasp tries to save him the villain kidnaps her.
TTA #69-- concluding the Human Top tale from #68, Wasp is once again used to lure Giant-Man into a trap. No effective Waspaction.
Now, if one judges the number of issues that have any Waspaction at all vs. those that have none, clearly the "ayes" have it, 19 to 7. I also tried a three-way categorization of "no action" vs. "minor action" (Wasp saving her partner from a fall or distracting the bad guy) vs. "major action," really mixing it up with an opponent. This yields more of an even division: 7 for the first, 9 for the second, 10 for the third.
Still, while these statistics may not make anyone like the Wasp character any better, they do show that she wasn't especially wimpy in the title for which she was designed-- where, as I noted earlier, her male partner wasn't origially much of a hot-shot either. Both were originally "tricky" types of heroes, designed to outthink rather than overpower villains, and although it's perfectly fine to make fun of either of them (especially given how much one of them resembles Tinkerbelle), I find it odd that the Wasp tends to get far MORE of a bum rap than her partner, whether he's giant-sized or not.
I have to assume the proximate cause for all the Wasp-emnity is the girly-girl dialogue that was the character's main schtick. To be sure, some of it is ladeled on pretty thickly. But it deserves mention that whereas such dialogue makes the character sound like a flighty (heh) goof in THE AVENGERS, it's not nearly so out of place in the GI(ANT)-MAN feature. Here the goofy-girl dialogue of the Wasp not only functioned to give some humor to a very staid feature, but also underscored her continuing efforts to sway Henry Pym romantically. In other words, her constant girl-isms are not reactive, but proactive: attempts to get Your Basic Dumb Male to wake up and smell the hottie.
There's no question that the Wasp was a minor character in the history of superhero comics, and will probably still be so when she's inevitably revived. But even with minor characters, they should be dissed for good reasons, not lame, ill-considered ones. One could say much the same of all works of popular fiction, whether or not one considers them to be "minor arts" (a la Gilbert Seldes) or not.
TTA #68-- Wasp helps keep Giant-Man from taking a long fall. Later the Human Top shows upn spoiling for a fight and Giant-Man almost takes another high dive; when Wasp tries to save him the villain kidnaps her.
TTA #69-- concluding the Human Top tale from #68, Wasp is once again used to lure Giant-Man into a trap. No effective Waspaction.
Now, if one judges the number of issues that have any Waspaction at all vs. those that have none, clearly the "ayes" have it, 19 to 7. I also tried a three-way categorization of "no action" vs. "minor action" (Wasp saving her partner from a fall or distracting the bad guy) vs. "major action," really mixing it up with an opponent. This yields more of an even division: 7 for the first, 9 for the second, 10 for the third.
Still, while these statistics may not make anyone like the Wasp character any better, they do show that she wasn't especially wimpy in the title for which she was designed-- where, as I noted earlier, her male partner wasn't origially much of a hot-shot either. Both were originally "tricky" types of heroes, designed to outthink rather than overpower villains, and although it's perfectly fine to make fun of either of them (especially given how much one of them resembles Tinkerbelle), I find it odd that the Wasp tends to get far MORE of a bum rap than her partner, whether he's giant-sized or not.
I have to assume the proximate cause for all the Wasp-emnity is the girly-girl dialogue that was the character's main schtick. To be sure, some of it is ladeled on pretty thickly. But it deserves mention that whereas such dialogue makes the character sound like a flighty (heh) goof in THE AVENGERS, it's not nearly so out of place in the GI(ANT)-MAN feature. Here the goofy-girl dialogue of the Wasp not only functioned to give some humor to a very staid feature, but also underscored her continuing efforts to sway Henry Pym romantically. In other words, her constant girl-isms are not reactive, but proactive: attempts to get Your Basic Dumb Male to wake up and smell the hottie.
There's no question that the Wasp was a minor character in the history of superhero comics, and will probably still be so when she's inevitably revived. But even with minor characters, they should be dissed for good reasons, not lame, ill-considered ones. One could say much the same of all works of popular fiction, whether or not one considers them to be "minor arts" (a la Gilbert Seldes) or not.
As long as the Avengers had a big enough roster, I thought Wasp added a nice touch of variety, and didn't mind the discrepancy in power levels. I didn't care for it so much when she was one of four or five members.
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