Posts Tagged ‘ Wasp ’

UPDATED at the bottom of the page

Marvel has announced an announcement (I hate when they do that) – Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness will be collaborating on a mini which will be titled Somebody Reborn. Given the last few we’ve had – Captain America and Daredevil - this doesn’t necessarily mean that the star of the mini has to be currently dead; they could just be in need of a bit of a push exposure-wise or a new direction. I’m also assuming that just because the promo has five dashes, it doesn’t necessarily mean the character has five letters in their name.

Well, have I got some contenders for you (in no particular order)…

10. The Aquarian

Oh, okay, this is never going to happen. But Loeb and McGuinness on a Superman-analog who became a pacifist beardy hippy instead of a defender of the world? Tell me that doesn’t pique your creative juices flowing. And the book could always co-star the Aquarian’s good buddy the Thing to provide the requisite amount of smashing.

9. Woodgood

Not as out-there as you might imagine; Woodgod – a sentient genetic experiment who resembles a satyr -actually showed up briefly in the last McGuinness-penciled issue of Hulk. Recast Woodgod as a cosmic-level environmentalist and you’ve got a sure-fire hit. Maybe.

8. The Human Torch

It seems unlikely that Johnny Storm will return in any book that isn’t currently written by Jonathan Hickman, and isn’t Fantastic Four #600, but stranger things have happened – like Thunderbolt Ross becoming a Hulk, and yet inexplicably losing his mustache when he changes. Just saying.

7. Uncle Ben

Well okay, probably not. But just imagine how awesome a preachy old guy book could be. “Why, this wouldn’t have happened in my day…” He could shake his cane at those damn kids and everything.

6. Bucky/Nomad

Not the recently-deceased Jim Barnes, but the also-recently-deceased Rikki Barnes. Originally from the Heroes Reborn universe in the Loeb/Liefeld Captain America book, this plucky young lady was brought into the mainstream Marvel U by the same team, where she had a solo mini as Nomad and some backups, joined the short-lived Young Allies, and eventually died battling Onslaught once again. Right now, the Marvel Universe is Bucky-less, and with Captain America and Bucky editor Lauren Sankovitch’s recent ‘there’s more than one Bucky‘ comment, could Rikki make a return at the hands of one of her creators?

5. Dazzler

Sure, she’s getting some panel time in the X-Men books, and there was a Jim McCann-penned one-shot that was pretty good, but what Alison Blaire really needs is a big-name creative team – and what Marvel needs is more female-led books. This could put Dazzler back in the *ahem* spotlight…

4. Crimson Daffodil

‘Who?’ I hear you say – and well you might. The Crimson Daffodil was a minor rogue who showed up in a few issue of the Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger and – wait a minute… this isn’t a Loeb/McGuinness dream project. It’s mine. Sorry. I guess this doesn’t count…

4. Nova/Starlord (tied)

Sure, Nova and Starlord aren’t so much confirmed dead as trapped in what’s affectionately known as the cancerverse battling the mad god Thanos following the close of The Thanos Imperative, and that was published relatively recently, but I can see McGuinness going all-out on a space adventure. And besides, in spite of the Butch-and-Sundance freeze frame, these guys aren’t gone for good. Right?

3. Sabretooth

Victor Creed died at the pen of Jeph Loeb in the godawful (but very pretty) Evolution arc in Wolverine, so it’s only fitting that he gets first crack at bringing the psychopathic killer back. After all, all that nonsense about the Muramasa blade blocking healing factors can be rewritten as just really slowing them down, and we can just write off the Sabretooth in hell stuff as only a part of his spirit or a hallucination. And I actually think I wouldn’t mind to see McGuinness drawing Sabretooth cut loose. I’d actually be all for this.

2. Captain Marvel

Sure, his is one of those deaths that should never be reversed, but we used to say that about Bucky and that worked out pretty well. Following the fake-Skrull Captain Marvel, there was apparently a push towards getting former Marvel Boy and current Avenger the Protector into a book as a new Captain Marvel, but it fell through. Could the time be right for the true Mar-Vell to return?

1. Wasp

Janet Van Dyne’s death was an out of leftfield moment in Secret Invasion mainly because she’d barely been featured in the book before that moment, and she’s been constantly referred to as being kind-of-alive in another dimension in both Mighty Avengers and Avengers Academy, so the Wasp’s return wouldn’t be entirely unexpected and – like Dazzler and Bucky/Nomad – any book starring a woman front and center would be a good move.

So – you have any better ideas?

UPDATE: Duh. I missed off a character whose name has five letters, who’s been dead a while, who someone senior at Marvel mentioned there was a pitch in for, who fits Ed McGuinness’ bombastic art style, and who Jeph Loeb has history with – in fact he wrote one of my favorite ever issues of any book in this character’s series – so I’m adding another to the list.

0. Cable

Yeah, this makes more sense.

So let me get this straight: Eternity contains everything, including Hank Pym.

And because Hank Pym thinks everyone hates him…

Yeah, okay. I can live with that.

But really, Eternity loves Hank Pym!

Why? Because he’s Scientist Supreme!

Er…well, the title feels a little forced, but I guess I can live with that too. After all, it’s not like Hank’s the smartest guy in the room; Eternity admits that Reed Richards is a lot smarter but an explorer (presumably the Explorer Supreme!) and Stark’s an Engineer (Supreme!). I have a hard time thinking Stark’s brighter than Pym though, and Eternity doesn’t say he is – it’s just that these are the guys that Pym compares himself to most.

The fact that they’ve both been massive dicks to him in this series is probably another reason that Eternity calls them out.

Tangentially, you know who Pym doesn’t see as his equal?

That’s right, baby. Because Pym knows that no-one is equal to Doom.

Anyway. So it turns out that while Reed and Stark have the role of Explorer and Engineer locked down, Pym’s the Mage.

Er…like magic? He uses science like magic? So he doesn’t have to explain how he does what he does, kind of like how Forge could make anything before Warren Bloody Ellis blew him out his glory hole?

You know what? I like Hank Pym. I always have even with his many, many, many flaws – so I’m okay with this new role and the new-found confidence it instills.

You know what I don’t like?

Creepy ‘that’s-the-brain-patterns-of-your-dead-ex-wife-in-a-robot-your-robot-son-built-for-a-mate-you-weirdo-perv’ Pym-Jocasta moments.

At least Speed doesn’t like it either…

Yeah, I was irked.

And then he goes and writes two simple pages like this in this week’s Mighty Avengers:

I mean, dammit Bendis, you can’t even let me stay pissed, can you?

So I wasn’t 100% on the money with my post-Secret Invasion predictions but I was pretty damn close.

You know how there’s a Secret Invasion: Requiem issue being solicited with no hint as to who’s being mourned?

You know, Hank Pym’s a bit of a douche.

Look at the evidence. He falls in love with a pretty young socialite (apparently when she’s very young) who just happens to look like his dead/ex/spy/monster wife.

When her father’s murdered and young Janet Van Dyne decides to join the ant-powered Pym on his scientific adventures, he naturally straps her to a contraption to give her super-powers. Later on, he’d unexpectedly up her powers by giving her a ‘sting’ without telling her then later on he’d mutate her into a Wasp-like creature to save her life (but we don’t talk about that).

Long after, after three costumed identities, co-founding the Avengers and years of neglecting jan in favor of his lab, the repressed Pym has a schizophrenic break and marries her while pretending to be the man who killed Pym.

And Jan goes along with it. No saint herself, that one.

Ah, the Silver Age! (Yes I know that this has been revisted in Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in an attempt to make it a bit more…realistic is too strong a word, but I’m going with the original intent here.)

Along the way in those years, Pym managed to create Ultron a maniacal killer robot with a father fixation. He also felt constantly overshadowed by the other Avengers, believing himself useless.

That led to a downward spiral where he had anothe semi-psychotic episode, creating another robot to attack the Avengers just so he could save the day.

And then there was the back-hander that has defined Pym ever since in the mind of readers and writers alike. During this semi-psychotic break, he slapped his wife when she tried to stop him, sending her flying across the room.

Pym hit rock bottom pretty soon after. Fired from the Avengers, he was soon framed by Egghead and imprisoned, although he was eventually cleared of the charges against him. After that, he retired from superheroics – only to be drawn back in to look after the West Coast Avengers’ compound by Hawkeye.

Of course, Hank still had issues…

…although he was persuaded not to commit suicide by part time Avenger Espirita. He stuck around with the Whackos, being studly with Espirita and Tigra before reuniting with Jan. The pair later ended up on the main team with Hank resuming his Giant-Man role (and, later Goliath) before being split into two people – meek, scientific Goliath and brash, reckless Yellowjacket.

They were eventually reintegrated, and Pym continued as Yellowjacket. Back with Jan, he indulged in quite a bit of kinky sex before she decided to uncharacteristically shag Hawkeye behind Hank’s back.

Shortly after, the Avengers Disassembled and Hank and Jan left for England where she drank a lot and he got involved with a pretty young thing who turned out to be a Skrull sent to replace him.

And that’s all she wrote. We still don’t know what happened to the real Hank…but thanks to this week’s Mighty Avengers we do know what happened to the Skrull who replaced him…

…he thought that the Skrulls would lose the war because Hank Pym’s mind started to overwrite his. Dugan-Skrull of course thought he was just absorbing Pym’s batshit crazy complexes, but I have another theory.
I think that Pym’s a bit of a dick, by and large. He’s flawed, arrogant and generally a bit of an idiot despite being massively intelligent.

The thing is, his heroicness, his thinking the best of people, his smartness and willingness to defend people actually overwrote Skrull programming. His thoughts actually came to matter to the Skrull.

And he wasn’t the first…

It sounds like the Pym Skrull has been replaced more than once – so he has this effect on all of them. It doesn’t sound like this has happened to the other Skrulls, Mar-Vell aside, and I like that.

I like that Pym’s a hero in spite of his flaws. Yes, he’s got problems. Yes, he’s got a past that he regrets. Yes, he screws up.

But in spite of all of that, he’s a hero and that heroic nature even shines through the Skrull sent to replace him. That might not be how Bendis intended, but it’s what I’m taking away. Hank Pym is still one of my favorite characters…

…now I just hope he’s still alive somewhere.

As I arrived back in New York late last night and this time yesterday I was drinking coffee and eating pain au chocolat in a little tabac in rural France, you’ll forgive me if this isn’t really that coherent.