In honour of all the little heroes out there, none is more amazing than the Wasp. The Wasp was created in 1963 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In the comics, she is one of the founding members of the Avengers and the only female hero on the team for quite some time. The Wasp was originally just the girlfriend/admirer of Ant-Man, Dr. Hank Pym (whom she later married, then divorced and then got back together with and then left again—they have a complicated relationship). She was noted to have a different outfit all the time, unlike the others. Her powers aside, she is a natural leader, a great strategist, and very intuitive and deductive. Over the course of the years, Wasp had many awesome moments.
6. Fighting a Despot
So while Wasp was technically dead to the Marvel-616 world, she was actually busy in a micro-verse fighting a despot. Even though that she was probably trying to find a way out, she naturally had to fight against tyranny and things that weren’t fair. Even when she gets out, she does go back and with the help of the Avengers, they defeat him. It’s pretty awesome, I think.
5. Pawning Magneto
In the originally “Secret Wars” storyline from the 1980s, the Wasp is kidnapped by Magneto of all people. Does she get scared? Pfft, no. Wasp pretends to be charmed by the big bad, completely putting him off guard until she learned his plans. She defeats him, escapes, and alerts the Avengers. Wasp defeated in Magneto, one of the strongest mutants in the world. That’s pretty cool.
4. She Named the Avengers
Wasp came up with the name “Avengers” for the super-team that launched a thousand teams. In the 1960s, the first major superhero team up (meaning more than two heroes), Iron Man, The Hulk, Ant-Man, Thor and Wasp made up the original Avengers team. (Cap joined later when the team went against Namor and found Cap in a block of ice). Wasp was so excited that she thought “Avengers” was the best name.
3. She’s a Good Leader
Being one of the longest running Avenger, Wasp eventually steps into a leadership role. And she’s kickass about it. Thor, Cap and Iron Man thought she would be a great leader. Cap even praised her for leadership skills. Under Wasp’s leaderships, more female superheroes became members of the Avengers like She-Hulk. While running the Avengers, she was also working on her fashion line as a designer. She does a lot of awesome things while leading. She does it a few more times over the years and more recently, she’s financially-backing the team.
2. Her Death (Ant-Man)
Wasp is a hero in any verse. While Jan Van Dyne was not in the Ant-Man movie all that much, the one scene showed her heroics. While she and her husband Hank were on a mission for SHIELD, they needed to stop a bomb. It seemed impossible, but she used her powers to shrink down to disable the bomb. In the process, she literally disappeared. She sacrificed her life to protect others and her family.
1. Her Death (Comics)
During the “Secret Invasion” story-line, the Skrulls had invaded and no one knew that the Hank Pym parading around was actually a Skrull. Skrull Hank Pym gave Jan a serum that Wasp thought was going to help her out. However, when the Skrulls thought their queen was dead, the Skrull imposter pushed a button to activate the serum in Jan’s system. Jan’s size grew rapidly and caused her to admit lethal amounts of black-purple energy.
She became a bio-bomb and she knew it. She resolves to, at least, take as many Skrulls as she can with her. Thor had no choice but to use his hammer Mjolnir to create a special warp that dissolved Jan into nothingness. Wasp’s death devastates Hank for a while, until he manages to accept it and became the new Wasp. Thor was furious and vowed vengeance for Jan. Wasp knew that she was going to die and she was okay with it.
Some might not think much of a seemingly spoiled, pampered daddy’s little princess type, but Wasp is a fighter, a leader, and she’s intelligent. She makes mistakes like everyone does—like accidentally revealing that Scarlet Witch and Vision had twins inadvertently causing the “Avengers Disassembled” story-line. She’s a complicated person, but she’s good at what she does and she believes in herself. She doesn’t have to be a hero but she is anyway.
Did we miss any of Wasp’s best moment? Sound off in the comments or send us your thoughts on Twitter!
