History
Janet Van Dyne was born to a Caucasian scientist father and Asian fashion designer mother in 1976, growing up on a military base near Düsseldorf, Germany.[4] She eventually went to college in America at the New York University to become a molecular biologist, where she shared a room with Betty Ross.[5][6] Janet started dating Henry Pym, an unstable and frustrated scientific genius who abused her, especially early in their relationship when he hit her twice. The first time he put her head through the bathroom door, and the second time he punched her so hard at a Christmas party that he split the roof of her mouth in two. In between public romantic declarations from Pym, Janet also appeared to be missing chunks of hair from time to time as a sign of his aggressions. However, Janet still chose to stay with Hank and eventually married him because she believed the good times she shared with him made the bad times worth it.[7]
Janet was also a mutant, a fact she kept hidden from everybody except for Hank. As a mutant, she could shrink in size, manifest translucent wings that allowed her to fly, and generate a wasp-like sting which she discharged through her hands. It was implied her low self-esteem stemmed from her condition. As side-effects of her insectoid genetics, Janet also ate bugs, formed larval nests and laid egg-like constructs. She chose to work with Hank at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Super-Soldier Research Facility under Bruce Banner, where she allowed her husband to take the credit for supposedly creating her powers by scientific means. Secretly using her mutant DNA on his genetic studies, Hank Pym continued to make various scientific breakthroughs.[6]
Spider Man[]
Sometime later, Fury sent Janet to assist Spider-Man when he was injured by the NYPD who mistook for an impersonator committing robberies. She supplied him a healing supplement to help him recover from his injuries before encouraging him to find and viciously neutralize his impersonator.[8]
The Ultimates[]
The Pyms were promoted to head the research and development wing of the US government's new superhuman strike force, the Ultimates, with Bruce Banner as their deputy, Betty Ross as their communications officer and the Triskelion as their headquarters. Hank attempted to change, going on a medication, and Janet believed that joining the Ultimates could be a new start for them as Janet enjoyed her status as a celebrity. He developed a growth serum derived from Janet's biology that allowed him to become Giant-Man. The team was complete with the billionaire industrialist playboy, Tony Stark,[5] and the star-spangled soldier from World War II Captain America, who was revived in the 21st after decades of dormancy.[9] Janet helped Captain America accommodate himself in a world that was brand-new for him.[10]
The Ultimates made their unplanned debut to the public when Banner transformed himself into the savage and lunatic Hulk. On field, Janet adopted the codename Wasp. A coward, Hank Pym performed poorly against the Hulk. The other Ultimates were far more efficient: Tony Stark, in his Iron Man armor, protected innocents from the Hulk, Wasp distracted him showing him her breasts, which allowed Captain America to have a shot. The Asgardian god Thor joined the battle and Wasp had the final blow, by firing her wasp sting directly inside Banner's brain.[11]
With Hank Pym feeling humiliated due to the battle with the Hulk and jealousy of Janet's interactions with the other Ultimates, a heated argument between the couple ensued before a dinner night with the group. When the tension escalated and Janet was hit once again, she retaliated, and the battle between the two grew more vicious. When Janet resorted to using her mutant powers, shrinking to-wasp size, Pym sprayed her with insecticide, donned his Ant-Man helmet and commanded an army of ants to cruelly attack her.[6] Janet was left in a state of anaphylactic shock, caused by receiving multiple ant bites at wasp size. Hank Pym was on the run, with the media broadly covering his spousal abuse. Captain America tracked him[7] and beat him into a humiliated pulp for having assaulted his wife. However, when Captain America visited a recovering Janet Pym afterwards, the news made her even sadder. To Mrs. Pym, her hopes for saving her marriage had been destroyed.[4]
Janet was captured by Chitauri at wasp size and smuggled out of the Triskelion to their base in Arizona. She was rescued by Black Widow and with the rest of Ultimates, fought off the alien invasion.[12] Afterwards Captain America and the Wasp came together and started dating, despite attempts of a deeply rueful Hank Pym to make amends and the fact she had not formally divorced Pym as her husband before dating. A while later Jan started to get bored and frustrated with the relationship, due to the generation perception gap between them and all of Cap's friends being elderly, and secretly began seeing Hank again (though the relationship has been platonic so far). She recently walked out on Steve and met up with Hank in a bar.[13]
The invasion of America by the Liberators failed to take Janet in to account. They discounted the possibility that someone whose only ability is to make herself "smaller and weaker" could be a threat. By the time they found her, Janet had made her way to the cells in the Triskelion where Captain America was being held under suspicion of murdering Hawkeye's entire family. Soldiers working for the Liberators entered his cell and found two metahuman signatures. Although Janet was easily subdued, they failed to realize that she had already liberated her boyfriend.
In the fight back against the Liberators, Hank had given Janet the Giant Man serum just in case of emergency. Growing bigger, Wasp is able to stomp Swarm just once.[14] When the Ultimates decided to become independent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Janet became the team leader due to her experience on the team where she reinstated her husband's membership on the team for helping defeat Ultron despite the disagreements of many of her fellow teammates.
Ultimatum[]
During the flood in New York City in the beginning of the Ultimatum event, Wasp was separated from her team and was found by Hank Pym and Hawkeye dead and eaten by Blob.[2] Pym avenged her death by biting off Blob's head. Before Pym's death, he requested his team members take Janet's body to his lab and activate "the Jocasta project".[15]
Resurrection[]
Wasp and her fellow Ultimates were resurrected by the Maker when he rewrote the Multiverse in order to merge all realities into one to help Eternity fight the First Firmament.[3] When the Ultimates from the Prime Earth arrived on Counter-Earth and confronted the Maker for his actions, which were actually giving the First Firmament the upper hand against Eternity, Wasp and her teammates were ordered by him to attack the other Ultimates, and kill them if possible. Wasp didn't take part in the brawl. Instead, she talked with Giant-Man about what he remembered before their deaths. Eventually, the members of both teams realized they shouldn't be fighting each other, and worked together to help Eternity gain the strength to finally defeat the First Firmament. After that, Wasp and the other Ultimates decided to travel the Multiverse to hunt down the Maker.[16]Attributes
Powers
Janet Van Dyne is a mutant whose mutation granted her a number of insect-like traits. As a side-effect of this mutation, Janet had some insect-like behavior, such as the propensity to lay eggs and eat insects. Some of her abilities include:
- Size Reduction: Janet's primary mutant power was the ability to reduce her bodily size through force of will. Janet appeared to have some control over her exact proportions, as she was able to fit inside the Hulk's nose and also be longer than the hand of an average man. She retained her normal strength while reduced in size. In addition, Janet was limited by her body's natural neurological reflex that prevented her from shrinking to below an inch
- Wings: When reduced in size, a pair of insect-like wings grew from Janet's back. These wings allowed her to fly at an unknown maximum speed.
- Bio-Electrical Blasts: Janet was also capable of producing blasts of bio-electrical energy that she called her "Wasp Stings". These stings varied in potency, depending on her size. While her size was reduced, Janet could utilize painful shocks that harmed even superhumanly durable beings. While at full size, however, her blasts would kill a human in the same way that a lightning bolt would.
- Size Addition (Formerly): Prior to his death, her husband Hank Pym gave Janet a sample of his Giant Man serum that he developed from her own mutant powers. Janet used this serum in a time of need, and grew sixty feet in height while gaining strength and durability. She then used this power to kill the Red Wasp by crushing her under her foot.
Abilities
Weaknesses
Notes
- Her husband claimed that Janet ate bugs and nested in a larval cocoon when she was afraid during times of mutant hysteria and that she also laid eggs every six weeks and had poor personal hygiene.[6]
- Janet wrote one of her doctorates on the work of Otto Octavius.[17]
- Janet admitted to suffering with the eating disorder bulimia for years.[18]
See Also
- 67 appearance(s) of Janet Van Dyne (Earth-1610)
- 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Janet Van Dyne (Earth-1610)
- 7 minor appearance(s) of Janet Van Dyne (Earth-1610)
- 2 mention(s) of Janet Van Dyne (Earth-1610)
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Janet Van Dyne (Earth-1610)
- 51 image(s) of Janet Van Dyne (Earth-1610)
- 5 quotation(s) by or about Janet Van Dyne (Earth-1610)
Links and References
References
- ↑ Ultimates #10
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ultimatum #2
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ultimates 2 (Vol. 2) #9
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ultimates #9
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ultimates #2
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Ultimates #6
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Ultimates #7
- ↑ Ultimate Spider-Man #31
- ↑ Ultimates #3
- ↑ Ultimates #4
- ↑ Ultimates #5
- ↑ Ultimates #12
- ↑ Ultimates 2 #8
- ↑ Ultimates 2 #12
- ↑ Ultimatum #3
- ↑ Ultimates 2 #100
- ↑ Ultimate Six #2
- ↑ Ultimates (Vol. 3) #2
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Ultimate Marvel Universe: The Ultimates & X-Men 2005 Vol 1 1