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The Wasp is a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics' universe, and is a central member of The Avengers. She was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Tales to Astonish #44 (June 1963) and perhaps most well known for changing her costume in every issue she appears in.
Character biography
Janet van Dyne was a shallow, self-centered, flighty heiress, daughter of wealthy scientist Vernon van Dyne. During an experiment, however, an alien monster was unleashed and Dr. van Dyne was killed. Her father's associate, Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym, had created a substance called "Pym particles", which allowed the user to grow or shrink in size, and had become the superhero Ant-Man; when Janet's father died, she convinced Pym to help her, and he gave her a supply of "Pym particles" and subjected her to a procedure which granted her the ability to, upon shrinking, grow wings and fire blasts of energy, which she called her "wasp's stings". As Ant-Man and The Wasp, they defeated the monster and sent it to its own dimension, and had several more adventures together.
Avenger
Soon afterwards, the superhero team, which Janet herself dubbed the Avengers, formed, and the pair were among its founding members. Still shallow, Janet frequently commented or had thoughts on many males' physical appearance. Although they took occasional leaves of absence, the two have almost always remained members; during the course, Janet grew as a person and several years later would be elected leader of the team.The relationship between Janet and Pym had always been one of loving squabbling, but her wealth and his research had always stopped him from proposing. One day a cocky new costumed crimefighter called Yellowjacket broke into Avengers HQ. He claimed to have disposed of Pym and even kidnapped Janet. To the outrage of her colleagues, Janet then married Yellowjacket. A tension-filled wedding was made even more edgy by an attack by the Circus of Crime. During the fight it was discovered that Yellowjacket WAS Pym. He had had an accident with some chemicals causing a severe case of schizophrenia. Janet had realised this from very early on and had taken advantage to finally tie the knot.
However, her relationship with Pym became rocky, as he suffered a further series of mental problems. A few years later, Pym had a complete breakdown, and became completely paranoid. During the course of this breakdown, he became overbearing and verbally abusive. At the nadir of his degeneration, he struck Janet, and then proceeded to concoct a plan to make himself look good in front of his teammates by staging an attack upon them which only he could stop. This plan backfired and Pym was exposed, disgraced, and expelled from the Avengers, and the couple divorced. She remained with the team despite these hardships, and after Pym's mental state returned to normal, the two became friends again and, some years later, resumed a romantic relationship. She had a brief fling with fellow teammember Hawkeye but returned to Hank.
Avengers Disassembled and Civil War
Recently, during the events of Avengers Disassembled, she was knocked into a coma by an attack on Avengers Mansion. Hank watched over her as she lay in the hospital, and when she recovered, they reconciled. The two retired from the Avengers in order to pursue a new life together in Oxford.With the onset of Civil War, Hank has helped spearhead the pro-registration movement. Janet is also pro-registration and has become the host of a pro-registration reality show called America's Newest Superhero.
Wasp reappears with Pym in Beyond! as well. He is at this point still her ex-husband.
Ultimate Wasp
In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Janet Pym has a double PhD in molecular biology and is Asian. She is moderately fluent in German. Her status as a mutant is hidden from the public, and is known by Pym and S.H.I.E.L.D. She can generate a wasp-like sting which she discharges through her hands. Additionally, only her wasp uniform changes size with her if she shrinks, so if she is ever required to change size in civilian clothing she becomes naked. She also sometimes eats bugs, forms larval nests and lays egg-like constructs, side-effects of her insectoid genetics.
In her college years she shared a room with Betty Ross and started seeing Henry Pym. He was abusive to her early in their relationship and during college 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. Betty Ross also claimed that several times Janet appeared to be missing chunks of hair.
Hank attempted to change, going on a medication, and Jan believed that joining the Ultimates could be a new start for them. But later the tensions of losing and humiliating himself in a battle with the Hulk, and his jealousy of Jan's friendship with Captain America, led to a heated argument between the couple, resulting in Henry hitting her. Jan retaliated, and the battle between the two grew more vicious. When Janet resorted to using her mutant powers Henry retaliated by donning his Ant-Man helmet and commanding an army of ants to attack her. After the fight Janet was in a state of anaphylactic shock, caused by receiving multiple ant stings at wasp size. Captain America beat her husband into a humiliated pulp for assaulting his wife, despite the fact that Henry grew to giant size in the practically one-sided fight. However, when Captain America visited Janet Pym afterwards, the news made her even sadder. To Mrs. Pym, her hopes for saving her marriage had been destroyed.
Afterwards Captain America and the Wasp came together and started dating, despite attempts of a deeply rueful Hank Pym to make amends. A while later Jan started to get bored with the relationship, due to the generation 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.
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 realise that she had already liberated her boyfriend. She also began to used her wasp stings wend full size which is much more powerful than in wasp size, fring the liberators super-solders with one shot.
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"Wasp (comics)"