Why So Many Wasp-esque Characters?

[a0040pc]

I've just been thinking and I'm wondering why there are so many characters right now who basically have Wasp powers. I'll run through the list for you...

1. Janet Van Dyne (the original)

2. Nadia Pym/Van Dyne (All New Wasp)

3. Hope Van Dyne (MCU Wasp)

4. Cassie Lang (Stinger)

There, we have four characters who are basically the same as one another and I'm just wondering... why? I know that Hope isn't in the regular Marvel Universe but she's being used on TV and in films. I was hoping for more variety like maybe one of them primarily growing in size rather than just shrinking and growing wasp wings. Maybe Cassie can go back to being Stature or Nadia becoming Giant-Girl would be an idea there. At least then there would be more variety.

What do you think?

[tliscord]

Love Janet. But except for Remender's Uncanny run, she's done very little. I'm still trying to forget Kate and Havok story line. I follow Uncanny now and thought Duggan was integrating her more ... like the Ultron Hank arc.

Really'd love seeing her lead the group much like she did when Stern was writing the Avengers.

[Rogue Star]

I've asked this before. My guess is that Nadia is somehow better suited to appeal to Marvel's current target demographic. They could have used Cassie, and I wish they would have, but I don't think she's diverse enough in Marvel's eyes. Besides, it's clear to me that Kamala is the new "Stature". Only the MCU can save my girl Cassie now. Her Stinger identity won't do it, in my opinion.

Janet is too... old guard, I guess.

Hope Pym may never enter the 616. And no, Nadia is not Hope Pym. She's not.

[WebLurker]

I've just been thinking and I'm wondering why there are so many characters right now who basically have Wasp powers. I'll run through the list for you...

1. Janet Van Dyne (the original)

2. Nadia Pym/Van Dyne (All New Wasp)

3. Hope Van Dyne (MCU Wasp)

4. Cassie Lang (Stinger)

There, we have four characters who are basically the same as one another and I'm just wondering... why? I know that Hope isn't in the regular Marvel Universe but she's being used on TV and in films. I was hoping for more variety like maybe one of them primarily growing in size rather than just shrinking and growing wasp wings. Maybe Cassie can go back to being Stature or Nadia becoming Giant-Girl would be an idea there. At least then there would be more variety.

What do you think?

My guess is that the comics want to cash in on any success that the Antman movie had in popularizing the Wasp (and I'm not saying that in a bad way), so they now have a few options. Since Hope van Dyne was only used the future-set MC2 comics as a villain, not a modern-day heroic character like the movies, they couldn't just take the character and put her in the limelight (in fact, my understanding is that Nadia Pym is basically MCU Hope van Dyne with the backstory and name modified to fit comic continuity).

[Rogue Star]

My guess is that the comics want to cash in on any success that the Antman movie had in popularizing the Wasp (and I'm not saying that in a bad way), so they now have a few options. Since Hope van Dyne was only used the future-set MC2 comics as a villain, not a modern-day heroic character like the movies, they couldn't just take the character and put her in the limelight (in fact, my understanding is that Nadia Pym is basically MCU Hope van Dyne with the backstory and name modified to fit comic continuity).

The MCU Hope is old enough to be involved with Scott Lang so synergy can't be a factor.

[Kurolegacy]

All these Wasp characters and yet nobody seems to want to revive Rita DeMara.

[Zero Hunter]

All these Wasp characters and yet nobody seems to want to revive Rita DeMara.

Of coarse not then they have to deal with that whole "Tony Stark murdered her in cold blood and never had to answer for it" thing. They don't want to have to admit that ever happened. Its a shame really because it could make for a very good storyline and Rita is an awesome character.

[Kurolegacy]

Well they did reference to that back in Chaos War, though only for a quick panel. Sucks that Hercules completely reversed the events of the story since she was one of the Avengers who survived their Chaos War mini.

[Frontier]

Well, a lot of these stem from the movies not being able to use Janet because of how Edgar Wright handled things.

[gurkle]

I would say it's a combination of the MCU using a character who doesn't exactly exist in the mainstream Marvel universe, and Marvel's recent success with young girl characters/audiences, and trying to find other characters who can crack that market the way Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl did.

Jan is an "old" character who doesn't benefit from movie synergy. Hope doesn't really have a 616 equivalent. So they created a new daughter for Hank Pym who could have a bit of movie synergy while being more of a young girl heroine than Jan or Hope could be.

[Sutekh]

Well, a lot of these stem from the movies not being able to use Janet because of how Edgar Wright handled things.

Yeah, I remember being annoyed that Whedon couldn't use Janet in the first Avengers movie, but held out hope that she'd get a cool showing in Ant-Man, only to read from Peyton Reed that he'd had to add stuff about Janet, since the original script (for which she'd been denied an Avengers role) didn't even have her in it! Ugh.

I'd rather have Cassie taken on the role that Nadia is currently taking on (and for Hank's ex-wife, 'murdered by Soviet spies' turn out to have been a Red Room infiltrator sent to steal American scientific secrets, who faked her own death and brought a wealth of Pym's early research back to her bosses, and was now the 'Swarm Queen' of the Red Room, making her a new *older* villain, sice I'd also like some new non-teenagers...), but it is what it is.

[Digifiend]

Well, a lot of these stem from the movies not being able to use Janet because of how Edgar Wright handled things.

Yeah, if the movies had used Janet in the first place, both Hope and Nadia wouldn't exist.

There is one advantage to the duplicates. Every Avengers team can have a Wasp. Uncanny has Janet and the adjectiveless team currently has Nadia. If U.S.Avengers gets replaced by another New Avengers series, and they include Wiccan and Hulkling again like last time, it'd be ideal for Stinger, since Cassie was with those two on the Young Avengers.

[a0040pc]

We would still have Hope since she was part of the MC2 Universe. However she would remain a very minor character

[Digifiend]

I meant the versions we have now. If it was Janet and not Hope in the movies, the same would be true of the cartoons.

[Rogue Star]

I would say it's a combination of the MCU using a character who doesn't exactly exist in the mainstream Marvel universe, and Marvel's recent success with young girl characters/audiences, and trying to find other characters who can crack that market the way Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl did.

Jan is an "old" character who doesn't benefit from movie synergy. Hope doesn't really have a 616 equivalent. So they created a new daughter for Hank Pym who could have a bit of movie synergy while being more of a young girl heroine than Jan or Hope could be.

They could have created one just as easily as they created Nadia. There's no excuse.

Nadia is merely a blank slate that they take advantage of.