#maria trovaya pym

[batcavescolony]

Janet Van Dyne: I'm not the mom friend, I have no mothering instinct. I don't have-

Nadia: *exists*

Janet: ok I'll make an exception because she looks very polite.

[arojenniferwalters]

Canon Aro(Quoiromantic)Ace 80/?: Nadia Van Dyne in Avengers Inc. #5 (2024)

[og-ant-man]

hi , i was wondering if you know a Maria Trovaya , just out of curiosity

I can't say that I do.

That names sounds a bit familiar but it's more like a feeling. Like a name I might have heard in passing in the hall. Are they an agent of SHIELD or another scientist?

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: West Coast Avengers #42: ONE OF OUR ANDROIDS IS MISSING!

March, 1989

It begins here... VISIONQUEST ONE OF OUR ANDROIDS IS MISSING!

Oh, comics. You and your movie references.

Scarlet Witch: "Where is my husband? Where is the VISION?!" Wonder Man: "He -- he's gone, Wanda -- vanished as if he never existed!"

God damn it, Byrne. You know I love dialogue on comic covers.

But we're kinda jumping into things here. I don't even really feel like we need to do a last times recap because the start of Byrne's run feels like its taken a time skip forward.

Tigra has rejoined the West Coast Avengers. Hank Pym has rejoined the West Coast Avengers. WASP HAS JOINED, as more than a guest star!

Despite the cover declaring OH NO VISION IS MISSING, the beginning is a slow burn, establishing the normal functioning of the West Coast Avengers.

Implying that this new status quo has lasted long enough to be comfortable.

The Byrne run is contentious, in part due to the very story arc starting here.

BUT I WILL BE FAIR!

So lets get into it.

Scarlet Wanda wakes up from an uneasy sleep to find that despite the early hour, her robo-husband Vision is not in bed with her.

He doesn't need to sleep but still spends his nights at her side (awww) but this morning one of her husbands is missing.

Wanda checks around the guest house that she and Vision have made their home in the West Coast Avengers Compound but no trace.

Also, while she's getting dressed the narration notes that she must practice ABSOLUTE CARE not to accidentally gesture indiscriminately and cause WACKY MAGIC SHIT to happen.

I didn't think she was still experiencing that kind of magical incontinence after her training with Agatha Harkness.

But that's one of the things I've heard about Byrne's run. He prefers a certain, classic portrayal of characters like Wanda and Vision and apparently not burning down houses by pointing the wrong way is a bridge too far.

As Wanda wanders across the compound grounds, she spots Hawkeye up early and training with some absolutely ridiculous equipment.

It's some industrial looking robot arm that flails him around so he can practice his aim even while being flailed around.

I don't know how often that comes up but an ounce of preparation.

Wanda accidentally steps on the one twig on the otherwise immaculately groomed grounds and startles Hawkeye into shooting an arrow right at her.

Wanda just probabilities the arrow to lose all its forward momentum and fall to the ground.

Hawkeye shuts down the flailing and asks why Wanda is up so early. She asks the same thing of him.

Hawkeye: "Er... yeah... Well, since me an' Bobbi have been on the outs there ain't been too many reasons for lying around all day."

Oof.

You can just imagine Clint laying in bed, unable to sleep. Just staring at the ceiling and feeling the emptiness next to him. And then going 'fuck it, I'm going to go shoot things with arrows until I can't feel feelings anymore.'

Having had to admit how empty his own life is, Hawkeye repeats the question to Wanda. She explains the thing where he took off? Maybe? Without letting her know or leaving a sign. Its all kinds of weird and foreboding.

Hawkeye goes well this is why we have "eleventy skillion dollars" worth of the best communications technology.

You seriously didn't try calling him first, Wanda? C'mon.

Hawkeye calls for Vision over the intercom but only gets Hank Pym, who is also working early, running a systems check on the computer system.

See, because, he had a "biostatic analysis running overnight" and the results were off.

Also, what the hell are you doing here, Hank Pym?

You quit to fix your first wife's enormous head.

Well, that's not a happy story. Because when is it ever for Hank Pym?

Big brain lady who claimed to be Maria Trovaya was actually MODAM, the lady version of MODOK. Because MODOK is clearly a gendered name. Her not giant brain name was apparently Olinka Barankova.

She took Hank captive and replaced him with an android imposter that Hawkeye unmasked. Hawkeye and Black Widow (and Mockingbird independently) help Hank Pym thwart AIM's schemes until AIM hit the self-destruct and ran away.

MODAM went on to other things but eventually got killed by Red Skull and put on display like a big-headed trophy. While, apparently, Hank went on to just sheepishly rejoin the team.

Anyway, this went down in the Solo Avengers issue that has the same cover date as this West Coast Avengers issue so I'm surprised there's not a "wondering what Hank Pym is doing here? Check out this month's Solo Avengers for the full story!"

Anyway. Back to the point. The communications system blows out with a squawk. As if the transponder on Hawkeye's side was blasted! Or maybe there's a duck in the wiring! So Hank runs outside to confirm that there is indeed shit going down.

Shit of the most Ultron-y type possible. The Ultron kind.

Really thought he'd be gone longer after Wonder Man ripped him in half.

I know Ultron always comes back but geez.

Meanwhile, inside Tigra's bunglow, she's asleep. Not everybody is awake at ungodly hours! Take a page from her book, the Avengers!

But only the sleeping in part. Not the weird fucking dream she has.

Tigra dreams of being a tiger with a perm, hunting blue alien space deer.

But when she pounces and tears out its throat, she wakes up only to a mouthful of feathers. Having lived the punchline "and when I woke up, my pillow was gone!"

Except, I can't figure out what Tigra is sitting on. Doesn't seem like a normal bed. Maybe its a large, feather pillow and she uses it like a cat bed? Maybe its a small feather mattress and she uses it like a cat bed? Maybe don't sleep on a cat bed and you won't have cat dreams, ya dork.

I canNOT believe that I had live through the drawn-out "oh no, Tigra's cat instincts are getting the better of her!!" plotline and now we're just doing it again.

We're doing Ultron again, we're doing Tigra having cat problems again. Some fresh start.

I do hope her cat problems don't manifest as uncontrollable hypersexuality again.

Tigra is considering that maybe she should tell her teammates that she's having vivid dreams about murdering animals but a loud BOOM draws her attention and she rushes outside.

Also rushing outside is the Wasp! Hi, Jan! You definitely left so I'm wondering if we'll get an explanation for why you decided to come back and join the team.

Also also, Tigra notices that Wasp is flying out of Hank Pym's bungalow, instead of the main house where Jan's room is.

She notices it and thinks hmmmm.

A lot of writers try to put Jan and Hank back together. And a lot of writers try to more definitively break them up.

Englehart was one of the latter. He had Jan yell "divorce means divorce" at Hank when he tried to hug her. He brought back Hank's first wife and basically annulled Hank's marriage to Jan.

But, remember, Maria turned out to be a big, evil science brain so the divorced marriage is unanulled and it seems like Byrne mgiht be one of the former type of writers who want to undo undoing the marriage.

Busiek was one too. One of the creative decisions I wasn't really onboard with for his run but he tried his damndest to sell the idea, including having Hank reconcile (again) all the disparate parts of himself.

Then the following writer Geoff Johns had Wasp shoot down the idea that she'd ever marry Hank again.

It comes and goes in waves.

Less so now that Hank is turbo-dead.

Anyway.

Tigra and Wasp rush toward the training area, where they heard a big boom. And Wonder Man is rushing to check it out too.

Wasp: "Simon! You can fly faster than me! Get up ahead and reconnoiter!" Wonder Man: "Just what I was going to do, Wasp!"

You don't need to get snippy, Simon.

He grouses to himself that Wasp got too used to being in charge and that she's still barking orders like she's Captain America.

I guess there's always gotta be some kind of tension in the team. And Wonder Man always gotta be fighting someone. And he's stopped being the Hawkeye to Hawkeye.

Wonder Man flies up and sees Ultron. And like me, is surprised because he didn't think he'd see him again so soon.

Ultron blasts Wonder Man with "some kind of magnetic field blast." Not usually a weapon Ultron has so maybe he upgraded.

Wonder Man just gets off the tree that he broke with his butt and launches back at Ultron.

Simon William's nearly indestructible fists strike the robot's sterling hide like the clappers of a great bell... The sound that reverberates across the California hills has the ominous tones of a death knell!

Hawkeye cheers on Wonder Man but Dr Pym warns him that Ultron could turn the tables.

COMPLETELY UNPROMPTED, Scarlet Witch has an intense expository flashback about Vision's ENTIRE BACKSTORY.

Important for setting up future stuff but fucks sake, Wanda, get your head in the game.

You should know the drill.

Dr Phineas Horton created the Human Torch, no not Johnny. A lifelike robot that accidentally burst into flames whenever exposed to oxygen.

Jim Hammond Human Torch became a hero, the first Marvel hero. The company wasn't called Marvel but he was in Marvel Comics #1 so there.

Since Stan Lee rebooted Human Torch as a teenage human for Fantastic Four, there needed to be some explanation for why the robot guy wasn't around anymore.

And the answer is that his flame burned out of control and he exploded and collapsed in the desert.

Where he was found and rebuilt by the Mad Thinker who used him to fight the human Human Torch. Until robot Human Torch learned that the Mad Thinker was Evil, Actually, and turned against him.

And the Mad Thinker's failsafe made robot Human Torch explode again.

The Fantastic Four just left him in the Mad Thinker's abandoned base because Reed is an asshole and doesn't believe robots deserve due to the dead.

Where Ultron found him.

Anyway. Back in the here and now, Wanda remembers that she's actually in a life or death fight and that everyone else has been participating while she's been gazing off into the middle distance.

Again: fucks sake, Wanda. You're one of the win buttons against Ultron! Get your head in the game!

But Hank notices that Wonder Man's punches have been denting Ultron. Which should be impossible if Ultron is made of adamantium, as he usually is.

Figuring never asking forgiveness is easier than asking permission, Hank shrinks Wonder Man tiny size and insists he flies down Ultron's throat.

Wonder Man says, uh, no, I don't want to unshrink inside an indestructible chassis, that sounds like a horrible way to spend my time.

But Hank insists so Wonder Man does it but complains the whole time.

The Journey To The Center of Ultron is weird. The usual atomic flame that burns in Ultron's mouth (yes, that's apparently what his mouth glow is) is just an illusion.

Also, when the shrink wears off Wonder Man OH YEAHS right through Ultron instead of that not happening.

Hank explains that when he noticed that Wonder Man was actually denting Ultron, he realized it couldn't be the real deal.

But the (West Coast) Avengers were kept so busy fighting Ultron that they didn't notice the discrepancies.

Until Hank did. And instead of explaining it, he decided to demonstrate it in the most dramatic and visually interesting fashion possible.

Hank, you weirdo.

Scarlet Witch wonders why someone would send a fake Ultron and Hank realizes it was probably a distraction.

Taking charge, he yells "AVENGERS DISASSEMBLE!" which is a big oof with cursed future knowledge. But what he means is everyone split up and search for clues.

If someone was distracting the (West Coast) Avengers from something, its likely to be something around the compound.

Instead of actually helping search, Scarlet Wanda wanders off to the cliffs to moodily stare off at the ocean and CONTINUE TO FLASHBACK.

FUCKS SAKE, WANDA!

Anyway.

Blah blah blah, Ultron found robot Human Torch's body.

He wanted to rebuild it into a cool minion but Ultron apparently sucks at robots. Ironic, since Hank Pym shoulda sucked at robots and somehow built the worst one and Ultron has Hank's brain.

Anyway, Ultron kidnapped the robot Human Torch's creator Dr. Horton and forced him to rebuild the Human Torch into Vision. Making his skin red as a private joke about the flame powers he once had.

Didn't think Ultron's sense of humor ran that subtle, honestly.

After the rebuilding was done, Ultron had to erase the Human Torch's personality because he kept trying to fight Ultron. So Ultron used some Simon Williams brain tapes that he swiped from Hank Pym's lab. And with that as a base, Vision lived!

Ultron sent him to attack the Avengers where he pretty promptly defected and switched sides. And the Avengers accepted him because the Avengers are cool like that sometimes.

And it was on the Avengers that Scarlet Witch met Vision and they fell in love and got married and then Vision dry humped two babies into her, magically.

THAT SURE WAS VISION'S ENTIRE BACKSTORY, WANDA. VERY HELPFUL.

Meanwhile, the other Avengers were actually searching.

Hank Pym contacts her on some kind of video phone that stalks her to the cliffs and tells her that they found something but they really need to discuss it face to face.

And when Wanda joins everyone who was actually doing work, Hank Pym explains that Vision is "gone."

Because A) he's nowhere in the compound. They still don't know where he physically is except 'not around.'

But things have gotten a bit weirder and more sinister.

B) Hank finished that computer scan he was doing and found a sophisticated computer virus. One that found and erased every trace of Vision from the Avengers' files. All the information they had on him, every report he's ever entered, everything.

And the virus infected the East Coast Avengers' computers as well. And SHIELD (not actually around currently, so slight continuity hiccup) and the Pentagon and the Fantastic Four.

Every system the virus infected has lost all trace of Vision.

Its like he never existed. Except for all the memories everybody has of him. And also any physical record like print-outs or photographs. But digitally its like he never existed!

Hank Pym: "For this to have happened means somebody got in through our defensive network. Somebody got past all our alarms, all our codes... Everything!" Wasp: "And to do that... They'd have to be one of us!!" Hawkeye: "One of the Avengers has turned traitor! But... WHO??" Mockingbird: "Is that really so hard to guess, Hawk?"

MOCKINGBIRD

WHAT

DID

YOU

DO?

Follow @essential-avengers and be very angry with me about things that are about to happen. Like, reblog, and comment maybe. I don't know about mockingbirds but my cat definitely tried to stop me from finishing this post.

[docgold13]

365 Marvel Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…

December 16th - Ant Man / Hank Pym

Doctor Henry ‘Hank’ Pym was an American entomologist, biochemist, roboticist, engineer, physicist and superhero adventurer.  Early in his career as an experimental physicist, he discovered a rare subatomic matter he named ‘Pym Particles.’ These particles can be used to increase or decrease the size and mass of objects or living beings without negatively affecting the physical integrity of the mass.  Pym was able synthesize the particles thus enabling him to decrease his size to mere millimeters or grown into a towering giant.  Inexplicably, this size-alteration does not affect the integrity of mass; hence Pym maintained his regular-sized strength when shrunken down nor was his lungs or skeletal structure overtaxed while in giant form.  

Pym married Maria Trovaya, the daughter of an acclaimed Hungarian entomologist.  Maria was abducted by agents of an unspecified foreign government on the couple’s honeymoon, believing that Pym worked U.S. State department and he would offer up state secrets in exchange for her release.  Maria attempted to escape and was tragically killed.  

Pym returned home and, as a means to try to cope with his bereavement, threw himself into his work.  He ended up devising a special helmet that enabled him to communicate and control insects of the formicidae family (any breed of ant).  Pym would go on build a specialized suit and used his Pym Particles to become the super hero known as Ant-Man.  Battling crime beside his future second wife, Janet Van Dyne, who had taken on the mantle of the Wasp, the pair would have numerous adventures together.  Later the two became founding members of the Avengers, ‘Earth's Mightiest Heroes.’  Pym remained a member of the Avengers for many years.

Throughout much of his life, Pym had coped with undiagnosed bipolar disorder.  He experienced crippling episodes of depression and self-hatred followed by times of manic energy directed toward scientific discovery and invention.  Pym’s times of self reproach often resulted in efforts to reinvent his super hero guise and he cycled through numerous alternate hero identities (including Giant Man, Goliath and Yellowjacket).  Whereas his times of manic ingenuity often resulted in poor judgement and impulsive decisions where his scientific genius created dangerous machines and inventions.  

One such invention was the deadly android, Ultron, who would go on to become a terrible threat and reoccurring foe to The Avengers.

Pym’s difficulties worsened after the creation of Ultron and he became more unstable and even violent.  He lashed out at his wife, Janet, striking her in the face and built a robotic weapon he planned on unleashing on the Avengers so he could defeat it and show his worth.  It all went very poorly and it led to Pym being kicked out of the Avengers.  Soon thereafter, Jan filed for divorce.

Pym finally entered into treatment and made vast improvements.  He went on to become a member of the West Coast Iteration of The Avengers before finally returning to the main Avengers team.  Although he was not able to fully reconcile with his ex-wife, Janet, the two did manage to rekindle their friendship.  

Some time thereafter, Pym was abducted by a Super Skrull agent who replaced him in the build up to the Skrull’s Secret Invasion.  This Skrull version of Pym entered into a romance with fellow Avenger, Tigra, and their affair resulted in Tygra becoming pregnant.  

The real Pym finally returned and went on to establish the Avengers Academy.  He met Tigra’s son and determined that Skrull who had impersonated him did so on an entirely genetic level, leaving no trace of Skrull DNA and making the lad Pym’s biological son.  It made for a peculiar situation but Pym was willing to be as involved in his son’s life as Tigra wanted him to be.  

Some time thereafter, Pym perished in battle, sacrificing himself to put a stop to a deadly scheme orchestrated by Ultron.  Following his death, it was discovered that his first wife, Maria, was pregnant at the time of her abduction and bore a daughter named Nadia just prior to her death.  Nadia was raised in Russia but emigrated to the United States and has gone on to become the young heroine known as the second Wasp.

Actor Michael Douglas portrays a version of Hank Pym in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  The troubled hero first appeared in the pages of Strange Tales #75 (1960).  

[greerbaiting]

I asked someone else about this, but I have a really dark headcanon: in the present day, Hank's memories of Maria Trovaya are hazy, and he's more or less gotten over her death aside from the desire to find those responsible. If someone (say, Nadia) asks him about it, it would turn out that he had already forgotten many details about their time together, or if he remembered details, actually confused them with details about Jan (like her favorite color or what she wore on a certain date).

It's based on the fact that ever since the 70s, Hank seems to have moved on Maria, to the point that he barely talks or thinks about her, and even on his mission to rescue Maria from Soviets during the West Coast phase, seems to feel more obligation than affection toward her. Then when this rescued "Maria" was revealed as an imposter, it doesn't seem to affect him very much in the long run. in House of M, the reality that granted everyone's greatest wishes, Hank kept Maria dead, as opposed to the Avengers or X-men bringing back fallen comrades like Hawkeye and Magik.

(I also think what really puts the nail in the coffin for Hank and Maria was Jan's fakeout death during Secret Invasion. Finally, she was the one he grieved for and obsessed over at the cost of all his other relationships. She was the ideal that he would measure others against.)

The fallout, especially if Nadia is the one asking, would be very painful...

Sorry if all my Hank Pym headcanons swing between being extremely silly and extremely dark.

Interesting! I tend to write Maria as someone that Hank will never truly be "over" even as he moves on with his life. She was his first love and he lost her so soon after they got married. If anything I write the reverse where he's more likely to remember something about Maria but mix it up with Jan, since she's so imprinted on him.

[aimmyarrowshigh]

also! can you tell us a bit about nadia van dyne? i see you write drabbles for her and post about her sometimes but i know NOTHING about her! like? a wasp that was in the red room? fascinating, tell me more

MY BLORBO, NADIA VAN DYNE!

How do I even begin to explain Nadia Van Dyne? Nadia Van Dyne is flawed, but flawless. She has one of the highest IQs in the Marvel Universe and started the Agents of G.I.R.L. to champion women scientists and heroes. I hear her genetic ability to shrink is insured for $10,000. I hear she's taking driving lessons... with Carol Danvers. Her favorite musical artist is Dazzler. One time, she met Doctor Doom on a plane, and they became best friends and he sort of became a good guy for a while. One time, she punched Monica Rappaccini in the face... and it was awesome.

::record scratch::

Okay, now that that's out of my system, seriously for real though, Nadia is the best. Every part of her character creation is that she was made to be my best blorbo girl. I love her.

Quick biography:

Way way way back in the day, Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym fell in love with a Hungarian entomologist (and political prisoner) named Dr. Maria Trovaya, who escaped to the US. She is who got him interested in ants. They got married. They went on their honeymoon to Hungary, where the Red Room kidnapped Maria and faked her murder so that Hank/the Americans wouldn't try to get her back. Hank had a nervous breakdown and got REALLY into ants, became Ant-Man, etc.

MEANWHILE: Maria is alive and being held captive by the Red Room when it's discovered that SHE'S PREGNANT WITH HANK'S BABY. She gives birth in the Red Room and is immediately killed, because now the Red Room doesn't need her -- they have her baby, who they can train from literal birth AND who is the product of TWO geniuses instead of just being ONE genius. Maria survives just long enough to name her Nadia, which means "hope" (because Hope Van Dyne in the MCU actually came first, and Nadia is an homage to her).

(Double meanwhile: Hank meets Janet Van Dyne, whom he thinks looks like 'a less beautiful Maria,' and he is a piece of shit. He marries Janet, is physically and emotionally abusive, Janet gets out, Hank turns into Ultron, it's a whole thing.)

Back in the Red Room, Nadia's FIRST MEMORY IN THIS WORLD is of A KIND MAN WITH A SILVER ARM TELLING HER SHE'S SMART. ::cries for 70 years::

Nadia is raised and trained to be a Red Room agent, but she's put in the science division that I'm forgetting the name of, so she does not have to pass as many physical tests as other Red Room girls (for example, she only has to be able to kill someone in like 14 ways instead of 27). She has one friend in the science division, who is much more into the killing aspect of the Red Room than Nadia is and protects her: Ying. However, because of their closeness, Ying is taken away and reassigned to the normal assassin program. Nadia is alone.

Nadia is determined to escape the Red Room and bring Ying with her, so she eventually manages to acquire black market Pym Particles and experiments with them. She integrates their size-changing properties into her being because hand-wavey superhero science and escapes into the Quantum Realm and thereafter, to America.

She makes her way to Hank's last known address in New Jersey, but oh no, Hank is dead sort of, and also Ultron, sort of, whatever, he's gone. Nadia is crushed that he is dead (she doesn't know about the Ultron part). Nadia decides to become the Wasp and join the Avengers. She saves Vision's life and is like, "YAY I SAVED MY NEPHEW'S LIFE!" and she's not technically wrong. Jarvis immediately is like, "I am adopting this child. Let's go meet Janet."

Janet and Nadia meet by saving the President from a microbomb, idk, it's a whole thing. Anyway, they meet, and Janet immediately just totally falls in love with Nadia and takes her out for a day on the town to experience all of the things she'd never gotten to do before, while living in the Red Room, like ice cream and not being in the Red Room.

Then Civil War II happens and idk whatever.

Then Nadia decides that she is going to form the Agents of G.I.R.L. and that's where her first solo series starts, and you should read it because it's SO GOOD!!!!

Fun Nadia Facts:

Canon aroace!

Canon bipolar representation! Her manic episode is the best-written one that I've ever read.

Canon cute language mix-ups and Russian accent!

Canon thinks of Viv Vision, whom I also deeply love, as her great-niece, and she's again, not wrong!

Janet and Bobbi are co-raising her and Ying! And I ship Janet/Bobbi so much!

Nadia is a badass optimistic traumatized scientist ballerina angel superhero, and I love her.

[jeremywhitley]

Dear Mr. Whitley,

Sorry for not including this in a previous ask, but given that Nadia's biological mother is Hungarian, and Hungarian women have several ways of writing their married names depending on how "traditional" they are, what would Maria Trovaya Pym used as her married name? Pymné Henrik (Mrs. Henry Pym), Pymné Trovaya Maria (Mrs. Maria Trovaya Pym), or just retaining Trovaya Maria?

(Given the quirk of surname first Hungarian names, Nadia's name in Hungarian would be Pym Nadia or Van Dyne Nadia.)

That's a great question I am not culturally well versed enough to answer intelligently.

[izzysarchivedblogs]

where is my extended "ant/vision family" ?

cause it's a big tree.

like where's

hank pym

janet van dyne

maria trovaya

vision

ultron

jocasta

tommy shepherd

billy kaplan

viv vision

vin vision

virginia vision

jonas

victor mancha

william nelson (i got him lol)

and the non earth 616

earth 555326 henry jr

earth 982 henry jr

earth 982 hope

mcu hope

and then the not related in but still tangentially related because of relations?

greer nelson (okay i got her lol)

wanda maximoff (by vision & billy & tommy)

scott lang (by wearing the mantle)

raz malhotra (by wearing the mantle / also where is he? did marvel forget they made a new giant man who was indian? its unsurprising but still)

cassie lang (by scott)

and everyone who either hank or janet or vision has dated

MORE. LIKE THE VISION / ANT FAMILY IS BIG and that's not everything

and i know i'm missing alot that are technically related either through the Mantles or literal relation (or literal relation in weird ways / through creation too)

[brw]

for the salty comic asks, 7, 9 , 52?

7 - What “throwaway” character could they have done more with?

Maria Trovaya from Hank Pym Tragic Backstory #1 Fame. I maintain that making her a scientist doesn't really... add as much to her character as much as writer's want to believe. Like she's introduced as having once been a political prisoner in early 60s Hungary because of her father's work. That's literally so potentially interesting? anyway my Maria Trovaya is a radical who criticised the US as much as she criticised Hungary who while she enjoys entomology studies law to help those in need who grew up to a father who was part of the failed 50s revolution to overthrow the Stalin dictatorship & is subsequently radical, criticial & sharply intelligent. Not just "uhh was wife of scientist so plot twist, also scientist" like we have more options than STEM she doesn't need to be into STEM to be an equal & worthy of respect, or even university educated but that's where I figure she & Hank meet. Also she's an older woman bc in Tales to Astonish she's introduced with grey hair bc I say so.

9 - What’s the worst plotline you’ve read?

baby absorbing plotline from X Factor Investigations nothing made me so viscerally uncomfortable and horrified in a way that just felt for social media spread than it did for artistic integrity.

52 - What’s the most confusing plot point you’ve tried to understand to get to the good stuff?

Avengers Forever, the time travel shit there is so fucking complex & dense & I recently read most of what they referenced but I had no fucking clue what was going on. Jocasta was pregnant??? Janet was leading the team which was cool but so much of the actual plot hurt my brain. I'm pretty sure they went to assassinate JFK or something. I couldn't tell you what the fuck was going on.

salty comics asks

[pageliveblogscomics]

Henry Pym is a widower?? And his wife had grey hair, for some reason. She doesn't look old.

HAHA! That cannot be a real saying, right?

lol, it's from the bible.

Maybe they overheard you talking about how nobody would know she was Maria Trovaya, and figured it out.

[batcavescolony]

I would die for Nadia

Deborah is right she is too precious and too good for this world. Also I love her little facts.

[lastavenged]

Sideblog to @mastcrmarksman // follows, asks, and likes come from @mastcrmarksman

An rp sideblog for a superhero multimuse based in the 616 canon of Marvel Comics and mixed canon of DC comics.

RULES & HUB BLOG DOC (read)

MEMES (x) // ALL HCs (x)

at a glance: the characters I write + (high muse) // (medium muse) // (low muse)

Pepper Potts // Karen Page // Greer Nelson // Clea Strange // Nadia Van Dyne // Singularity // Linda Carter // Gamora // Mantis // The Hunter

Extended MUSELIST under the read more

Pepper Potts // set solely in 616 comics // mid 40s // human, non-powered but iron suit // fc: jamie clayton // trans woman, she/her // bisexual

formerly Pepper Potts is known as Tony Stark's executive and personal assistant, now she is presently the CEO of Resilent (a tech & city building company) as well as the owner of the nation's largest media outlet, as well as infrequently superhero known as Rescue

Karen Page // set both in 616 & an adapted Netflix only (selectively excludes films & d+ shows) "mcu" verse // mid 20s to late 30s // human, non-powered // fc: deborah ann woll // cis woman, she/her // bisexual

616 setting - flexible on timeline (throw arc for karen), but focus on Paige Angel arc, in which Karen is the midnight host of a call in radio show and does a lot of outreach work // NCU setting - varies on setting, working on adapting a "Paige Angel arc" for her, but she is a journalist and office manager of N&M

Greer Nelson // set in 616 // 30s to 40s // no longer human, mystic weretiger // fc: adria arjona // cis woman, she/her // bisexual

After returning college to finish her bachelors in biology, and became the lab assistant of Dr Joanne Tumolo. Whom she would aid her in the creation of a superhuman serum, Greer would don a costume and become the vigilante The Cat until she is poisoned with radiation by Hydra. Tumolo would save Greer's life, by revealing she (Tumolo) was a Cat Person and would transform Greer to the mystical warrioress Tigra (this would be permanent and only can appear as she once was a human by an amulet). PRESENTLY, she is a single mom, raising her five to seven year old son William, and doing vigilante work with the Midnight Mission

Clea Strange // set in 616 // none applicable // faltine, non-human, mystic energy // fc: natasha o'keeffe // cis woman, she/her // bisexual

Daughter of Umar the Unrelenting, niece of Dormammu, former disciple of Stephen Strange, as well as his (ex) wife. Former Sorcerer Supreme of Earth. Presently, she is resides on Earth and is currently the Sorcerer Supreme of the Dark Dimension and is the Warlord of Manhattan.

Nadia Van Dyne // set in 616 // 18 to 23 // human, tech genius and powered by pym particles // fc: n/a // cis woman, she/her // aromantic asexual

Daughter of Maria Trovaya and Hank Pym. She was raised in the Red Room's school for geniuses, Science Class. After fleeing from Russia and making it to America, she went in seearch of her father, Hank Pym, only to find he had died. With help from Matt Murdock and Janet Van Dyne, Nadia got citizenship and established herself in America, living in Hank's old home in Cresskill, New Jersey. Here she introduce herself to the Aveengers and would form Genius in action Research Labs (G.I.R.L.) speficially meant for young upcoming geniuses with an emphasize on girls in stem. She would take the last name of her adoptive step mother, Janet Van Dyne, and serve as teammate for both the Avengers and Champions.

Singularity // set in 616 // unknown // a sentient singularity, a universe hopping pocket dimension // nonbinary, she/they/any // non-applicable

Singularity first appeare in Battleworld's doman of Arcadia and made friends with the A-Force. Singulairty scarificed themself to save Arcadia. The next known point in the multiverse they appeared was in Earth-616 and united the 616's version of A-Force to take on Antimatter. Singularity can travel through space, time, dimensions, and multiverse at will and random; she is known to want friends and help heroes.

Linda Carter // set in 616 // in 40s // human, non-powered // fc: robin tunney // cis woman, she/her // heterosexual

Linda Carter is one of New York's many nurses and general practioners who service the superhero and low income communities. Famouly, she has opened the Night Nurse clinic, a private clinic spefiically meant for superheroes, vigilantes, powered individuals, all without any charge. She addtionally keeps a network of other "Night Nurses" a shared monkier for medical professioners who provide similuar services. Famously, she has dated Doctor Strange and Hawkeye.

Gamora // based solely on Eidos-Montreal's GotG game // in her 20s in Zehoberei years // Zen-Whoberi // fc: n/a // cis woman, she/her // lesbian

Gamora Zen-Whoberi, formerly Gamora Zen-Whoberi Ben Titan, is one of the main characters in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy game. She is the adoptive daughter of Thanos, and a former assassin regarded as the "deadliest woman in the galaxy". Pardoned due to her contributions to the Resistance, she is currently a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy alongside Peter Quill, Drax, Groot and Rocket.

Mantis // based solely on Eidos-Montreal's GotG game // young adult for a Lamentian // Lamentian // fc: n/a // genderqueer, she/they // lesbian

Mantis is the tritagonist in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy game. Known as the Celestial Madonna to the Priests of Pama, Mantis is a close friend of Gamora and a valuable ally to the Guardians of the Galaxy in the fight against the Universal Church of Truth.

The Hunter // protagonist of Marvek's Midnight Suns by Firaxis game // was 27 at time of death // Half-human, half-demon // demi-woman, she/they // lesbian

Centuries ago, Hunter was born the only child of an ordinary man and a powerful immortal. When Hunter’s father fell victim to a plague, Hunter’s mother, the sorceress Lilith, was consumed by grief. Her inner turmoil twisted her magic and led her down a path of darkness until she became a demi-goddess of evil. Hunter was raised in secret by Lilith’s sister, Sara, as a weapon against Lilith. When Hunter came of age, they fought against Lilith with the Old Midnight Suns. In the end, Hunter proved the only hero strong enough to defeat Lilith and restore peace. However, the battle was won at great cost, and Hunter was slain alongside their demon mother. Both were buried for centuries, until Lilith was awoken by Doctor Faustus working for Hydra, her devastating powers augmented and amplified by modern technology and magic. Hunter was resurrected as well, to lead a new team of Midnight Suns. However, Hunter is haunted by their own demons of grief and guilt, leaving them to battle not only their mother, but also their inner darkness and light.

[yokyopeli]

Maria Trovaya, Hungarian, first wife of Henry Pym, mother of Nadia Pym /Van Dyne

(Tales to Astonish #44; Avengers Origins: Ant Man and the Wasp; The Unstoppable Wasp vol 1 #1/8)

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: West Coast Avengers #34: Tales to Astonish Part Two: PRISONERS of the SLAVE-WORLD!

July, 1988

Captured by QUICKSILVER!

Dammit, Quicksilver!

Are you being a enormous dick again? I thought seeing a picture of your nephews in West Coast Avengers Annual #1 made you see the error of your ways?

Alas, while the East Coast Avengers book is in the character assassination era, Quicksilver is in a character assassination era of his own. Alas is dependent on how much you like him.

Because Marvel didn’t! Marvel did a ranking which found Quicksilver was the least important character in the company.

Anyway, somebody at Marvel wanted Quicksilver to be a villain so during this time you keep getting Pietro just being a dick.

I like how on the cover, Wanda looks aghast at how evil Pietro is being. But Vision just looks like this is what he expects from Pietro at this point.

Also, another throwback title. Prisoners of the Slave-World! is another old Ant-Man tale.

Between the throwback titlets and throwback villains, Englehart must have been in a big Hank Pym mood.

Anyway, last time in West Coast Avengers!

Hank Pym intercepted a message about his dead, deceased wife Maria Trovaya so the West Coast Avengers decided to fly over to Hungary and make inquiries.

They were intercepted at the airport by the People’s Defense Force, a bunch of old Ant-tagonists, and a scuffle broke out. Dr Pym and Wasp snuck away from the fight. They’re the lucky ones. Most of the rest of the team got taken down by a man whose superpower is that his pointy hat is poisoned.

Hank and Wasp used the power of talking to ants to find where people had been talking about Maria Trovaya but find not Hank’s first wife but instead Scarlet Witch and Vision locked up in a big vault.

This time, we start with Hawkeye, Tigra, and Wonder Man getting released from jail.

While Mockingbird and Moon Knight are kept prisoner FOR CRIMES. ESPIONAGE CRIMES.

The released Avengers are told not to cause trouble while they’re in the country, so obviously the three of them immediately start another fight.

Avengers don’t get arrested with quiet dignity, as a rule.

Seriously, Hawkeye just hauls off and punches Madame X.

Wonder Man hauls off and punches several gorillas. And Tigra tackles another.

The West Coast Avengers aren’t leaving without their teammates and also without their equipment which has been confiscated!

And this time, the guy with the poison hat can’t solo the team. Because Hawkeye uses the flag of Hungary to play matador.

Probably disrespectful but he be like that.

El Toro tries to headbutt Hawkeye, gets bamboozled by the flapping cape, and instead gets his horned hat stuck in the wall.

Then Hawkeye uses his MacGyver archery skills to make a bow out of the flagpole and arrows out of some jambs he kicks out of a waist high divider.

I wouldn’t call a jamb aerodynamic but he bonks various people in the heads with them.

That’s what he does to people who lock up his wife. He WOKH, PUK, or PLOKs them in the noodle.

But after beating up the entire People’s Defense Force apparently, Hawkeye, Wonder Man, and Tigra find that Mockingbird and Moon Knight are missing from the cell.

Then more soldiers show up pointing guns and threatening to kill... well just Tigra and Hawkeye, they’ve got no illusions about killing Wonder Man.

Then the US Ambassador Mr. Pickens shows up with a piece of paper from the Premier saying the Avengers are to be released into his custody.

And think, the West Coast Avengers had doubts he could get them out of trouble.

And not only did he get the West Coast Avengers put into his custody, he also found a lead for them to find the missing Mockingbird, Moon Knight, Dr Pym, and the Wasp! A rumored base for superhuman research. Mr. Pickens believes the rumors are true but hasn’t been able to prove it so far.

(Damn, Mr, Pickens gets work done!)

The West Coast Avengers say they’ll look into it and Mr. Pickens is like well that’s fine but instead of running off half-cocked, come back to the embassy to make some plans.

Hawkeye: “And I suppose you won’t listen in!”

Mr. Pickens: “Suppose I do? I need information to protect our country here! But it’s my ears or Madame X’s!”

Hawkeye: “Listen, Mr. Pickens -- you an’ I can remember when an American ambassador wouldn’t listen --”

Mr. Pickens: “No, I can’t, Hawkeye -- and neither can you! You just didn’t know it till now! It’s a rough world out there -- and believe it or not, I’m one of the good guys!”

Hawkeye: “I believe there are better guys!”

Hah!

When the West Coast Avengers and Mr. Pickens get to the embassy, they see OH NO Phantom Rider!

Except it’s not an oh no from them. They just see him as that guy from the Rangers. And are confused why he’s in Hungary. But Phantom Rider just says he knows his way around Budapest and doesn’t spend all his time in the American Southwest.

Phantom Rider: “I have very important contacts here! I was coming to do business with them. but once I heard about your poor wife -- ! You see, I feel there is great guilt yet to be cleansed from that Rider’s encounter with Mockingbird...!”

Hawkeye: “Sounds good!”

Oh goddammit.

Thought this was going to be an arc away from the Phantom Rider stuff and here he is, talking ambiguously about Mockingbird doing a manslaughter.

Speaking of Mockingbird, she and Moon Knight are over at the same building Dr Pym and Wasp found last time.

They’re being dragged around by a bunch of the Beasts of Berlin.

One of them quips that this must remind Mockingbird of the Vault super-prison. Mockingbird pretends ignorance because I’m pretty sure it’s a secret installation but she’s not fooling this ape. He knows that she was held there in East Coast Avengers Annual #15, for some reason.

Well-informed gorilla...

Mockingbird checks to see if Moon Knight has any bright ideas but he just tells her to keep the faith.

And because he may or may not actually be Khonshu or might just be a new personality that thinks he’s Khonshu because Moon Knight is confusing... uh, anyway, because of all that, Moon Knight thinks to himself “there is time enough to use the power of a god -- when a god is truly threatened!”

Would be funny if he just whipped out some god mode and walked through the prison walls, leaving a him shaped hole for the others to escape through.

Instead, he and Mockingbird are thrown into that same vault Dr Pym and Wasp found last time.

And inside are Vision, Scarlet Witch, Dr Pym, and Wasp. Apparently the door swung closed behind Hank and Jan after last issue ended.

Geez.

You guys were so competent last issue!

Vision explains that there’s some kind of projector built into the walls projecting anti-superpower rays.

It can interfere with Vision’s density powers, Wanda’ probability manipulation, and Hank and Wasp’s size shifting or ant talking.

It’s pretty effective.

It does apparently have to adjust or be adjusted for any new people. So it’s not just the superpower equivalent of an anti-magic field. Speaking of magic, I’d love to know if it blocks magic.

Wanda, you know magic as a separate thing from your (not-)mutant powers. Do some magic. You don’t want to? Okay.

Moon Knight deduces that this facility was built as a prison to hold superhumans and pivots right from that to saying “but you aren’t human, Vision!”

Wow. Rude.

But it does prompt Vision to exposit his ENTIRE BACKSTORY.

In fairness. Vision hasn’t been in this book for a while. It’s just polite to lore dump, especially when you meet someone who’s not very familiar with you. And since Moon Knight and Vision aren’t really acquainted...

EXPOSITION!

-inhale-

SO Vision’s story goes all the way back to the 40s when Dr. Phineas Horton created an artificial man with a bad case of catching on fire called the Human Torch but after a bunch of circumstances later in the nebulous recent past Ultron forced Dr. Horton to rebuild the broken robot Human Torch into the Vision to use against the Avengers and part of this process was using a copy of Simon William Wonder Man’s brain to base a new personality on.

But Vision turned against Ultron and joined the Avengers and found he was a real boy with real boy emotions when he fell in love with Scarlet Witch despite her brother Quicksilver’s ironic prejudice against the synthezoid man so Wanda and Vizh were married by Immortus in a double ceremony with Mantis marrying a tree and after Vision tried to take over the world he and Wanda quit the Avengers and decided to settle down and start a family thanks to Wanda doing a magic thing that allowed Vision to dry hump twins Tommy and Billy into her.

-gaaaaasp-

Anyway, Vision might not have a meat body but since he has a human mind and real boy emotions and magically impregnated a woman he considers himself a human man with a prosthetic body, thank you very much, Moon Knight.

Recently, Vision and Scarlet Wanda and their two babies have mostly just been living the civilian life in New Jersey.

And yet, they always seem to be wearing their superhero outfits.

Do we only see them on laundry day?

The two semi-retired heroes receive a note from Bova, the cow nursemaid that took care of Wanda and Pietro when they were babies. She needs their help and its way too urgent to explain in a letter that she signed with a hoofprint!

Since Ma Williams lives near them now, they leave Tommy and Billy with her, and go to Bova’s house in Transia where they are ambushed. They’re hit with weapons designed to nullify their powers and then dumped in this jail cell.

And that brings us back to the present.

Dr Pym notes its the same bait that lured the West Coast Avengers to Hungary. Someone dangled Maria to get Hank and co to come storming in.

When you add in that a bunch of Hank’s old enemies were ready for him at the airport, it adds up to someone that knows the Avengers well enough to set these traps and design weaponry targeted at them.

Then a door opens and closes for a second and the culprit introduces himself.

It’s Quicksilver.

Of course it’s Quicksilver.

He’s on the cover.

Don’t you be surprised. Stop it.

Don’t know why the hell he wanted to lure Hank Pym into a trap specifically. He wanted to destroy the Avengers generally back in those two linked annuals.

Will he be kind enough to exposit about all his plans and recent history?

Why, of course.

While the various Avengers try and fail to kick his ass.

Quicksilver: “I am the one who leads all those who betrayed me to their doom! I would have destroyed you months ago, but the Zodiac failed me --”

Yeah, Zodiac sucks. If you calm your ass down, Pietro, someone will tell you how Scorpio stupided the whole team to death recently.

The experience with Zodiac convinced Quicksilver that allies are for stinky losers who can’t solo challenges.

(Even though what stopped him from destroying the Avengers wasn’t Zodiac failing him but having a brief change of heart when he saw some baby pictures of his nephews)

So for whatever reason, I really don’t care enough to look it up, Quicksilver took a break from destroying the Avengers to try to destroy the Fantastic Four.

But oh no, their superior numbers defeated him. Maybe having allies isn’t just for stinky losers??

This is around the time that Crystal joined the team (so insult to injury) and the Fantastic Four turn him over to the Inhumans.

Quicksilver: “But the day those genetic outcasts can hold the fastest man alive has not dawned even on their lunar home.”

A very cunning Quicksilver had cleverly hidden an escape ship in a Moon crater at some point. So at the first opportunity he ditched the Moon to go back to Earth.

Quicksilver decided he needed allies he could understand. AND SO HE ALLIED WITH THE COMMUNISTS!

I don’t think he cares about politics much considering something he’s about to say. I think it was more about Eastern European allies. Transia is right around this area considering the ambush on Wanda and Vizh.

The communists shared their superhuman development projects with Quicksilver and he considers them pretty good. But they could be better. So he’s going to give them Wanda to experiment on so they can learn the secrets of the bestest superhuman... THE MUTANT.

-laughs in retroactive irony-

Also, holy shit, Pietro. You’re really leaning into being an evil dink.

Mockingbird: “You’re going to experiment with your own flesh-and-blood?!!”

Quicksilver: “Blood is no thicker than water when blood betrays blood, woman! She chose to marry the android! She chose to side with the Inhuman trollop! She’s nothing to me now!”

He fed up with this world. Everyone betray him.

But the real meat of this diatribe is

Quicksilver wants to follow in daddy’s shoes.

He wants to be THE KING OF THE EVIL MUTANTS!

Man. Marvel keeps trying to do this with Pietro.

There’s this. I don’t think it works out because Magneto eventually goes back to filling the Magneto shaped hole in the X-books after Inferno. Which isn’t all that far away.

And in the fall out of Ultimate universe’s Ultimatum event, Pietro faked his death to make Magneto try to destroy the world and then after Magneto died, Pietro declared he’d carry on his legacy but better.

Whether the 616 or Ultimate universes, Pietro is no Magneto.

I mean, it could work if the writers wanted to make it work. Superspeed is a scary and potentially devastating power. He could be the scary king of evil mutants, leading a Brotherhood and living on a meteor. Threatening the world. But this Pietro is kind of wishy washy and whiny. He never sells the same menace of Magneto.

And apparently Ultimate Quicksilver started off his leader of evil mutants tenure hallucinating Wanda telling him to do stuff and yelling at her when it didn’t work out for him.

Anyway.

While Pietro was distracted, Vision tries to put him in an armlock with diamond hard strength but Quicksilver twists free and runs out of the room.

Quicksilver: “Now you know who has beaten you -- I had to tell you -- but now farewell!”

Okay. Bye, dick.

Vision using diamond strength seems like it contradicts the power dampener affecting the room. But it didn’t work either way so I guess it doesn’t matter.

After Quicksilver leaves, Wanda starts in on something which actually makes me glad that the retcon retcon was retconned and Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver aren’t Magneto’s biological kids anymore for right now.

Scarlet Witch: “You have to understand -- all of you! It’s the taint of Magneto’s blood! When we didn’t know the truth, Pietro fought to overcome his... his awkward tendencies! He was a hero -- he was an Avenger -- ! -- But after he learned his true heritage, he stopped fighting!”

Vision points out that maybe they shouldn’t assume it’s in the blood since Wanda is a heroic hero but she argues maybe she’ll go crazy and evil someday too!

-sobs in retroactive irony-

Okay. Because she is going to go crazy and evil. Multiple times. And multiple times people will go ‘oh no, it’s because she’s related to Magneto!’

Magneto has better PR these days. So writers probably wouldn’t pull the same shit. But all I see from Magneto and Wanda and Pietro being biologically related is lazy writing to make Wanda and Pietro evil. Not in moments true to character but because because evil and crazy is in the blood.

That and writers soft retconning the Maximoff’s backstory to act like Magneto was always a parent to them. As opposed to them being raised by other people, only meeting Magneto as older teens or adult ass adults, and then him treating them like tools or goons to boss around.

I hope the retcon retcon retcon is never retconned to make them biologically his kids again. Recent stuff has hit a fair compromise where Wanda and Magneto have affirmed that no matter what a DNA test says, they are important to each other and in a messy, often painful way they are family.

For better and worse, Magneto is an important part of Wanda and Pietro’s lives. That’s all it has to be.

Anyway, teal deer: I don’t like Magneto being their birth dad because its lazily used to justify face heel turns and because writers forget that Magneto was an abusive monster when they were members of his Brotherhood.

Back to the story, Moon Knight claims he knows madness and that Wanda is too strong to succumb to madness.

-weeps in retroactive irony-

Vision: “And I offer you even more tangible proof, darling -- in the form of our twin boys! If your blood holds some taint, so, then, does theirs -- and neither of us believes that! Pietro went mad because he couldn’t love, Wanda -- and you can! That’s the difference between you! Our love has made us whole!”

-flips the table in retroactive irony-

Okay, there’s probably no way that Englehart meant Vision’s speech as ominous foreshadowing. But. It’s going to turn out that Billy and the other kid are the support beams of Wanda’s sanity.

That and near future upcoming writer John Byrne probably hates Vision’s speech about love making him and Wanda whole. Byrne has suggested before that, in his eyes, Vision is an overgrown calculator with delusions of being a people and that the Avengers shouldn’t risk their lives for the guy.

Sigh.

Anyway, Vision’s little speech is nice once you forget the cursed future knowledge. And it’s so nice that Hank, without thinking, puts his arm around Wasp. And has to apologize when she grabs his hand and moves it off her shoulder like ‘uh, no.’

But the speech also has an effect on Mockingbird who gets all pensive.

When Moon Knight suggests that Hawkeye will do everything he can to rescue them, Mockingbird bursts out:

“I can’t keep this up! I’ve tried, but I betrayed him! Him and all he believes in!”

DUN DUN DUN!

Mockingbird finally admits to someone who isn’t a robotic replica of her husband what happened in cowboy times.

(Oh, by the way, Phantom Rider is just hanging around the prison cell. Invisibly glaring at Mockingbird’s confession. Like a creeper.)

Mockingbird weirdly echoes Phantom Rider despite not being able to see or hear him.

Anyway, Mockingbird’s audience of the Wasp, Dr Pym, Moon Knight, Vision, and Scarlet Witch... are sympathetic to what Mockingbird went through.

Because they are good people who are not monsters.

Wasp: “And you never told Hawk?”

Mockingbird: “I - I couldn’t! He believes Avengers have to preserve life -- !”

Scarlet Witch: “I believe that, too, Bobbi -- but any woman can understand how you felt -- !”

Wasp: “No wonder your marriage has been under such strain -- !”

Dr Pym: “Whenever we’ve discussed it, Bobbi, I’ve held that Avengers should save life -- but that was in the abstract! Under your circumstances, and knowing you as I do -- I’d say you had reason for what you did!”

Moon Knight: “Good for you, doctor! Vengeance must be taken -- by Avengers!”

Vision: “I’m sure Hawkeye will see it the same way, Bobbi! No husband would condemn his wife for upholding her honor!”

Mockingbird: “Thank you -- thank you all! Vision -- Wanda -- I don’t know you that well, but -- if you can stand beside me -- !”

That’s nice.

It’s always nice to see Avengers having each others’ backs.

Phantom Rider isn’t feeling the love though. He angrily thinks “SHE MUST NOT BE HAPPY!” and flies off to reunite with the other half of the West Coast Avengers (Hawkeye, Wonder Man, and Tigra).

Phantom Rider tells them that he found where Mockingbird and the others are being held and even found a good way for them to get into the prison.

Tigra comments that if Phantom Rider ever leaves the Rangers, he could join the Avengers.

Phantom Rider: “I’d like that, Tigra, but you see I really am a phantom -- a dead man! And it’s time I told you why... !”

Oh, you dink!

You’re going to poison the waters, aren’t you?

Back over at the prison, the vault doors break open with a KRASH! courtesy of Wonder Man.

Mockingbird happily greets Hawkeye but he brushes her off with “Quit gabbin’ and get movin’!” and leads everyone out of the cell.

Where they encounter...

Giant scarlet beetles.

...

Yeah, this might as well happen.

So the Scarlet Beetle was another old Ant-Man foe.

Specifically a radioactive psychic beetle who stole some Pym Particles to grow giant-sized and then terrorized humanity until Ant-Man defeated his army with DDT.

That didn’t age well.

Anyway, Hank connived to shrink the Scarlet Beetle, decontaminated it of its psychic-powers-granting radiation, and dumped it in his back yard.

I have no idea how the People’s Defense Force found out about the Scarlet Beetle and... I don’t know how any of this is happening.

But its nice that pre-Avengers Ant-Man history is getting some love. And it gives the heroes some giant bugs to fight.

Dr Pym especially shines, jumping among the horde of beetles and shrinking them to beetle size with his size-changing touch. And then Wasp zaps them unconscious. And then Scarlet Witch uses her hex power to make one of the still big ones fall on a bunch of the shrunken ones, squishing them.

(The Avengers’ no kill policy really has some massive loopholes for bugs and aliens and robots, doesn’t it?)

Mockingbird tries to ask Hawkeye how he found them but he gives her the cold shoulder.

Wonder Man steps up to the plate to be verbally rude on Clint’s behalf.

Wonder Man: “Want to guess why he’s ignoring you, Mockingbird?”

Mockingbird: “I -- I don’t know what you mean -- !”

Wonder Man: “Yes you do -- murderess!”

Can’t believe we need a gender specific word for female murderer.

I also can’t believe that Hawkeye and Wonder Man apparently think so little of Mockingbird that they’ll just accept with zero reservations the story of a man who they know kidnapped Mockingbird. They don’t even want to hear her side of the story. It’s straight to the condemnation.

I guess we don’t know (yet?) what specifically Phantom Rider told them. But sheesh. No love. And such a marked difference from the compassion and understanding of team jail cell.

Vision, being one of the team jail cell, protests that they should discuss it. And also that these giant beetles are irrelevant. And with one SOLAR BEEEEAM, yeah they are. The Avengers just book it from the facility.

Tigra shows up in the Quinjet to pick them up (oh so that’s where she was! Wonder what her take on things is).

The People’s Defense Force shows up too late to stop the West Coast Avengers plus guests from boarding the Quinjet.

So they just launch a missile at the retreating aircraft.

Which usually wouldn’t be a problem.

But Tigra isn’t usually the pilot and she done goofed by forgetting to turn on the anti-missile defenses.

Whoops.

(Not that I need Quicksilver to look competent but maybe instead of Tigra just forgetting to turn on the defenses, it could be that Quicksilver’s inside knowledge of the team lets the People’s Defense Force get past the Quinjet’s defenses?)

Hawkeye takes the controls and tries to crash land past the borders so the People’s Defense Force can’t come after them.

And he successfully manages to cross the border into...

Ah dammit, Latveria.

Wait, Latveria borders Hungary?

-marvel wikia-

Huh!

Anyway, Doctor Doom. And Hawkeye and Mockingbird finally have a conversation about her manslaughtering a cowboy? Hey, maybe!

I’m not getting my hopes up too much.

Follow @essential-avengers​ to see how this plays out. Or just look it up. But a bunch of issues from this era don’t have a synopsis on Marvel wiki. So stick with me, I’ll get you the deets. Like and reblog too, maybe.

[docgold13]

365 Marvel Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…

June 15th - The Wasp / Nadia Van Dyne

Nadia is the daughter of Hank Pym and his first wife, Maria Trovaya. Maria had been pregnant when she was abducted by spies looking to extort military secrets from Pym.  Tragically, Maria died during the spies brutal interrogation, but not before giving birth to a daughter.  The infant ended up in the care of the Russian spy school known as The Red Room.  She was named ‘Nadia’ a Russian name that means ‘hope’ and trained from early childhood to be an agent of the Red Room.  

Believing that she might possess the same scientific genius as her biological father, Nadia’s handlers informed her of father’s identity and provided her with the means to research the size-altering properties of ‘Pym Particles.’  At the same time, Nadia also received combat training, including harsh lessons from the infamous Winter Soldier.  

Nadia proved to be just as much a genius as her father, although the cruel lengths that The Red Room went to broaden her intellectual acumen had the effect of making her intent escaping their grasp.  In her early teens, Nadia was able to reproduce the Pym particles and alter her size, thus enabling her to flee. 

She made her way to the States and tried to locate Hank Pym, only to discover the sad news that he had perished in battle against Ultron.  Nadia broke into one of Pym’s old laboratories and created a flying suit similar to that used by Pym’s ex-wife, Janet Van Dyne, The Avenger known as The Wasp.  Nadia intended on becoming the new Wasp and earn the admiration of her father's allies, The Avengers.  

It was a challenge Nadia was able to accomplish and her quick thinking saved the life of the Avenger known as The Vision in her first encounter with the team. Jan was initially conflicted in her feelings about Nadia.  The young woman did remind Jan of her ex-husband, in both positive and negative ways.  She is brilliant, full of energy and excited over the prospect of discovery, yet also impulsive, driven and not entirely aware of the consequences of her actions. 

Hank Pym had suffered for many years from undiagnosed Bipolar I Disorder; it was something that both helped Hank achieve incredible scientific discovery yet also contributed to his making terrible mistakes.  And Jan could see this same sense of reckless genius in Nadia.  Following an adventure where the two heroines saved the life of the United States’ president, Janet ultimately decided that she was happy to share the mantle of The Wasp with Nadia.  As such, Nadia became ‘The Unstoppable Wasp’ and would go on to have numerous adventures.  

In the wake of the second Superhero Civil War, Nadia joined a new iteration of The Avengers and became close friends with Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan). Kamala helped Nadia earn her United States citizenship.  With Jan’s blessing Nadia took on the last name Van Dyne.  

The Wasp and Ms. Marvel went on to aide Mockingbird in a battle against the villainous Monica Rappaccini.  Mockingbird shared with Nadia SHIELD’s list of the top researchers in the fields of science and technology and Nadia was discouraged to find that there were so few woman on this list, with none ranking any higher that 26.  

Nadia decided to try to help address this matter by forming the Genius In action Research Labs (or G.I.R.L.), an enterprise to assess the Earth's greatest female scientific minds and provide them with the kind of support and guidance to help them best live up to their potential.  Alongside her activities with GIRL, Nadia has additionally joined the young hero team called The Champions.  

Following a brief manic episode that segued into a major depressive episode, Nadia began therapy to help her better cope with her symptoms of Bipolar I Disorder.  Nadia identifies as asexual.   

Nadia’s character is something of a homage to the character of Hope Pym (portrayed by Evangeline Lilly) who appears in the MCU’s Ant-Man movie

The Unstoppable Wasp first appeared in the pages of Free Comic Book Day/#Civil War II (2016).