"It's about damn time."
Wasp (subtitled Small Worlds for the collected edition) is a 2023 comic book limited series from Marvel Comics, timed to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the titular superhero The Wasp. The series is written by Al Ewing, with art by Kasia Nie and color art by KJ Diaz.
The original Wasp, Janet Van Dyne, teams with the newest hero to use the name - her adopted daughter Nadia - as a threat rooted in both of their pasts comes back to menace them.
The first issue was released January 18, 2023.
Wasp (2023) contains examples of the following tropes:
- Arc Welding:
- Issue #2 ties together threads from Al Ewing's runs on Mighty Avengers and New Avengers, revealing the origins of W.H.I.S.P.E.R. and its links to the forgotten W.E.S.P.E. organization.
- The climax states that Pym Particles are actually Kirbons, the fundamental particles mentioned over in the Krakoan Age as one of the fundamental building blocks of reality that sufficiently advanced civilizations master. Using them on a gamma ray projector allows it to shift the energy into cosmic rays.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Jan threatens Whirlwind with total paralysis if he keeps attacking. She means it to be a bluff, but is slightly scared to realize she might mean it.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Previously, W.E.S.P.E. were just a bunch of childish HYDRA-wannabes / goons of the week, as were W.H.I.S.P.E.R.. However, Nadia figures that may well have just been what they wanted people to think of them.
- Briar Patching: Janos's plan for destroying the Creature was to trick it into going after Jan and Nadia, figuring they'd be able to defeat it.
- Brought Down to Badass: Fantasma disables Jan and Nadia's ability to shrink. This still leaves them with all their fighting skills, Jan from years of being an Avenger and Nadia from her Training from Hell.
- Brown Note Being: As in the original Tales to Astonish story, looking directly at the 'Creature from Kosmos' is fatal, when it chooses.
- The Bus Came Back: The 'Creature from Kosmos' returns for the first time in over a decade, with a retelling of its murder of Vernon Van Dyne. The end of the first issue also reveals that it's back in the present day, and seems to be controlling Nadia's grandfather.
- Call-Back:
- Way back at the end of Ewing's New Avengers, The Maker had dropped hints about "the true W.H.I.S.P.E.R." and said something about Nadia no-one would see coming "until it's too late", while in Nadia's first encounter with Jan some W.H.I.S.P.E.R. goons tried to abduct her. Now Nadia and Jan start investigating.
- Jarvis is able to resist the Creature's illusions thanks to therapy he received after the events of Avengers: Under Siege.
- Continuity Nod:
- When Jan arrives, Nadia is creating a cathexis ray device for Dr. McGowan. Charlene McGowan was one of the supporting cast for writer Al Ewing's Immortal Hulk series.
- In the wake of Devil's Reign, superheroes are still outlawed in New York. When flying through the city at 4' size, Janet calls into the mayor's office to confirm that she's just travelling, not patrolling.
- Costume Copycat: Fantasma and her goon squad show up in some of Jan's old outfits she's had over the decades.
- Distant Prologue: The first issue opens by showing the death of Vernon Van Dyne, Janet's father, after his experiments draw an alien being to his laboratory. The original version of the scene was shown in 1963's Tales to Astonish #44, the Wasp's debut issue.
- Emotion Eater: The Creature feeds on despair, and has been snacking on Nadia's grandfather since its resurrection.
- In Spite of a Nail: Inside the Creature's illusions, despite Hank Pym never existing, the Avengers still form, and by the end of issue #3 seem to be in the same place they were during Roger Stern's run. The only difference is they're not called "the Avengers".
- A Glitch in the Matrix: The Creature's attempts to stick Jan, Nadia and Jarvis in illusions fail because they just see through the incongruities.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Creature tries sticking Jan and Nadia in separate ones to feed on their despair, with Jan in a world where Ant-Man never existed and she's blamed for her father's murder, and Nadia where she stays in the Red Room. Jan just becomes a Badass Normal, while Nadia becomes the Red Room's star pupil. Later on, Jarvis gets caught up in it as well, but remains defiant that he remembers the Avengers, much to the Creature's annoyance.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Inside Nadia's illusion, another Red Room girl tries bullying her. A few days later her stun baton goes off by accident, which gets Nadia noticed by the instructors.
- Mood Whiplash: The series ends with the Creature defeated, and Nadia getting a meeting with her grandfather. Then Jan gets call about Whirlwind, who's been killed in his cell.
- Mook Chivalry: Much to Fantasma's annoyance, her goons try attacking Nadia one at a time, rather than giving her the Zerg Rush like actual wasps would.
- Never a Self-Made Woman: Invoked by the Creature as it traps Jan and Nadia in a Lotus-Eater Machine where Hank Pym was never involved in their lives (and Jan ended up accused of her father's murder as well) in order to feed off their resulting despair. Unfortunately for it, Jan defeats the Creature with high school chemistry and lots of cash before putting together a superteam, while Nadia ends up a top Red Room operative.
- Not Hyperbole:
- As Nadia mops the floor with Fantasma's minions, she explains how in the Red Room, thanks to their having no real budget, she had to literally fight for her breakfast.
- As the two Wasps approach the Creature's lair, Janet tells Nadia to go. Nadia says she won't, then clarifies that she couldn't even if she wants to, because the creature's got control of both of them.
- Nuclear Mutant: The Creature is partially gamma radiation-powered, much like the Hulk, so Jan and Nadia defeat it by using the same things that would weaken Big Green; cosmic radiation.
- It's implied that this also means the Creature has some form of connection to The One Below All; it refers to the Lotus-Eater Machine it sticks Jan and Nadia in as trapping them in "the place below all places", and Nadia later muses that the Creature has "only the power [they] give it".
- Papa Wolf: Janos admits he formed the original W.H.I.S.P.E.R. because they killed his daughter, Nadia's mother, and he wanted revenge on the Red Room.
- People Puppets: The Creature is partially using Janos as a mouthpiece, but also as a source of food.
- Railroading: The Creature initially tries going for soft manipulation of Jan and Nadia's worlds, but when that doesn't work it tries taking a more direct hand. It still doesn't work.
- Retired Badass: Nadia's grandfather created the original W.H.I.S.P.E.R., then apparently tried to retire. The more modern version of the organization tracked him down and fed him to the Creature.
- Sequel Hook: Someone killed Whirlwind in prison while Janet and Nadia were dealing with the Creature.
- Speak of the Devil: Whirlwind refuses to name the person who sent him after Nadia, because apparently if he does he will die.
- Stalker with a Crush: The supervillain Whirlwind has a long history of creepy obsession with Jan, and the first issue sees him make another attack on Jan and Nadia. However, it's swiftly subverted when it becomes clear he's been forced into the attack - he'd been making progress with his therapist and is only menacing Jan again because someone who terrifies him ordered him to.
- Tall Poppy Syndrome: Apparently the Red Room borrows from all the worst aspects of Western education, and this includes bullying Nadia for trying to stand out, as her friend tells her.
- There Are No Coincidences: The same day Nadia's mother was killed in Eastern Europe, her grandfather, who was in the USA, suffered a "freak lab accident". The original Tales to Astonish story, published during the Cold War, hinted that he'd been killed by more of the Communist spies who kidnapped Nadia's mother. The new series suggests it might be more complicated.
- Undying Loyalty: Jarvis, natch. Issue #3 has him mention that he was given the thumbs down during the recent incident with the Celestial; apparently his total faith in the Avengers to save them was judged as him abdicating responsibility for himself rather than faith in them.
- The Unreveal: In issue #4, Nadia asks Fantasma just what her beef is with her. Fantasma just gives a cryptic answer about how much she resents Nadia for being happy and nothing more.
- Variant Cover: The first issue has five variant covers. One shows Jan, one shows Nadia, one shows a shrunken Jan waving through some window blinds, one has a demonic Jan - and the final one has over a dozen versions of Jan, showcasing all the different costumes she's worn over the years.
- "Will Return" Caption: The last page contains the announcement that the Wasp will return.
- You Have Failed Me: Fantasma leaves her last goon to be punched out by the Wasps, even as the goon is pleading not to be thrown back onto "the burn list".
