Origin

Janet van Dyne is the daughter of world-renowned scientist Vernon van Dyne. Early in her life, she was a flighty, self-centered dilettante living resplendently on her father's fortune. She had an on-and-off romantic relationship with the world-renowned soldier-of-fortune called Paladin. When an alien brought to Earth during one of her father's experiments murdered the elder van Dyne, Janet contacted his colleague, Dr. Henry Pym. She told Pym of her resolve to bring her father's killer to justice. Pym revealed his secret identity as Ant-Man, and Janet underwent a biochemical process involving his Pym Particles that allowed her to shrink to insectoid proportions and to grow wings. Furthermore, Pym outfitted her with wrist devices which allowed her to discharge blasts she called her "wasp's stings".

Early Career

As The Wasp, Jan and Hank tracked down and defeated the murderous Kosmosian, banishing it to its home dimension. Pym and van Dyne gradually fell in love; Jan reminded Pym of his deceased first wife, Maria. Pym and van Dyne became crime-fighting partners in their costumed identities, and became two of the founding members of the Avengers (along with Thor, Iron Man and The Hulk) after responding when Hank's helmet picked up Rick Jones fateful call for help. It was, in fact, The Wasp who suggested the name "Avengers" for the group which had gathered. In a further milestone in Avengers history, Jan and the other founders (minus the Hulk) were the discoverers of the great World War II hero, Captain America, still frozen from the last days of the war. Being a fashion designer, the Wasp would become known for her frequent costume changes.

Jan's attitude towards crime-fighting was, at first, very carefree. She saw it as her way of attracting attention from Hank. Still the shallow socialite early in her career, Jan would often comment on the attractiveness of Thor to try and elicit jealousy from her partner. The studious Pym began to experiment with Pym Particles, and found that he could cause himself to grow beyond his normal height. By this time both crimefighters had been exposed to the Particles long enough to change size at will rather than rely on gas capsules or potions, and Jan could fire her stinger blasts without the aid of wrist devices. Changing his costumed identity to "Giant-Man", Pym eventually experienced bodily strain because of the process' physiological effects. Because of this, Pym decided to take a break from costumed adventuring. With the stress of constant threats from Pym's enemies (such as Egghead and the Human Top (later Whirlwind) as well as confronting Kang the Conqueror and the Masters of Evil with the Avengers, Jan was ready for a break herself. Meanwhile, Thor and Iron Man took leaves of absence from the Avengers, leaving Captain America to preside over a new incarnation of the team. Jan remained in her civilian career as a fashion designer, with Pym continuing his scientific pursuits.

Sometime later, however, Pym and van Dyne learned that the Namor the Sub-Mariner was heading for New York City. Fearing trouble, they decided to alert the Avengers. The Wasp was captured by first Namor's foe, the undersea barbarian leader Attuma, and then by the Collector. In order to help the Avengers rescue Janet, Pym decided to use his growing power again, he donned a new costume and adopted the new name of "Goliath".

Marriage & Divorce

Pym had always loved Janet, but various inhibitions kept him from proposing to her - feelings of inadequacy due to her wealth chief among them. One day, while he had still not fully mentally recovered from the stress of accidentally creating one of the Avengers' greatest foes in the form of Ultron, Hank had a lab accident with experimental gases. These caused a reaction in him that broke this inhibitions down, and induced a severe case of schizophrenia. This was his second breakdown, the first having been after his first wife, Maria, had been killed. Believing himself to be a new person named "Yellowjacket", Pym broke into Avengers Mansion and told the team that he had killed Henry Pym . When the team attacked him, he captured The Wasp and escaped. Soon after, the Avengers were shocked to hear that Janet, who suspected it was Pym all along, was going to marry him. Their wedding at Avengers Mansion was attended by a who's-who of active superheroes at the time. Immediately following, the Avengers were attacked by the villainous Circus of Crime. Janet later felt guilty at having taken advantage of Hank's mental state to finally get married, but the couple was happy...at first.

Hank later had a third breakdown, during which he was captured by Ultron, reverted to his earliest days as Ant-Man, and made to attack the Avengers. During the fighting, it was The Wasp who took down her wayward husband. Janet later suspected that this, being brought down by his own wife, may have further exacerbated Pym's fragile mental state. Meanwhile Hank became overbearing, paranoid, and verbally abusive, releasing pent-up tension resultant of his sense of failure in science, made worse when compared to his wife's financial success.

When the Avengers were battling the Elfqueen, Hank blasted the her from behind during a lull in the fighting while Captain America was trying to talk her down. This began another round of fighting that Captain America charged Hank for reckless behavior, since bystanders could have been killed. This began Pym's fourth nervous breakdown. He decided that if he could built a robot to attack Avengers Mansion, he could defeat it and be a hero in the eyes of his team-mates. He included a special hidden weak spot on the robot just for the occasion. When Jan protested, Hank lashed out, brutally striking his wife. His plan went awry, and when the robot attacked the mansion, it was The Wasp who disabled it. In the court-martial, Pym was stripped of his Avengers membership. Meanwhile, Jan began divorce proceedings.

Continued Avengers Service & Chaimanship

Over the years, Janet had become a seasoned hero, a far cry from the ditzy thrill-seeker she had been while teaming with Pym as Ant-Man. She continued service with the team after Hank's fourth breakdown despite the tremendous stress of the situation. After the divorce she at times revisited her old dallying romance with Paladin. The Wasp was elected as chairman of the Avengers, a position she held for a long while, having been molded into a savvy and able leader. Janet and several other Avengers were among the group of heroes summoned to Battleworld by the Beyonder to fight in his Secret Wars. During the conflict, The Wasp crash-landed an aircraft stolen from Magneto and took refuge with the outcast Lizard. She was gravely wounded by The Wrecker when the Wrecking Crew was dispatched by Doctor Doom to retrieve the Lizard. In a death-like state, she was revived by the alien healer Zsaji.

While chairman, she led the team in discovering Jean Grey, an X-Man long thought to be dead. Black Knight had an unrequited crush on her for some time, while Hercules chafed at being given orders by a woman. The most serious test to her leadership ability came when the Masters of Evil under Baron Helmut Zemo attacked and conquered Avengers Mansion. With every other active team member incapacitated and a small army of supervillains holding their headquarters, it was up to The Wasp to assemble a rescue squad and mount the assault to retake the mansion. Eventually Hank's mental balance returned and was reinstated as an active Avenger. Janet was briefly assigned to the West Coast branch after this. The two managed to rekindle a friendship and, some years later, a romance. While on a trip to Las Vegas, however, Jan turned down a proposal of Hank's; she said she would not marry him again.

After sustaining severe injuries during the Crossing, Pym put Janet through the same process that had originally given her her powers. This temporarily mutated Janet into an almost completely wasp-like form. In this form, she was among the Avengers who seemingly gave their lives to absorb the energy of Onslaught, in reality being shunted to an alternate dimension. She was later returned to normal by Franklin Richards, and helped to re-assemble the team after this event. Following a membership evaluation after dealing with Morgan le Fay, Wasp was left in a reservist role for a time, but eventually re-attained full membership and even the chairmanship. Janet hosted "America's Next Superstar" for a time. After he rejoined the team, Jan had a dallying affair with Hawkeye, which left Hank reeling. She soon returned to her longtime, if rocky, flame. Around this time, Jan also began using Pym Particles to grow to immense heights, just as Hawkeye (as Goliath) and Pym had done.

An offhand remark from the Wasp to the Scarlet Witch regarding the latter's "children" accidentally ignited Wanda's breakdown that left the Avengers disassembled. During the chaos, the Wasp was badly injured by She-Hulk, leaving her in a brief coma. It was Hank who brought her to the hospital and stayed at her bedside as she recovered. During this time they seem to have finally fully reconciled. Shortly thereafter, Pym received a fellowship at Oxford, and the two moved to England to reconcile and take a break from crimefighting. The two decided not to renew their relationship, although they do remain on good terms.

Mighty Avengers

While discussing her fling with Hawkeye and the Scarlet Witch, a slightly tipsy Wasp confessed to a pregnancy scare and inadvertently mentioned Wanda's own children, whose unnatural existence Agatha Harkness had kindly erased from the Witch's memory. The Wasp's slip of the tongue, combined with Scarlet Witch's increasingly unstable and growing powers, caused Wanda to suffer a mental breakdown which lead to the events of 'Avengers Disassembled'. Janet was knocked into a coma by a rampaging She-Hulk during an attack on Avengers Mansion by the Scarlet Witch. Hank watched over her as she layed 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. The Wasp reappeared with Pym in the miniseries Beyond!. He is at this point still her ex-husband and over the course of the events chronicled in this series, it is revealed that they had called off their most recent attempt at a romantic relationship, although they remain on good terms.

Civil War

With the onset of the superhuman Civil War, Hank has helped spearhead the pro-registration movement. Janet is also pro-registration, although she was very upset about the murder of her friend Bill Foster, and has become the host of a pro-registration reality show called America's Newest Superhero. When selecting the roster for the latest incarnation of the Avengers team, this time as part of the Fifty States Initiative, Tony Stark selected Janet as a founding member of the Mighty Avengers. When alien symbiotes attacked New York, Janet used a refined growth formula given to her by Hank Pym which allowed her to shift to giant-size without side effects. It has since been revealed, however, that Hank was replaced by a Skrull by then, so it is possible there is some flaw deliberately put in the formula. During the beginning of the fight, she was briefly turned into a symbiote monster before a cure was created by Stark.

Secret Invasion

She was among the Mighty Avengers when they were fighting heroes from the Skrull ship. It has also been hinted that the growth serum given to her by the Skrull Hank Pym has a yet unseen nefarious purpose.

Powers & Abilities

Making use of sub-atomic Pym particles, the Wasp possesses the power to alter her physical size, causing her body's mass to be shunted to or gained from an alternate dimension known as Kosmos. She is able to shrink to a minimum of half an inch or grow to a maximum of several hundred feet. Smaller or larger sizes are possible but the exertion begins to put a strain on her body. Intitially, these abilities stemmed from use of a Pym particle gas released from special capsules. Over time, however, her body has absorbed enough particles to allow her to alter her size at will.

At miniature size, her strength level increases as her body's mass is compacted. At giant size, her strength and endurance increase geometrically with her height, reaching superhuman levels. Despite the advantages of giant size, Janet usually prefers to remain the diminutive Wasp, calling on her growth power only in times of extreme emergency. At miniature size, the Wasp grows a pair of translucent insect wings from her back, a result of genetic modifications provided by Hank Pym. These grant her the power of flight, at speeds up to 40 MPH.

The Wasp is able to harness and augment her body's natural bio-electric energy, releasing it from her hands in powerful electrical bursts, which she calls her "stinger blasts" or "wasp's stings." Originally, she required special wrist devices to produce these but again, Pym particle absorption has allowed her to create the ability unaided. The Wasp's genetic modifications also grant her the ability to sprout small prehensile antennae from her forehead which allow her to telepathically communicate with and control insects. However, this is an ability which she rarely uses.

Van Dyne has also displayed several non-superhuman abilities that have garnered her special fame and attention, foremost of which is her fashion sense, as in nearly all of her early appearances, she sported a new costume, presumably designed and manufactured on her own. In addition, The Wasp is one of the most intuitive, if not deductive, members of the Avengers. She effectively deduced that a chemical accident created a schizophrenic break in Henry Pym, the relationship between the Scarlet Witch and the Vision was the result of the infused personality of Wonder Man, and guessed the identity of Iron Man at a time when Tony Stark faked his own death.

Alternate Realties

Earth-1610

Ultimate Wasp

In the Ultimate universe, Janet is an Asian descendant and she holds 2 P.h. Ds, she is also a mutant but it is unknown everyone except SHIELD and Hank. Her mutant powers allows her to shrink and grow wings when she is shrunken. She can also produce energy blasts which act like wasp stings. Her powers have side-effects however, it includes causing her to eat insects, forming her own larval nests, and laying eggs. She started dating Hank during college, but even during college Hank was extremely abusive to her. She was a roommate of Betty Ross, and she remembers times where Janet was missing chunks of hair.

However, after they finished a mission, Janet and Captain reconciled and would slowly develop a romantic relationship. When Hank came back to reconcile with her, Janet refused. However, Janet would tell Hank about her relationship problems with Captain , stating that his age gap and the friends he hangs out with is making it hard for her to connect. Janet would continue to see Hank secretively.

Earth-2149

Zombie Wasp

In the Marvel Zombies universe Wasp was, as most of this reality's heroes, transformed into a zombie. Wasp is the zombie that first bites Magneto and was the reason for Magneto's death by consumption from other zombies. Later on, she finds Giant Man eating a piece of Black Panther and Black Panther himself without an arm and leg. Wasp is enraged by this and attacks Giant Man. She is easily defeated by Giant Man by getting her head bit off and spat out by Giant Man. Black Panther escapes Giant Man's place and takes Wasp's head with him. She tries to persuade Black Panther to let her have a bite of him, but is denied of this request. They are found by Magneto's Acolytes and they are taken by the Acolytes to Asteroid M, with the exception of one acolyte, because Black Panther had thrown Wasp's head at the acolyte, killing him. Wasp is given a cybernetic body and used for experimentation to find a cure for the virus. Later on, Wasp bites Black Panther after he was assassinated by one of the acolytes. Black Panther becomes a zombie.

Earth-20051

Janet van Dyne - Giant Girl

In the Marvel Adventures: The Avengers series (set in its own continuity) features Janet Van Dyne as Giant Girl, showcasing her ability to grow rather than shrink, which she uses in combat. She is younger than her main universe counterpart and she cracks jokes along with her teammate Spider-Man. Issue 13 of the series reveals her origin as a wealthy socialite given access to size-changing Pym particles by scientist Henry Pym (here an employee of Janet's father, rather than a superhero). Janet does not appear to have ever used her Wasp identity in this version. It has been revealed that Janet can shrink to wasp size but she sees no point in being tiny. Her maximum size is unknown but she has grown tall enough to catch a school. Instead of having her powers naturally, Janet requires a suit powered by Pym particles to change her size. Like her Earth-616 counterpart, Janet seems to change her costume regularly. Originally she wore a skin-tight full body suit that accurately accentuates all her curves along with her muscles and primarily purple with some blue costume with a mask that was similar to that of Giant-Man. It included the antennae (although she never used them). They left her vulnerable to insect mind control as seen in issue 13. Her second costume was primarily blue with some purple set in a v-pattern from her waist running all the way to her prosterior regions and lacks a mask or antennae. A recent preview of Marvel Adventures the Avengers 19 has shown her wearing a costume which is primarily blue but has gold/yellow. Whether this costume increases her maximum size is yet to be seen. She has also mentioned that she has at least two brothers although they have never been seen or given any names (see Marvel Adventures the Avengers #3).





Earth-982

In the MC2 universe Janet is mother of Hope Pym - Red Queen and Henry Pym Jr. - Big Man.

Earth-9811

In this reality, also called Battleworld, Wasp and Human Torch had a son called Firefly.

Earth-58163

In the House of M reality Janet was a fashion designer, seemingly without powers.

Earth-398

Janet van Dyne of Earth-398 was known as Pixie and was a member of the Queen's Vengeance.

Mangaverse Wasp