#[ genius wasp ] (nadia)

[earth-7103984]

Spindel Rodríguez - Spider-Woman of Earth-7103984.

Staring off with the first OC I created for this universe.

Spindel Rodríguez is the one and only spider of Earth-7103984. Born in Mexico City from a Mexican father and a swedish mother, her parents moved to New York City when she was just five years old. When Spindel was just ten years old, her mother was killed by a mugger. This caused Spindel to start taking self defense classes and, since he now had to do double the work to raise her, caused Spindel's father to take on a second job, just to support the two of them, while also causing them to barely see each other.

By age fifteen, while Spindel was out gathering bugs to feed her pet tarantula, she came across a strange type of spider she'd never seen before. Still, seeing as she's not scared of spiders, she didn't swat it off immediately, which gave the spider just enough time to bite her. After that, she immediately went home, dizzy and sweating. She didn't go to the doctor because... Well, shit's expensive. She didn't spend the best of nights. While she slept through the whole thing, it was a restless sleep. By the time she woke up, she was covered in cold sweat and... The sheets were sticking to her fingers. She panicked at first, but, as she experimented with her new abilities, she started getting a hold of her powers. The one and only person she told about what happened was her girlfriend, Gwen Stacy. While Gwen was unsure of what to think at first, Spindel already knew that she should put her powers to good use, saying that it's what her mother would want her to do.

At first, Spindel built some very crappy web shooters. The formula for the web was fine, but the whole mechanism left a lot to be desired, being quite bulky and failing more often than not. She was definitely not a technological genius. Her outfit was pretty simple as well, consisting of a ski mask with a webbed pattern and a pair of red tinted shades, along with a hoodie with a spider symbol on it.

During one of the times in which her we shooters decided to stop working mid-swing, she ended up crashing through the window of Pym Labs, more specifically the G.I.R.L. area of the building. Of course, an alarm rang out. Luckily, the first one to find her there was Nadia Van Dyne, The Unstoppable Wasp, so she was able to explain the situation and actually befriend the other girl. It was thanks to this that Nadia eventually offered to build her a new pair of web shooters, much more advanced, smaller and reliable than the ones she had. Not only would they be good for swinging, but for helping her in combat, too. And, as if the wasp's kindness hadn't been enough already, she got Spindel a brand new suit, too, which is the one she currently has. Her new friendship with Nadia would have her helping out with stuff at G.I.R.L. as well as with The Champions on occasion at Nadia's request.

From then on, Spindel would go on to keep fighting crime, stopping some common crooks, before eventually facing bigger threats, such as Kingpin, Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Venom and even Carnage.

Spindel tends to be aloof most of the time, having a bit of trouble opening up at first, but she's a genuinely sweet girl that cares about those she considers her friends. She does try to keep a much better and friendlier attitude towards strangers while dressed up as Spider-Woman, however. She doesn't have many friends, both in her hero and civilian life, but she deeply appreciates her friendships. While she's Spider-Woman she became close friends with Nadia Van Dyne and Kamala Khan, though she only knew the real identity of the first one, while neither one knew hers. At school, she's got a small group of friends consisting of Gwen, her girlfriend, MJ and Mayday Parker, the daughter of her science teacher, Peter Parker.

From a non in-universe origin, I created Spindel shortly after the release of Into the Spiderverse, when spidersonas were all the rage. I wanted to join in on the trend and did a few doodles, initially drawing her civilian look along with her home made outfit. I designed her current outfit like a day later. Her civilian look went through a few redesigns, eventually ending up with the current one you see in the pictures, drawn wonderfully by my main artist which will be credited below. I have a lot of love for Spindel and, I suppose, you could say she's the OC I spoil the most, getting the most art of her, while neglecting others, but it's understandable, seeing as she started it all.

Art commissioned from @Angelesrevill_ on Twitter.

[celadons-penultimate]

'Member that time The Wasp / Nadia VanDyne made friends w/ a genius young Indian-American botanist, Priya Aggarwal, who, by a super villain science accident, gained plant-based superpowers & contemplated becoming a superhero?

I do! And I'd love some follow-up, please, @Marvel! 🥺🙏🏿♥️

[amageish]

I’m really enjoying Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. I’ve jokingly been referring to the “MGCU” (”Moon Girl Cinematic Universe”) for the last few months, usually in the context of discussing characters that I would rather appear in the Moon Girl animated series then in the MCU proper...

That said, uh, Maria Hill of S.H.E.I.L.D. is going to be in the show? Performed by Cobie Smulders, like in the MCU???

It’s just a guest role, of course, but it’s kind of funny to me that this isn’t being advertised as MCU-adjacent if it is going to include MCU cameos? Like, there is a multiverse for a reason. You can just say it’s some other corner of the multiverse that won’t have direct crossovers outside of, like, theme park events...

Though I’ll admit that I am biased and I am really hoping we see less MCU characters as guest heroes and more of the younger (and often more diverse) heroes that haven’t made it into the MCU yet. Specifically, I feel like Nadia Van Dyne / the Wasp and her fellow Agents of G.I.R.L. fit the themes of Moon Girl... almost perfectly?

In the comics, Nadia Van Dyne is a girl genius who escaped the Red Room (the Russian assassin training program that also trained Black Widow) and fled to New York City. Once in New York, she was inspired by Moon Girl and the institutional sexism baked into SHIELD’s list of the smartest people in the world to recruit a bunch of girl geniuses from across New York city to form an all-girl scientist team. In other words, her story is an all-ages superhero story with a focus on encouraging interest in STEM and highlighting the diversity of New York City... just like what MM&DD is setting out to do.

I wouldn’t expect Nadia and G.I.R.L. to be important - the focus is and should remain on Lunella, her family, and her classmates - but I could see an episode happening where Nadia shows up and announces the creation of GIRL to Lunella, they team up for a bit, probably having a conversation about Nadia’s disability (she has bipolar disorder) in the process, and GIRL becomes an off-screen source of intel that Lunella can tap into... and if this show can get Nadia to explicitly acknowledge her asexuality on-screen using the word “asexual,” then everyone involved will earn my undying respect!

[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.

[izzysarchivedblogs]

@recklesstech liked for a STARTER CALL FROM NADIA VAN DYNE !!

She can thank Miles for informing her that's a tech-whiz girl from another universe, information he got from the Spider-Society, that she absolutely should totally link up with. Although, he had warned that she was a Goblin and something, blah, blah, something about Spiders and Goblins. Tuned out because. . .

Nadia had gotten caught up on the words, MAJORING IN BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, and that she was a young female scientist; which HEY! She's a young female scientist, with a research lab and enterprise, the idea born for girls like her to challenge SHIELD's terrible world's smartest people list excluding women until the 27th placing.

This Goblin girl sounded amazing, perfect candidate to reach out and offer G.I.R.L. resources and ask if she'd like to be collaborate and be part of the girl network.

THAT'S HOW NADIA ENDS UP FLYING AFTER A GREEN CLAD GIRL ON A GOBLIN GLIDER.

It had taken her some sharp maneuvering to catch up to her, flittering front and trying to signal her to slow down, and HEY! She just wants to talk. Nadia thought she was pretty good at recruiting when she started up G.I.R.L. and look how well that was going. New young scientists coming in, a few of her best friends there had gotten scholarships and internships as a result of G.I.R.L.

❝ HEY! I'm Nadia, the Wasp, and I just wanna say that, I may not know much about you, but I am a big fan of what I've seen with your suit and glider! I'd love to talk shop and invite you to G.I.R.L. ⸻ Genius In action Research Labs! ⸺ I promise this is just a friendly, hey I think you're neat and we could befriends, girls in S.T.E.M. should get together! ❞

[roseredsnow]

I dont know Ashley and hardly know Gwen but Nadia is my favourite Marvel character so a few fun facts.

- She was raised in the red room, but more on the science side than assassin.

- Once freed she found out that until the discovery of Lunella Lafayette (moon girl) a woman had only been placed #27 on Shields list of smartest people, in response she founded G.I.R.L (genius in action research labs) which aimed to help put young women scientists on the map.

- She gets along with everyone, with the exception of Peter Parker and Spiderman, not knowing they're the same person. It's hilarious.

- She's a member of Champions, a superhero team started by Kamala Khan, Miles Morales and Sam Alexander when they felt the avengers weren't doing enough outside of major disasters. The only person on the entire team that is both cishet and white is Scott Summers and even that's debatable.

- Her solo comic "Unstoppable wasp" has a bit called "Nadia's neat science facts" and it gives me so much serotonin.

- Jeremy Whitley her main writer has confirmed her aroace and quorioromantic, he has said that's mostly word of god and could be changed however it was finally said in comic earlier this year that she's asexual so that cannot be changed.

Could you draw maybe Gwen Poole, Ashley Barton, Nadia van Dyne together for Ace Week?

I don't know anything about these women but they're cool and they're ace and I'm rooting for them go queens

[hsavinien]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Girl Genius (Webcomic), Wasp (Marvel Comics), Marvel (Comics), Unstoppable Wasp (Marvel Comics) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Nadia Van Dyne, Original Jäger Character(s) (Girl Genius) Additional Tags: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Humor, Spark Nadia Van Dyne, POV Jäger, POV Original Character, Missing Spark Girls, Animal Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Jäger diction Summary:

Wandering jäger Anka is looking for the Heterodyne. She finds a different young spark. (She finds an angry town first, but that's less unusual.)

[docgold13]

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

Back to School Supplemental - Geniuses In action Research Labs (G.I.R.L.)

Founded by Nadia Van Dyne, the young heroine known as the Unstoppable Wasp, the Geniuses In action Research Labs is an enterprise that endeavors to assess the Earth's greatest female scientific minds and provide them with the support and guidance needed to help them fulfill their potential.  

With the aide of Edwin Jarvis, Nadia recruited several young scientists and offered them funding and a research space to continue their studies and conduct their experiments.  Dr. Barbara Morese (Mockingbird) has acted as a mentor to these young scientists and the former villains, Poundcakes and Letha were later brought on to provide security.  

Thus far, there have been four principle researches working at the GIRL lab, each focusing on a different scientific discipline.  These young scientists include:

Priya Aggarwal

A true prodigy in the field of theoretical botany.  Priya developed a special formula that facilities communication with plant life.  An accident caused by a saboteur caused Priya to become exposed to a gaseous form of this formula and she ended up gaining the ability to telepathically control plant life.  

Priscilla LaShayla Smith

Shay, as she prefers to be called, is a young technological genius who was trying to build a functioning teleportation machine.   A malfunction in her device caused an explosion that caused Shay to be thrown from the window of the apartment she shared with her father.  Fortunately, The Wasp was there to save Shay and the young woman went on to accept Nadia’s invitation to join GIRL. Whist there, Shay worked alongside Tai in creating a pair of ‘Vision Gloves’ that utilized Horton Cells to make them temporarily intangible; thus allowing for entirely non-invasive surgical procedures.  

Ying Liu

Ying was an orphan raised in the notorious Red Room where she befriended Nadia.  During her training at the Red Room, Ying showed a affinity and tremendous skill for biochemistry.  It was with Ying’s help that Nadia had recreated the size-changing Pym particle thus facilitating her escape.  After this escape, Ying was dispatched to retrieve her.  This ultimately offered Ying the chance to escape herself, yet her Red Room handlers had implanted a miniature bomb at the base of her skull to dissuade defection.  Nadia and Shay were able to safely remove this bomb with the use of the Vision Gloves and Ying went on to join GIRL.  

Taina Miranda

Taina ‘Tai’ Miranda was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at a young age.  She applied herself to the study of engineering, robots and cybernetics.  She used these skills to provide improved accommodations to her home, including a lift for her wheelchair and a exo-suit that enabled her to play goalie for her sister’s soccer club.  Hearing about these feats, Nadia recruited Tai to GIRL and the young woman jumped at the chance at having greater resources to pursue her experiments.      

Additional members of the Geniuses In action Research Labs include  Amber Silverstein, Jeanne Foucault, Justine, and Lexi Miranda.  The enterprise first appeared in the pages of The Unstoppable Wasp #2 (2017).  

[arctimon]

The Beta Team That Never Was - Fanfiction Corner (BH6 Edition)

So all of this Peni Parker comic talk actually got me thinking about the process of her being included in my fanfiction.

I wish I could tell you it was a long and arduous process, but...

OK, maybe some of it was hard.  But when you have a virtually endless supply of Marvel characters that you can use for possible teammates for Big Hero 6, you have to go with your gut.

We all know that the team will be Robbie, Aspen, Peni, Doreen (eventually), and Kate.  But there were six other candidates that could have been in the mix as well.

And five of them have their emblems here:

These were made before I actually knew how to make hero emblems properly.

Some of them you might recognize.  Some you may not.  But we’re going to go through them all, from left to right.

And to start...it’s really hard to draw tiny hearts.

1.) Riri Williams/Ironheart - Ironically enough, it was around the time that Hiro started chasing Sirque around the town in “Portal Enemy” that I started brainstorming her.  A teenage genius, stuck as to what to make, sees “Captain Cutie” and the chase on the news and gets brainstorming.

Thus, the Power Armor is born.

And she gets so excited that she bolts off to San Fransokyo to show her idol what she’s created.

And then, as per the Big Hero 6 Fanfiction Clause states...shenanigans ensue.

It was an interesting possibility, but the thought of Ironheart was really late into me doing the backstories of the people that I had chosen, so she was pushed aside.  I don’t personally see me revisiting her in the future, but who knows?

2.) Nadia Van Dyne/The Wasp - Back when Karmi had first been pulled out of SFIT, there was a young woman who wanted to recruit her into a special organization.  It was one that brought together the greatest female minds in their fields, and Karmi was on said recruitment list.

The organization?

Genius In action Research Labs, or G.I.R.L. for short.  And it was led by the Wasp’s daughter, Nadia Pym (later changed to Nadia Van Dyne).

Plot-wise, this was probably the person that I got the farthest with, since the story would’ve been more of a focus on Karmi than anyone else.  Also, the idea of writing someone with Bipolar Disorder (which Nadia was confirmed to have in her latest solo run) was intriguing if nothing else.

Unfortunately, it sort of dried up from there.  A lack of a central conflict, uncertainty as to how many of the other girls (Taina, Priya, Shay, and Ying) to have, and how to handle her actual powers stopped it cold.

But seriously, how do you write in the ability to shrink to microscopic size?  That’s not really a thing, even in a world as futuristic as San Fransokyo.

3.) America Chavez/Ms. America - The mere idea of a Superman-esque Latina teenager was enticing, especially because America, in her relatively short comic history, was with the Ultimates and the West Coast Avengers (meaning there was a possible Kate/Hawkeye angle).  Making start-shaped portals was the Silent Sparrow angle, and the all-around badass, headstrong attitude would be the counter to Honey Lemon’s more nurturing personality.

But being from an alternate universe (which has very recently been retconned in the comics in part because she will be appearing in the MCU and Doctor Strange 2), no real villain to play off of, and becoming possibly way too overpowered for the BH6 universe, she was scrapped.

It’s quite a shame.  I really like her in the comics that she’s in.  Perhaps there will be an opportunity for her somewhere down the line...

4.) Alison Blaire/Dazzler - A pop star with light-based powers?

Or better yet, a struggling artist with acoustikinesis?

Her power to convert sound into light was what originally drew me to her.  Something that could be made into a technological ability, unique enough to put a (pardon the pun) spotlight on it.

An actual blonde instead of whatever HL’s hair color is.

Heck, she even has a half-sister named Lois that could have been the antagonist (death tough, destruction waves, and the like).

But she quickly got lost in the fold.  Better ideas (like Kate and Doreen) got more of my brainstorming, and she was eventually given up on.

But funnily enough...

It’s almost like she’s already in the show.

(See, for the people who may be new, one of the many Marvel theories that I’ve touched upon is that High Voltage is actually this universe’s version of Dazzler.  Juniper is Alison and Barb is...well...Barbara London, Alison’s mom).

Hey, @baymaksu​ totally agrees with me kinda sort of.

5.) Cindy Moon/Silk - I knew right from the get-go that I wanted a Spider-person on the beta team.  I also knew that I didn’t want Peter.

No offense to Peter Parker.  He’s fine.  But there’s a billion other Spiders out there, and I wanted someone out of the normal vein of Peter, as well as even Miles and Gwen.

And in came Cindy.

Locked away in The Bunker because of her spider powers manifesting, she was eventually released by Peter and thus began her entrance into the main Marvel world.

Her “unique ability” is her improved Spider-Sense, which Peter has said is even better than his own.  That, plus her other powers, brought her the closest out of anyone to being a member of the Big Hero 6 Beta Team.

As we all know, however, Peni ended up getting the spot over Cindy (for the family angle with Hiro and the giant robot that she pilots).  On the other hand, Cindy would later make her debut in the stinger of the last chapter of Along Came The S.P.I.D.E.R., along with Miles, Anya, and Joey.

Unlike Riri, Nadia, America, and Alison, Cindy and the rest of Peni’s little Spider Society are going to be showing up in future stories.  And if I can get everything in order, they will be starring in their own story set in the Big Hero 6 universe.

Finally, I have no emblem for them, but the honorable mention goes to...

6.) Lunella Lafayette/Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur - Yes, there was a point in time where I was seriously considering putting a nine-year-old super genius and a giant red T-rex into my stories.

Ignoring the giant...”red flag” here, the reason why Luna never made it is the same reason why I haven’t put Rishi in anything yet.  It’s because I don’t really know what to do with supergeniuses that young.  Hiro is at least a teenager and thus has teenager-y problems to fall back on (like puberty and Karmi and all that jazz), but a nine-year-old?  That’s a little too extreme for me.

When I was nine, I was busy playing with sticks in my backyard with my brother, not solving unsolvable puzzles from Bruce Banner.

...All that, and the giant dinosaur.

But hey, at least Disney is jumping on the MG/DD train.  That’s good to see.

Crossover potential, perhaps?

P.S. - As I was finishing putting this post together, it occurred to me that I may get this possible question in the comments, so I’m going to head it off at the pass.

“You know that all of your possible superheroes are girls, right?”

First of all...sexist.

Second of all...true.

That was about 90% on accident.  The actual team (Robbie, Aspen, Peni, Doreen, and Kate) has only one guy on it (two if you count Eli, three if you count Tippy-Toe).

I don’t really have a good explanation for that.  I like all superheroes, but I think that the girl and woman superheroes need some spotlight, you know?  I could have pulled people like Namor or Miles or the male Hawkeye into the mix, but to be honest, I find the characters I chose more interesting than a lot of the guy characters I was contemplating.

Of course, nothing is stopping any of you from using those characters in your stories.  Be my guest, not that you really need my permission or anything.

But you can’t take Aspen.  Aspen is mine. (Spoiler: Aspen is not mine.)

[lastavenged]

Call this the effects of therapy or the result of a spirit that refused to break, but Nadia's place in the world is to be free and caring. She notices things, small things, and maybe its the fact that was a girl genius, had to be the smartest, and small details could make a breakthrough. So the fact that he hadn't eaten anything does not go unnoticed.

Nadia only smiles when Bucky, the man with the star, points out that she worries over others too much. A hum as she decides to reject his statement that she doesn't have to, ❝ Well, I like that about me, caring for people. ❞ The little wasp stops what she was doing to scavenge her belongings for a granola bar to which she finds and present to Bucky.

❝ It's not much, but we could go get real food ⸺ I am kind of hungry. ❞ That's a lie, but she could eat and Bucky should eat.

❛ when was the last time you ate something? ❜

𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐄𝐋𝐒𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐆𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐍 𝐀 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐇𝐘 𝐆𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐁𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐘. Nadia was special though. He forced as much of a smile that he could. She always did notice things about people most didn't.

❝ You worry too much about everyone else ya know that? ❞ Excusing the fact that he hadn't eaten in the last twenty four hours , he shrugged it off. ❝ I'll be fine kiddo. You don't gotta worry about me. ❞

@lastavenged.

[fyeahunstoppablewasp]

Ying, stop trying to be funny...

Ying is Nadia’s best friend... and her jokes are a bit... well...

[chaosrisingverse]

NADIA VAN DYNE, twenty

ALIAS | Wasp IV / Wicked Wasp

FAMILY | Hank Pym aka Ant-Man (father), Janet van Dyne aka Wasp (mother), Hope van Dyne (sister), Loren van Dyne (brother), Henry Pym Jr. (brother), (siblings tba)

ENDGAME SHIP | Gloria Juarez and Piper Reilly

ORIENTATION | asexual lesbian, cis woman

POWERS / ABILITIES / EQUIPMENT

POWERS | Enhanced Strength, Flight, Insect Communication (via Wasp Suit), Size Alteration, Wasp’s Sting (via Pym Particles in her Bloodsteam), Enhanced Durability, Enhanced Immune System, Enhanced Longevity, Peak Human Endurance, Peak Human Healing, Peak Human Reflexes, Peak Human Speed, Peak Human Stamina, Peak Human Strength (via Artificially-Enhanced Physiology)

ABILITIES | Graceful Dancer, Master Acrobat, Master Assassin, Master Martial Artist, Master Spy, Multilingual, Talented Hacker, Weapons Expert (via the Red Room Academy’s Black Widow OPs program), Genius Level Intellect

EQUIPMENT | owner of her Wasp suit

FACECLAIM | Kaylee Bryant

PINTEREST | Nadia

[geekeryisafoot]

Can I read Loki agent if asgaurd if I haven’t read anything else by marvel I’m looking for an entry point

I think it's possible to start with Agent of Asgard if that's the only one that really piques your interest, but I'd suggest reading Young Avengers (2013) by Kieron Gillen first. It's the story set immediately before Agent of Asgard and provides a lot of context and character development for Loki that leads into Agent of Asgard. Plus it's a really fun series about a group of queer young adults having mutliversal adventures

If you're looking for a good entry point for Marvel comics as a whole though, my top suggestions would be

Young Avengers (2013) by Kieron Gillen again

Ms. Marvel: No Normal (2014) by G Willow Wilson. This introduces Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American teen superhero and Marvel's most prominent Muslim character. The tone is mostly standard teen superhero adventures, and the art is warm, fun, and quirky

Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon (2012) by Matt Fraction. Watch Hawkeye/Clint Barton be a sad disaster of a person while dealing with Russian bro gangsters. The panel layouts in this comic are some of the most inventive and unique I've read in all of comics

Unstoppable Wasp (2017) by Jeremy Whitley. This introduces Nadia Van Dyne, a genius teen scientist and a contagious ray of sunshine despite her tragic backstory. It's a perfect combo of funny, sincere, and touching

To be honest, getting into superhero comics is mostly about finding a character you like, reading everything you can with them in it, and as you do that you gradually find more and more characters you like and want to read about

[hellyeahheroes]

Heroines of WOCtober: Lunella Lafayette

Lunella Lafayette a.k.a. Moon Girl is a brilliant girl from Yancy Street (in Marvel Universe best known for where Fantastic Four’s Ben Grimm grew up in). One day she witnessed opening of a portal to another world where dinosaurs never died and the human race never evolved. From it came a mighty red T. Rex know as Devil Dinosaur and the two become friends. With time Lunella has discovered both that she has in herself DNA of an Inhuman - superpowered people created by experiments of alien Kree who activate their powers by exposure to mythical Terrigen Mists - and that she isn’t just a genius, but in fact the new smartest person on Earth.

Recommended Readings:

Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur #1-47 - Main story chronicling Lunella’s adventures.

Secret Warriors #1-12 - During Hydra’s conquest of the United States Lunella teams up with other Inhumans - Kamala Khan, Daisy Johnson, Inferno, and Karnak - to fight them.

Monsters Unleashed #1-5 - Moon Girl is involved in facing against an alien invasion and befriends Keji Kawade, the boy whose power to summon monsters may be Earth’s only hope.

Monsters Unleashed #12 - Follow-up series to the above one, Lunella teams-up with Keji again.

The Unstoppable Wasp #2-3 - Nadia Van Dyne has been recruiting brilliant girls to her Genius In Action Research Lab, so of course, she comes aks Lunella.

Venom #152-153 - Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur help Venom fight Stegodon the Dinosaur Man

Fantastic Four #10 - Fantastic Four moves to Yancy Street and that means Lunella gets to meet both Reed Richards and his equally brilliant daughter Valeria - will the two get along?

In Other Media

Lunella is a playable character in Marvel Future Fight, Marvel Avengers Academy and Champions DLC for Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2

Lunella will be the main character of the upcoming Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur animated series

- Admin

[ayellowbirds]

The romance of Shay and Ying, from the Unstoppable Wasp, 2017 & 2018-present runs. Please note the canon use of “tiny gay disaster” (and Nadia’s inability to remember Matt Murdock’s name).

After joining up with the Genius In action Research Labs team founded by Nadia (daughter of Hank Pym and his first wife), Priscilla Layshayla Smith is called upon to assist in removing a miniature bomb from the base of the neck of Ying, Nadia’s best friend and fellow super-genius former prisoner of the secret “Red Room” assassin training organization/facility. Helping to devise a tool that uses tech based on the phasing abilities of the Vision, she literally reaches in and yanks out the bomb, helping to thwart the machinations of the surviving members of the Red Room’s “Science Class” and save both Ying and Nadia. Things develop from there....

Writing by Jeremy Whitley, art by Elsa Charretier and Gurihiru.

[coredrill]

alright, here are my thoughts on the unstoppable wasp novel! i’ve put the majority of my thoughts, and LOTS of spoilers, below the cut. short summary is that . . . i didn’t really like it at all :/

so, i’m gonna preface this by saying that i wanted to absolutely LOVE this book. it’s all about nadia and she is one of my all-time favorite characters and it’s so great that she got the spotlight in this way! i just really really wish i could, in good faith, say that the book was good, but i just can’t. and admittedly, i consider the unstoppable wasp comics to be nearly perfect, which is a high bar to hit, but there was just so much about this book that left a bad taste in my mouth.

first thing i want to mention is the role of the rest of the g.i.r.l.s. and when i say that, i mean that they had virtually no role. i genuinely wasn’t sure if i (the reader) was expected to have read the comics before the novel. on one hand, the first few chapters were spent pretty much summing up the comics, which is fine, especially because some readers may not have read the comics. on the other hand, if i hadn’t read the comics, there’s NO WAY i would’ve known anything about the other g.i.r.l.s!! they’re barely present in the plot of the book! they are present in one scene in the beginning, taina has a few lines throughout, and they’re more involved at the end, but a lot of the times they seemed more like wallpaper than actual characters. especially because of the frequency with which the author would throw in lines such as “that ethiopian place that shay likes” or “priya’s on-trend jeans” and just name-drop them without really giving them any substance. since i know the comics, i already know these characters--but if i was just reading the novel with no background? there’s no way i’d be able to keep them straight.

building off of what i said in that last point, i also wanted to mention that i listened to the women of marvel podcast interview with the author. something that i noticed is that she would always refer to the g.i.r.l.s as the “g.i.r.l. squad.” and that, i think, is the root of why i didn’t like how they were handled. it’s obviously pretty simple to explain their absence in the story by just noting that the whole point was that nadia was feeling alone and isolated from them. HOWEVER, in my opinion as a woman who has been in engineering . . . that doesn’t happen? nadia and the g.i.r.l.s are labmates--it’s right there in the title. they ARE the genius in action research labs. the “lab” isn’t just the location, it’s the people who make it up. by referring to them as “g.i.r.l. squad” instead of just “g.i.r.l.,” the author is changing the dynamics from “being a cohesive unit of girls who make up this incredible group and support each other in their science and goals” to “friend group who all happen to do science.” and as i mentioned, the random falling-out that happens in the book doesn’t happen to groups of the first type. being a girl in stem SUCKS. being in a stem class means that you’re automatically friends with the 1-2 other girls in there with you. and the people you work on projects with in a lab? the other girls who take the time to support you and have your back even though the odds are stacked against you? those are a whole different kind of friendships and i PROMISE they’re not wrecked by just forgetting to talk to each other. the girls that i worked with in college--the girls that i worked with now--it’s for survival. you don’t just fall apart like nadia apparently did from the g.i.r.l.s in this book.

okay. final bullet point on this topic. but in the women of marvel interview, the author said that she wanted to explore what could break apart the bonds that the g.i.r.l.s had formed. but on page 263, there’s the line “and if they had all just been a little better at communicating, maybe it wouldn’t have been so long before one of them realized that nadia was relying a little too closely on that little gold device.” so this deep dive into splitting the g.i.r.l.s apart, and barely giving shay, taina, ying, and priya a role in the story--was caused by MISCOMMUNICATION??? no freaking thanks LMAO. even without everything i’ve already mentioned, that trope is so lazy.

the writing style kinda bothered me at some points--i remember the discharge being described as “carbon dioxide” at one point, but like, just call it white foam. it’s so much easier and saying carbon dioxide pulled me out of what was happening. obviously this is a personal thing, not something objectively bad, but i still thought i’d mention it.

there seemed to be this point, around page 260, where it seems like the book flipped a switch. obviously, this is where the climax hit, but so many other things seemed to just randomly get pushed into place because the plot necessitated it? like, for example, nadia and the g.i.r.l.s are suddenly bffs again. even though, in nadia’s interior monologue, we’ve been hearing her resentment for them, it seemed like once the plot needed them to work together that they were able to do so without problem. and not only that, but it didn’t even feel earned? the book NEVER showed nadia and the g.i.r.l.s as actually like. being friends. (as i mentioned, not a choice i agree with, but still a fact.) so to have them all suddenly team up for the Big Boss Battle just felt weird and disengenuous to all of them. additionally, nadia went from defending margaret at all costs to suddenly thinking “oh yeah, she’s probably super evil. no big deal.” like WHAT??? the whole point of the first 250 pages was to show that nadia feels like margaret is the only person she can trust. all of a sudden she’s cool with her being evil??? make it make sense! you could see throughout the rest of the book that nadia was building up her Wrong Thoughts. sooooo much time was spent on it and we actually saw the development of how nadia felt. but to have her switch all that on a dime so that she can have her Right Thoughts now??? just in time for the Boss Battle? it just feels so unearned, since there’s nothing building to it. she just . . . changes her mind.

i also feel like writing a book where the protagonist, where the person whose perspective we’re following, is being MIND-CONTROLLED, but not revealing that mind control until the 11th hour (to validate the sudden switch from Wrong Thoughts to Right Thoughts) was just. a bit weird. i’m 22, but if i was reading this as a teenager, i’m not sure i would’ve quite gotten that the WHOLE BOOK was now being told by an unreliable narrator, with absolutely zero reliable information as a base (except the comics, of course).

ON PAGE 274. THERE IS ONE MENTION OF SHAY MAKING HER TELEPORTER PORTABLE. THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE FEAT OF SCIENCE AND SO GREAT FOR SHAY WHY WAS THIS NOT EXPANDED ON IN THE SLIGHTEST????

alright, time to talk about the nadia-being-ace thing. so, ever since i started reading unstoppable wasp, i’ve interpreted nadia as aroace. her version of friendships, her attempts to change the topic when romance for herself is brought up--these are all very authentically ace experiences. and that was okay for me to just have her coded that way! the writer of the comics, jeremy whitley, has included TWO (2!!!) ace characters in his raven pirate princess series so i definitely allowed myself to entertain the idea that the ace aspects of nadia were intentional. i was also okay with it not being explicitly mentioned in the comics--sure it would’ve been cool, but i understand that there are 18 issues TOTAL and it would be hard to fit the entirety of nadia’s story in there. BUT, when the author of this book mentioned that nadia was ace, and jeremy whitley confirmed that he’d been writing her as ace, it was awesome and super validating!! first of all, nadia being the first canonically ace marvel character--even just by word of god--is so freaking incredible and just adds to my enjoyment of the story. i’m very glad that we got confirmation and that i can continue reading the comics knowing, at the very least, that my ace reading of them is backed up by the canon (!!!!!). however, the author of this novel 100% used it as a marketing tactic which is super shitty. i was obviously going to read it anyway, since it was about nadia, but i do know people who bought it specifically because the author mentioned nadia being ace. and there was maybe one throwaway line in the novel about how nadia was only interested in romance ~theoretically.~ that’s not rep. in fact, it’s even less rep than the comics, which represented nadia being ace (at least in my opinion) far more authentically than this novel did. i’d honestly even go so far as to say it was riiiight up against the line of queerbaiting--yes nadia is canonically queer, but only by word of mouth, and it’s not mentioned even once in the story. that’s bad. using ace people for marketing--baiting them into buying your book on the promise of rep which we already have so little of--is so so shitty. yes, i am glad that we got that confirmation from jeremy whitley who never used this to promote the comics and didn’t even mention it until now, but i genuinely cannot believe that this author (who is bi! i checked her twitter!) effectively used it to market her awful book. honestly if the book weren’t bad enough already, to add this on top of it is even WORSE.

in the same vein, the author mentioned ying and shay being in a wlw relationship in the same interview where she mentioned nadia being ace. ying and shay are barely in the novel and EVEN WORSE, their relationship is kind of treated as an “obstacle” that nadia and the other g.i.r.l.s have to overcome in order to start working as a unit again. also bad!!!!!

okay. i think i’ve got this and one more bullet point, so we’ll see how it goes. but the way that the science in this book was handled was atrocious. sure, we had the cute science facts, but there is one (1) paragraph on page 311 about the g.i.r.l.s doing science for the sake of doing science and helping their community. IN THE WHOLE BOOK. you know a great way to demonstrate to women that they shouldn’t go into stem fields? write a cautionary book about the ~dangers of ai and data collection~ AS IF ANYONE LIVING IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW DOESN’T KNOW THAT SHIT. jesus fucking christ. the comics showed all of this great science by the way of the g.i.r.l.s papers, shay making her teleporter at home, defusing the bomb in ying’s head, recreating the vision gloves, tai’s sports robots . . . this book had NONE of that. it literally just had the evils that we see in the news EVERY DAY. that’s not what you show people to get them excited, and i find it really fucking weird that ANYONE greenlit a book about characters who support and encourage women to go into stem fields with the overall message of “science bad!” like. how the fuck was this plot approved. in the women of marvel interview, the author claims that she’s written about women in science before--and i believe her. i just don’t think that she’s ever actually spoken to a woman in science.

and lastly, i have a huge issue with the role of hope in the book. by that, i mean that the novel is called “built on hope” but hope is literally never a theme throughout the book? so yet another instance of the book building off the comics without any form of payoff. the unstoppable wasp comics are kind, and loving, and hopeful. this book is callous and condescending and seems more concerned with its sassy one-liners about white dudes and ham-fisted pop culture references than LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE, including hope. nadia claims to love her friends but spends the majority of the book shitting on them. nadia lies to janet to “avoid hurting her” but the end of unstoppable wasp 10 showed the flip side of the situation where nadia and jan realize that although janet was hiding the truth about hank from nadia, nadia wanted to hear the information anyway!! and i just--WHY would you take a character who has been explicitly used in the past to introduce girls to women in stem (the interviews with real people in the back of the comics!) AND THEN WRITE HER INTO A FUCKING CAUTIONARY “TECHNOLOGY BAD” STORY??? it’s SO discordant with the comics and i genuinely hope that anyone reading this book goes and read the comics themselves, which are incredible and a bajillion times better than this book in all aspects. i’m finishing this “review” a lot more fired up then when i started typing it but i honestly can’t believe that marvel greenlit THIS and not like. 2 more comics.

so, yeah, those are my thoughts. kudos to anyone who actually made it through the whole thing (if anyone does), it’s egregiously long but i needed to put my thoughts somewhere! tldr: i will not be recommending this to my mom.