The Queen Bee is dead, long live the queen. This issue, Janet van Dyne, the glamorous founding Avengers and sometimes sidekick, and wife to Dr. Pym, also known as Yellow Jacket, dies. The Skrulls had implanted within her a dangerous disease that they could activate at their behest, should their invasion of planet Earth fail. And fail it did. The coalition of super heroes got the upper hand and defeated the Skrulls' remnants while putting everything back in place. Now, it’s the villains’ time to shine.
The only thing I liked about
Secret Invasion was the setup. However, the entire mini-series was one bad comic book. It had no story, only fights, and numerous accounts of racisms. If the Skrulls were an actual human race, this racism would have been clearer for most readers. Substitute the Skrulls with Muslims or Chinese and the racism will jump at you.
Moreover, you have superheroes killing sentient life every pages. I remember in one crossover series from Marvel Comics that influenced the
Secret Invasion,
Operation Galactic Storm that Captain America nearly broke up the Avengers for killing the sentient computer program that ruled the Kree, the old adversary of the Skrulls. At the time, Captain American had solidly scolded all the Avengers that had participated in the execution. It was clear, in these days, that Marvel Comics and its main heroes stood for something.
In
Secret Invasion, the super heroes don’t stand for anything. You have nerds like Mr. Fantastic choking Skrulls to death. You’ve got former happy go lucky and Captain America groupie like Hawkeye dreaming about how many Skrulls they can kill. Even Spider-Man kills, albeit off screen. It used to be that only a few Marvel Comics characters, like the Punisher and Wolverine were ever allowed to cross that line. Nowadays, with the current regime in charge of Marvel Comics, killing is a common activity enjoyed and practiced by all of its superheroes.
In these types of events, a major character must always die; it seems, to drive home the fact that “this is serious business.” This time, the Wasp died. It’s ironic that Wasp, the character that finally came into her own during the first major confrontation of the Avengers with the Skrulls, the famous
Kree-Skrull War that was the inspiration for both
Operation Galactic Storm and the
Secret Invasion, had to end ungraciously.
In the
Kree-Skrull War, the Wasp finally proved that after years of acting like a debutante in the midst of the Avengers, that she could lead them to victory and that she had something to contribute, no matter what her powers and size were. It is doubly ironic, that in its quest to make her a more formidable character, by giving her growth powers of a giant, that this is what was proved to be the demise of the Wasp. After all these years of being thought of as a weakling and annoying pest, her new formidable powers were not enough to save her and actually poisoned her.
Most comic book readers will not shed a tear for the Wasp. They don’t care about her and she probably has a limited fan club. Nevertheless, she was a unique character, the likes of which we lack in comic books. The Wasp, started as a damsel in distress saved by Ant-Man, what Dr. Pym called himself in these days. Soon, she was given powers and joined her boyfriend in his superhero adventures. By convenience, more than actual respect, she was the token woman of the Avengers when they were founded, but never the focus or the highlight of the team. In the relationship that she had with Pym, she was the stable and strong part. She was rich, smart and in control of her destiny. The one thing that the Wasp was known for was her uncanny ability to have a different superhero costume almost every issue she starred in.
But such gimmicks are no longer fashionable or useful to a comic book publisher that is increasingly becoming a manager of intellectual property. From 2004 to now, the Wasp has had one comic book costume, mainly based on the action figure that was made about her. Jim Shooter, the Marvel Comic’s editor in chief that was responsible for allowing the Wasp to come out of her cocoon, once said that Iron Man action comic books from the early 1980s had to draw a nose bump on the character’s facemask, because an action figure sold at the time had one. It was, in the pre-convergent world, an attempt to make the comic book match the more lucrative action figure it was helping to sell. The Wasp, that unique character, obviously did not fit in the new mandate by Marvel Comics.
An
Ant-Man movie is on the way. Surely, a girlfriend with powers similar to the main character is a complicated thing to explain to explain to the public. It’s considerably easier if the Wasp in the comic book is out of the picture, so no questions have to be explained about her in an eventual movie. I would call it the reduction of women into token damsel in distress. At least, the Wasp dies as a damsel in distress and did not even get to say a word or express herself. Instead, villains paraphrased her last moments.
The Wasp was not a very powerful character, yet she was included in the latest version of the
Avengers comic book. It was stated from the beginning that in this new Avengers’ team, only world shakers were allowed. The Wasp was an anachronism in this day and age where powers is the sole measure of character.
The Wasp was a woman who although her husband, Dr. Pym, had battered her, had fought back and proved herself better than him. But in superhero comic books, strong female characters are not interesting or worth keeping, unless they have special cleavage. Oh, the Wasp was not ugly at all and she had the required big breasts and large derrière. However, her sex appeal was never her main quality. She was petite and a brunette with short hair. Maybe as part of her many costume changes, she should have dyed her hair blond, like Black Canary, let it grow longer and put on a more revealing costume.
There were other plot problems with the Secret Invasion, besides the badly written story and contrived dialogues. If there was a Skrull pretending to be Captain America, then how come the original had not been taken away by the Skrulls when they cloned him and his abilities? Is that the loophole that will allow the Captain to comeback, or am I giving Marvel Comics too much credit? And what about Mockingbird, who clearly died and did not revert to a Skrull shape when she died – the Skrulls turn green when they die?
Who knows? What this tells me is that it’s time for me to stop paying attention to many comic books, in particular those from Marvel Comics. As
The Comic Book Bin, is no longer in their media list, it would be a reasonable thing for us to do anyway.
I’d like to invite my fellow comic book readers, in these dire times to start exploring other comic books by people not affiliated with Marvel Comics. There is much better stuff out there, that you and I have not paid attention to, because we are so worried and concerned about the latest useless plot development from comic book characters whose only function is to exist long enough to sell us a T-shirt, a film, a video game or an action figure. The moment they do not serve these functions, they are expendable. But just to preserve its trademark on the Wasp, expect Ant-Man II’s daughter to soon adopt the name The Wasp in honour to her recently deceased surrogate aunt.
Okay, artwork. The only thing I liked in this issue was the disjointed jaw of the Queen of the Skrulls, who, by the way, is the second queen bee to die this issue. I’m not exactly sure how the Wasp died, as Yu is not a good storyteller. All I saw was her mouth open so wide, she could swallow the state of California and some purple lines like a tornado around her. Apparently, Thor killed her. I can’t quite tell, Yu is more interested in drawing posters than actual comic book panels that reveal a story.
Of course, I can’t give this comic book a decent grade. But, I must ask all comic book readers hooked on Marvel Comics, to use the little disposable money they have left to spend it on comic books that do not degrade their intelligence like
Secret Invasion and to encourage promising creators that have something to challenge them and for whom creating comic books is not about keeping the brand alive long enough so they can sign a movie deal. Please support real comic books and people that actually care about putting out a good product.
I concur... Both DC's and Marvel's big events have become boring trash. I hope that we'll see more single issue stories in the future instead of this sort of thing... and so many artists today create great one-page panels that are unclear and do not help the story progress....
Besides, Marvel is killing their limited series by overpricing them. Time to stop buying them!
So now you can't use any metaphor for current issues????
I thought is was fine, considering you can look at the heroes or skrulls as muslim or american the war on terror metaphor. yawn. bady commontary. and if you do such commontary do research on the actual events and how like with the fundamentalists of Islam it is a holy war, repent or die attitude. as well, the wasp is dead, and that's ok.
Racism? The racism made it bad? what in god's name do you think this comic book was? The entire story has been an allegory of the US war on terrorism. Did you ever stop to ask yourself why you could place Muslims in the Skrulls' place and have that "racism" be more clear? Extremist Skrulls doing what they think is right according to their faith, no matter if they die? The heroes doing all they think is right, even to the point of violating the rights of their heroes to keep safe and it not working? And then the heroes going all ape-shit with violence and *gasp* doing away with morals and killing, all happy with the thought that pretty much everyone shares their rage? Oh... and of course, an essentially evil man rising to power due to the sentiment of them vs us. Wow. Way to miss the point.
let's make a list of racist themes in entertainment:
-star trek
-star wars
-battlestar galactica
-the movie "alien" (seriously, if you turn those things into jews, this movie would make hitler get a boner)
-ghostbusters (what if all those ghosts were black?)
the list goes on and on. let's put an end to racism. NO MORE EVIL-DOERS IN COMIC BOOKS OR MOVIES! THEY CAN EASILY BE REPLACED BY ANYONE ELSE, WHICH IS UNFAIR TO EVERYONE!
I guess the skrulls INVADING the earth is not racism thats okay. So the heroes should allow them to invade and not want to "kill as many as possible". You remind me of the peacenecks actually in the comic with the protest signs going up to skrulls welcoming them before the skrulls attacked them.
wow until I read your article herve I thought that those types of people presented in the comic as caring about the skrulls (willing dupes) was an exaggeration now I realize they do exist and you are a perfect example. amazing.
Lovely article. Thank you for standing up for Skrull rights.
We are a peacefull people and should not be maligned. In though we invaded your earth without real cause it would be very racist to promote your heroes to kill us or oppose us. We will let you live on the earth after we have taken over. You see how peacefull and fair we are.
We will make sure their is a place for you when we take over your precious world. You Mr St. Louis can help us round up your more stubborn fellow humans who might not be as enlightened as you. And remember my friend...
I agree with everything you said. Why is it that when the Punisher does the same thing, he's considered a psychopath and a murderer by the super hero community? How many times have Magneto went on a genocidal, killing spree and the only person willing to kill him is Wolverine.
There has been countless times when a hero could have killed a villian who is not only a murderer(sometimes mass murderer), but would do the exact same thing whenever they escape prison, yet these same heroes refuse to kill them for some moral reason! I understand that war is war, but some things that even our soldiers are not allowed to do. The whole point of this series was for marvel to show as much blood and gore as possible, and get away with it, because they're just skrulls anyways.
Now Marvel is jumping into yet another comic series right after they just finished one where Namor, Emma Frost, Doctor Doom, Loki, and Hood tries to create a New world Order. But I bet after it is all over, the heroes aren't going to kill them!
Spot on review. Wasp's death served no narrative purpose and was a cheap gimmick thrown in at the end so the reader could think, "Oh, wow. This is important!"
The bloodthirsty behavior of all heroes involved was out of character and poorly done. The whole point of the Avengers is to save sentient life. Want to make them all mini-Punishers? Fine. They're no longer the team I grew up reading. Makes a reader REALLY miss Steve Rogers.
you think that this book series is racist? man! what an asshole! the skrulls are the bad guys!
and i mourn the wasps death. i hope so much that maybe it was a skrull DISGUISED as the wasp that died. and i looove janet just the way she is! you want her with big boobs, more revaling costume and long blonde hair? what a perv you are!
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