CREDIT: Marvel Comics
Rating: 5/5 – Life Lessons and Empowerment From a New Wasp.
by ComicSpectrum reviewer Adam Brunell
Recently, the daughter of Hank Pym was introduced into the Marvel Universe, and her name is Nadia. The story goes, Hank Pym was married to Maria Trovaya, and they were captured and divided by enemies. During captivity, Hank did not know Maria was pregnant, and presumed her dead. Maria died after giving birth to their daughter; Nadia was then taken and raised in the Red Room. For those that may not be familiar with it, the Red Room is the organization that trained, manipulated, tortured and altered Black Widow into the merciless spy she once was. Nadia is pretty upbeat for being in the Red Room for most of her life, and in the first issue released we get to know a lot more about her.
I’m going to start out by saying, that grabbing this comic was not something I initially wanted to do. That personal choice was nothing in regards to writer Jeremy Whitley or artist Elsa Charretier, both have amazing work, but I didn’t feel it would be something I would find interesting. A solo series for a new character that has a shared superhero name with a rather flaky back story, just sounded like a bad idea to me, but I grabbed it anyway to give it a shot. The regular cover done by Charretier is playful and well done, it gives a very happy party feel to the comic and possibly the character. Once I got inside the comic, the art was bright and colorful, something I thought I would see in something targeted at preteens or little kids. But once I started reading, everything just meshed. Whitley and Charretier are a well-rounded duo for the debut of the new Wasp, the writing style is eccentric and creative, and it matches the art style so well that I was captivated. The story isn’t just about Nadia and her new life as a hero, but anyone she encounters. Her positive outlook on life and everyone she meets gives a much needed perspective for all readers. Nadia is just as intelligent as her father, possibly more intelligent. The top smartest people in the Marvel Universe have always been structured with more men than women at the top of the list, until recently when Moon Girl took a test left behind by Bruce Banner that ranked her to the top of the list. Nadia doesn’t feel a list designed with structured questions should justify just how intelligent someone is. Nadia is an inventor, an artist, and believes that being able to pass a test doesn’t make you the smartest person in the world. This issue includes guest appearances by Ms. Marvel and Mockingbird; the characters bring up some good old fashioned life lessons and some well-deserved history of characters in the Marvel Universe. At the end of the comic there is a question and answers page dedicated to women in the real world that are doing something amazing like Nadia. It’s great that this comic isn’t gives recognition to women in both the Marvel Universe and in the world who are just as amazing as the characters in the comic.
Though I wasn’t originally going to try this comic, I’m glad I did. The dialogue for Nadia’s character is a breath of fresh air when it comes to personality and perspective. The character analyses like a wondering mind, and this is brought to life on the pages of the comic. During the battle scene the reader is presented with Nadia’s mechanical knowledge of how things function and work. A scene with a robot provides details into how the parts of the robot functions, which I found highly interesting. I had mentioned life lessons, and this comes into play when Wasp crosses the road without looking first, which brings up a safety tip from Ms. Marvel. As a kid from the 80’s and 90’, I miss this type of knowledge and lessons being provided during Saturday morning cartoons or comics. What started as a comic I didn’t want to read turned into one of my favorite recent reads and is now on my pull list at my local comic shop.
Reviewed by: Adam Brunell
(adamb@comicspectrum.com)
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I was dead-set against this series as I am so burned out on all of Marvel’s replacement heroes, but I gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised. I doubt I will continue to buy it, but am glad that some people will be.