Today, we see how no matter how often people try to explain it, Wasp and Yellowjacket's wedding made no sense.
This is "How Can I Explain?", which is a feature spotlighting inexplicable comic book plots.
Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne have had one of the most tumultuous relationships in the history of the Marvel Universe, as they went from partners in crimefighting to founding members of the Avengers, at which point the Wasp would sped most issues trying to make Hank jealous y flirting with all of her male teammates. Eventually, they got married but Hank's metal health problems eventually lead to them divorcing after he struck her in a argument. They later reconciled, but writers are (fairly understandably) become sort of obsessed with that original domestic violence storyline and it has now become the central story that people think of when they they think of Hank and Jan's relationship. The amusing thing about that is that Hank and Jan have a whole OTHER messed up story in their pasts, their ridiculously nonsensical wedding!
It all began in 1968's Avengers #59, by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and George Klein, when a new hero named Yellowjacket shows up.
The Avengers have been waiting for their fifth member, Goliath, to show up for their morning meeting and he is quite late...
He tells them a story of a great conflict between himself and Goliath that ended with Goliath seemingly at death's door...
No matter what else you think about Yellowjacket, at the very least, the guy is one disturbed individual, as either he just murdered a Avenger and the bragged to the Avengers as he asked them to join, which is psychotic, or he made up an elaborate fantasy about murdering an Avenger which he just told to the Avengers as he asked them to let him join. That's ALSO REALLY BAD!!
The Avengers obviously then try to beat him up but he takes the Wasp hostage and escapes.
While in captivity, her feelings for Yellowjacket take a strange turn...
So when her teammates finally find them, she has shocking news for them...
Man, how great was Buscema with facial expressions?
I the next issue, Captain America is sort of the reader substitute as he hears the news ad he is totally confused and disturbed (although it is somewhat also disturbing that the only thing he can think of to get to the bottom of this is to become a member of the wedding party)...
And then the other Avengers fill in Cap and it's oh so depressing. "We can't prove he murdered our friend and teammate, so we just have to let Wasp marry him." "What can we do?" "Our hands are tied!" "No jury would convict him! So we just have to let him marry the Wasp."
But nooooooooo, they promised Ja, so they can't do anything about it. It makes no sense!
Cap's "Hey, Hawkeye, let's just see where this goes" position is just irreconcilable with their positions as superheroes. When they see a injustice, they deal with it, they don't just "see where it goes"!
So the weddig takes place ad he Avegers just let it happe, like suckers...
Hawkeye is captured by the Circus of Crime, who are crashing the wedding (the jerks!). Before they reveal themselves, they first have a giant python burst out of the wedding cake. Black Panther suspects Yellowjacket is behind it...
The it turs out that Yellowjacket is secretly Hank Pym, having suffered a metal breakdown, but Wasp took the opportunity to get married to him and the Avengers are all totally okay with this for some reason!
Years later, Joe Casey tried his best to make the story make sense in 2007's Earth's Mightiest Heroes II #5-7, where Casey (along with artists Will Rosado and Tom Palmer) shows that the Avengers actually all knew it was Hank right away...
But the a SHIELD mental health expert convinced them it was best to play along with it all...
Therefore, everything from this point on was just the Avengers play-acting (even, I guess, Panther's inner thoughts, from where he thought to himself that Yellowjacket was behind the attack on the Wasp. ).
Casey then gives Wasp a good scene in the next issues when she breaks down to Captain America, explaining why it was so important to play along for Hank's sake...
Casey does a amazing attempt here to have it make sense. Like, an AMAZING try, but at the same time, I still don't think it quite comes together enough for the whole thing to make sense, as I just don't quite buy the explanation by the S.H.I.E.L.D. mental health agent that this would be productive for Hank's psyche (but again, I really do appreciate how well Casey sells what he DOES sell, especially the stuff with Wasp trying to convince Cap to play along because of her fear for ever seeing Hank again. That's just marvelous work).
A number of years later, Bria Michael Bendis took his crack at explaining the marriage of Jan and Hank in this oral history thing that he was doing in the back of the Avengers and New Avengers series around 2010/2011, where he would have the heroes talk about their past as if they wee doing an oral history of the Avengers.
In New Avengers #7, the wedding came up...
And Bendis' take on it was that they came up with the whole Yellowjacket thig to avoid the publicity that would come with Hank and Jan getting married themselves...
It's also clever, but to avoid publicity she faked the death of her longterm boyfriend and then announced that she's marrying a stranger? And you show up in front of everyone in a hovercraft? To avoid the publicity? That really does not make any sense.
If anyone else can think of a good inexplicable comic book plot, write me at brianc@cbr.com!
Source: Trendz OH
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