﻿Hey guys, I’m Kya and it’s about time the MCU gave the spotlight to a female superhero,
even if she does have to share it.
Ant-Man and the Wasp, teaming up!
Follow my lead!
The wondrous Wasp might not be a solo star yet,
but she never gets second-billing when it comes to fashion.
The Wasp has worn well over a hundred different costumes,
far more than we can fit in a single video,
but there’s still a lot we can learn from this sub-atomic style icon.
so wax up your wings and sharpen your stingers,
because on this episode of Yellow Spandex, we’re talking about
The Evolution of the Wasp’s Costume
We start, as always, with the comics,
where a charming young socialite named Janet Van Dyne joined the ranks of Marvel’s most elite heroes in
The Early Years
When we first met Janet Van Dyne,
she was introduced as a spoiled rich girl.
But after her father was murdered by an alien,
Hank, and the readers,
saw a different side of her.
She was tough, resilient, and determined to bring the killers to justice,
so Hank recruited her for his fight against evil.
But unlike Ant-Man, whose insect powers were purely cybernetic,
the Wasp’s wings and antennae are actually part of her body.
Somehow, Hank convinced this woman he just met to let him implant sub-dermal cells into her skin,
that would sprout into disgusting insect appendages once she shrunk.
He also just happened to have a costume ready for her, too.
It comes off as slightly creepy,
but either way, this is the classic Wasp look,
a dynamic red tunic over dark blue leggings,
with a big pointy helmet,
I guess because the Comics Code wouldn’t let them put a stinger on her butt.
This was the ‘60s, after all,
and she was very much Ant-Man’s sidekick,
whose portrayal ranged from ditzy to downright sexist.
Jan was aloof and flighty,
she flirted with Thor to make Hank jealous,
and she cared more about looking cute than crushing evil.
Stereotypes aside, the Wasp still played a huge role in Marvel’s Silver Age.
She was a founding member of the Avengers,
and even gave the team its name.
She was there when they discovered Captain America’s frozen body,
Went to battle with the Kree and Skrulls,
and led the Avengers in repelling a siege from the Masters of Evil.
Almost as impressive, she wore a different outfit every time.
Let’s dive into the Wasp’s
Wonderful Wardrobe
Most superheroes have pretty boring civilian careers.
They’re usually photographers, reporters, or generic billionaire CEOs.
How did you get the house back from the bank?
I bought the bank.
Janet Van Dyne, on the other hand, was a fashion designer.
This was probably just Stan Lee’s idea of a ‘girly’ profession for the first female Avenger,
but it became one of her defining features,
and she used her skills to design dozens of new super suits for every occasion.
It started off subtly as she phased out the pointy helmet,
but as her confidence as a hero grew,
Jan began making more drastic changes to her wardrobe,
with some help from the artists of Marvel, of course.
Next to the Kirby classic, this design might be the wasp’s most iconic look.
It’s surprisingly plain, with a high-collared unitard over a contrasting undersuit,
with no logos or W’s in sight.
She also dropped the helmet completely,
to show off her ‘60s bob.
This costume appeared in several different color schemes,
but for some reason she kept returning to a McDonald’s red and yellow.
She eventually settled on a blue and gold palette that would inspire her modern designs,
but first, she had to make it through the far-out fashion of the ‘70s.
Not all of the Wasp’s outfits were winners,
there were a few unfortunate experiments with plaid,
but the costumes kept coming,
and when artist George Perez began his legendary stint on ‘The Avengers,’
the Wasp’s wardrobe got even whackier.
Perez made Jan’s uniform changes part of her persona.
He said that she went through so many looks while he was drawing the series,
it became almost mandatory for artists who came after him to introduce a new costume or three.
But Perez’s flashy fashion sense was hard to follow.
His suits ranged from gaudy to gorgeous,
filled with interesting colors and outrageous cuts,
best exemplified by this disco-tastic design from 1980.
It was an extravagant era,
but as the ‘80s came to a close,
Jan underwent some serious shake-ups before finally landing on
The Modern Wasp
The ‘90s were a period of excess and extremes,
where the men were nine-foot tall Rob Liefeld monstrosities,
and the women were barely dressed.
The male gaze fixated on Jan too,
and she wore her fair share of skimpy costumes during this period.
Not practical but cool.
But the biggest change came during a 1995 event called ‘The Crossing.’
After she was mortally wounded by an evil Iron Man,
Hank put Jan through the same procedure that gave her her initial powers.
This time, it formed a cocoon around her,
and when she emerged, Jan was mutated into a insectoid monster... Thing.
But it looked good!
The radical physical changes didn’t last long, though,
Because the Avengers sacrificed themselves to stop Onslaught,
and when the heroes were reborn, Jan was inexplicably back to her human self.
She underwent several more costume changes during this period,
but the Wasp eventually found her look for the new millenium.
This sleek black and yellow design from 1998 was inspired by the colors of actual wasps,
and with a few changes, it would became her most iconic uniform of the modern age.
It inspired everything from her Ultimate incarnation,
to her MCU design.
Currently, Jan is rocking a slightly modified version with a little more armor,
but she’s not the only Wasp zipping around the Marvel Universe right now.
Hank Pym’s long-lost daughter Nadia has recently resurfaced,
and as a superhero-in-training, Jan has taken her under her wings.
Her red and black costume is an homage to the Wasp’s origins,
which means the pointy helmet is finally back.
And just beneath it, she’s rocking a modern hairdo that looks suspiciously like Evangeline Lilly from
The Movies
The Wasp first appeared outside the comics in the same cheapo cartoon her husband did,
and like Hank, she popped up in most Avengers adaptations.
Her most noteworthy animated appearance has to be ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes,’
which basically turned her into a kawaii anime girl.
This Jan has some of the shallower aspects of her earlier character,
but she matured as the series progressed,
until it was abruptly cancelled in favor of the MCU-esque ‘Avengers Assemble’ and yes I am still mad.
If you tell me to sit this one out, I'll zap you in your stupid metal face!
...I was going to tell you to hit them with everything you've got.
You okay? Did I hurt--
Speaking of the MCU, the first 'Ant-Man' movie made some big changes to the lore.
Hank and Jan were still the original power couple,
but their adventures took place decades in the past.
We don’t see a lot of Jan’s vintage wasp costume,
but it looks fairly similar to Ant-Man’s, just with a more feminine cut and slightly pointy helmet.
Based on what we’ve seen so far,
We’ll get a closer look at it in the new movie,
once Michelle Pfeiffer’s Jan returns from the Quantum Realm.
The ‘real’ MCU Wasp is Hope Van Dyne,
Hank and Jan’s daughter.
Who was a combination of Nadia,
and their child from an alternate future called Hope Pym.
We get a peek at her sleek, sleeveless Wasp uniform at the end of ‘Ant-Man,’
This is an advanced prototype that your mother and I worked on together.
She never got to use it. Now that I realize that we were working on it for you.
and it looks like she made some modifications between the first film and the sequel,
because in the upcoming movie,
she’s rocking a costume with some more practical arm protection.
Overall, it’s a great mix of the classic and modern suits,
with a gold armor design inspired by her current costume,
and a pointy helmet that harkens back to her ‘60s roots.
I maybe would have liked it to be a little bolder or brighter,
but Hope isn’t her mother,
she’s her own hero,
and her suit might just put Paul Rudd’s to shame.
Hold on, you gave her wings?
And blasters.
So I take it you didn't have that tech available for me.
No, I did.
Lilly certainly embraced it more than her male counterparts.
Do I have the most comfortable suit in the MCU? Or, have men not have the life experience of being uncomfortable for the sake of looking good?
Either way,
Ant-Man and the Wasp are cornerstones of the Marvel Universe,
and whether they’re taller than skyscrapers,
or tinier than a tachyon,
they’re the perfect fit for the MCU.