The Darkhold: Wasp — "King Maker"

[deh_tommy]

Following a stinging personal assessment from Kang, Janet van Dyne’s doubts and frustrations regarding her marriage to fellow Avenger Hank Pym are starting to take a toll on her mental well-being.

Comments

[lordultimus]

The sad thing is this is one of the better portrayals of Hank in recent years.

[blueprintstyles]

Why does Marvel have to keep demonizing Hank Pym? The one Avenger that's identified with a real mental illness and they keep turning him into a monster. it's not like Tony keeps falling off the wagon and driving drunk.

[starwolf_oakley]

Hank hitting Janet, despite the unusual circumstances (she doesn't want him to use a remote-control robot to attack the Avengers during a court-martial), is seen as "every day evil."

As long_silence posted:
There's cartoonishly evil stuff like cloning Thor and then there's actions that could and do happen every day in real life.

It's like how fans hate Umbridge more than Voldemort. No-nose has done objectively worse things but Umbridge's abuse resonates more because it's relatable.

https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/7135577.html?thread=187724121#cmt187724121

[deh_tommy]

To be fair, these are messed up alternate reality scenarios, not strictly meant to represent the mainline universe. Previous issues before this had Blade kill humans and vampires indiscriminately and Tony Stark becoming a Cyberman.

[tinygaylaura]

They've literally turned him into a monster at this point since he's a weird zombie Cyberman thing fused with Ultron

[bravest_spinja]

Janet was never a "make him a sandwich type" was she? Like, between her wealth, and "superhero as a career woman" thing (major sources of Hank's insecurity, really) I wouldn't be surprised if she was pretty unfamiliar with her way around the kitchen. Is she roleplaying as therapy?

[lilacsigil]

I don't think a sandwich counts as knowing her way around a kitchen, though! I do think this is meant to be roleplaying, trying out "marriage" stuff.

[icon_uk]

I think this is a somewhat messed up timeline that Kang is showing her/making her a part of.

[jgraygaming]

Jan is the only founding Avenger to never headline her own book until this one. And somehow it is STILL more about Hank than it is about her.

She’s a superhero, world famous fashion designer, and one of the most effective leaders the Avengers have ever had. Yet, somehow she’s trapped on this one moment in the same way most writers can’t seem to write Barbara Gordon without adding in images of the Joker in a tropical shirt with a camera.

Both deserve better.

[doctor_spanky]

Wow she's really never had a book? That's like a huge waste, especially since there are so many opportunities to make supporting characters / villains for her by pulling from the insect world. There's like a whole Microverse that's barely been written about.

I always kind of felt the same way about the Falcon - he got this great moment in the sun when he was Captain America, but now it's like he's been discarded and is an afterthought of a supporting character again. Why don't authors do stuff like pit him against the Vulture, or the Owl, or invent some totally new thematically relevant villains for him to fight? Investing some effort in giving these underutilized characters their own rogues galleries is a great way to build them up as their own properties.

[tinygaylaura]

Did you read Unstoppable Wasp?

It was a good book and Jan was part of the cast and handled well there. The stuff with Hank was referenced but it didn't define her entire role in the story

[jlbarnett]

well part of the key there is she's one of the most effective leaders of the Avengers. She's a team character

[thanekos]

" Well, that escalated. " - Kang, watching from outside time, probably

[tinygaylaura]

It was great when it all began

She was a regular Hank Pym fan

But it was over when he had the plan

To start a-working on a robot man

[donnblake]

Kang commenting on people's marriages is oddly amusing to me.

Not so much because his great love is generally either frozen in time or actively leading armed forces against him.

But because I one hundred percent conclude that he's read torrid romance novels starring the Avengers written hundreds of years after their deaths.

[cygnia]

The ones written by Pyro, no doubt.

[scorntx]

...
Kang's just basically living his self-insert OC fanfic, isn't he?

[mastermahan]

Okay, that's not bad for a first act. Where does it go from here?

Oh wait, this is a climax. It's a what if story where the deviation is the ending. Which misses the entire point.

[numeronone]

And weirdly all of them end this way, leading us to just...extrapolate how this translates to them becoming the corrupted versions we see in "Darkhold: Omega". With the added roadblock of none of the "Omega" versions except Stark having any of their individual stories affect their final look.

Not to mention each character from a separate reality wearing matching outfits and allying to the same goal instead of tearing each other apart.

[chalicother]

You know I agree that abusers don't have to o be forgiven...,but in som circumstances
..

I don't know.

It's very obvious to everyone that Janet and Hank work better as sperate characters than as a couple.
I can't remember the last time I actually enjoy their dynamic in modern comics.

Just let them separate.
You can't even use Movie synergy as they aren't even the main Ant and Wasp anymore.
Just let this relationship go...

[nyadnar17]

It so beyond fucked that Pym is the poster child for "Abuser".

Man was having a mental break down. All of his "friends" either didn't notice, didn't care, or actively tried to take advantage of the situation.

Hank Pym doesn't belong in the same category as "abuser".

[lordy_co]

He's basically a male Wanda Maximoff.

[luxshine]

This, so much.
It was ONE hit during one hell of a mental breakdown (which, people tend to forget, Janet encouraged as it was how she got to marry him... stupid weird seventies).
And even THEN, not only HE never blamed her, he blamed himself. There was this AMAZING arc in the West Coast Avengers where he went from suicidal to accepting that he was not his many hero identities, that he was enough as Hank Pym, and that he (and Janet) could move on separately from what had happened (and then he found that his ex-wife was not really dead and... I honestly forgot what happened to that sublot). But he became better. And then, writers obsessed with the status quo, deleted that and I hate it.

[deepspaceartist]

Yeah, a lot of people forget that Jan herself is morally iffy at best in that storyline. "Oh no, Hank has put on a new costume and is pretending to be someone completely different who murdered Hank Pym. Maybe he's in need of help and support to get him through what is clearly a severe mental breakdown? Nah, this is my shot to manipulate him into marrying me!" (Note to Jan, tricking someone into marrying you is never an ok thing to do.) Like shit, at least Hank realizes that hitting Jan is wrong and he feels bad about it. I don't think Jan ever acknowledged that what she did was pretty fucked up.

[fra080389]

Why Janet is so upset for the ring, the artist apparently forgot she was supposed to wear one too

[deh_tommy]

That’s not a mistake, she takes her own ring off towards the end of the issue, not shown here because of the 1/3 page limit.