In Unstoppable Wasp #7, who can keep Nadia Pym collected when everything’s crashing down around her? Why, it’s Janet van Dyne, the ORIGINAL Wasp! Is it good?
The Skinny
Janet van Dyne’s changed a lot since she helped found the Avengers, even finding ways to wind down at night so she can actually get some sleep. That is, unless a friendly lawyer calls up with word of an emergency only she can handle.
Ying is in the hospital, and Nadia is freaking out. Staying positive has only seemed to bring ruin, and now the Red Room training is unrestrained. Combine that with some, uh, hereditary issues, and you’ve got a situation not easy to defuse. Good luck, old Wasp!
The Lowdown
Unstoppable Wasp #7 is ostensibly all about Janet van Dyne, the original Wasp, and how she’s matured enough over the years to soothe the savageness of a raging Nadia Pym. It’s a fine character study, but even with her tribulations laid out, Janet seems to fix everything a little too easily when calling up her connections to swoop in and make everything right.
It’s a nice win for someone who’s always been in therapy, so she says, and therefore knows a little bit about mental health issues. And yes, writer Jeremy Whitley does go there with the connection to Hank Pym during Nadia’s freakout, in a moment that can’t help being a little creepy, even though it’s just illustrating the simple fact that such things tend to run in families.
It might’ve been nice to explore that point a little more with the title character since it is, ya know, her book. The focus of Unstoppable Wasp #7 shifts sporadically between Janet and Nadia, and while it’s fine for the OG to get some spotlight, having the new kid’s biggest character development of the series seen through the eyes of someone else seems like a misstep. And while the conclusion of it all is a nice nod to real science, it’s unavoidably anticlimactic.
Artist Veronica Fish does an astounding job of filling in for Elsa Charretier — you’ll barely even notice a difference. Regular colorist Megan Wilson further keeps the style consistent, and uses some beautiful pastels for the nighttime scenes. There’s a neat, sort-of circular panel of Janet thrashing the new Beetle down a staircase, but despite all that goodness, there is a bit of an “unfinished” quality overall, making the whole thing seem a little less polished than previous issues.
The Upshot
Unstoppable Wasp #7’s focus on Janet van Dyne is not unwelcome, but should have been committed to, rather than flitting around between characters. Similarly, Nadia deserves to tell her most important story herself, not to have her development seen and told to the audience through someone else’s eyes. There’s a lot of good stuff here, but it’s jumbled up and might have benefited from being split into two separate issues. It appears that only one remains left in this series, so maybe that wouldn’t have been possible.
Join the AIPT Patreon
Want to take our relationship to the next level? Become a patron today to gain access to exclusive perks, such as:
- ❌ Remove all ads on the website
- 💬 Join our Discord community, where we chat about the latest news and releases from everything we cover on AIPT
- 📗 Access to our monthly book club
- 📦 Get a physical trade paperback shipped to you every month
- 💥 And more!
You must be logged in to post a comment.