THE WONDROUS WASP
|
 |
THE WONDROUS WASP
|
|
|
|
THE WASP alias Janet Van Dyne. Powers: ability to shrink and to fly, throw bio-electric energy, increase size to 15 meters and over. Groups of affiliation: Avengers, Lady Liberators. |
|
Months and months ago... I needed a 640x480 background to use it on a
page of a little multimedia software (in Italian) about Marvel Comics.
The background had to represent a swarm of "Wasps" in all colours and
costumes. I started to re-use a Wasps' shape in an old Avengers' drawing. I realized that
I just remembered two or three costumes, absolutely not enough to fill
the background! So I took some comics from the collection of my Italian
version of the Marvel Comics and I started to study. After a few days I
had drawn about 10 costumes. I could duplicate the costumes, overlap
them and fill the background. I did so. The background was perfect and
the software complete (note: I never diffused the software). But
something did click in my head... Wasp's costumes are many and
many... almost all of them in different models and colours... Janet is a
stylist... how many costumes did she wear? HOW MANY COSTUMES DID SHE
WEAR? AND WHICH ONES? I wish I could draw them... yeah, I'd like it very
much!
I have lots of Marvel comics in Italian version but unfortunately...:
In Italy, the Marvel storyline is no completely covered since all the most important series are reprinted;
I don't have all the Italian issues, more than 2000 (I'm 35 and many issues were printed when I was only...0);
often, I'm not able to know - and sometimes I simply don't know - in what Italian issue was printed the original American story;
the original colours were sometimes changed.
In spite of this situation I tried to collect all the costumes I was able to find.
The result is the following. I was given a great help thanks to an accurated document that I found on Internet: a "description" of every costume the wasp ever wore (from Avengers issues 1-402 and annuals 1-23 and from all West Coast Avengers issues), and a many, many thanks to Jason de Rivera for this work. It/he helped me to do the right links between Italian and American stories and to have an idea about the number and make types of "Wasps" I had to draw.
Someone may wonder why the costume used by Wasp in The Sensational Spider-SiX-Men #312 is not on the list or why it is drawn differently. The reasons are:
because the story wasn't printed in Italy;
because the story was printed in Italy but I don't have that story;
because in the Italian story the costume is printed with colours that differ from the American original version;
because I copied the costume from an image downloaded from the Internet and the image doesn't reproduce it in all its parts;
because it isn't a "costume" (street clothes, etc.);
because the costume is identical to another one she wore before, or the costume differs for some small details (the stingers, the belt, a W design, etc.) that she took away from the original;
because it isn't penciled so well so that I could reproduce it;
because I was wrong!
Another point of discussion can be the number of Wasp's bug-wings. In comics she often has one pair of wings, sometimes two. This is a detail I noticed after I had drawn 30-40 wasps without thinking of it. However, many artists don't think of it. As a matter of fact Wasp can have 2 wings in Astonishing Spider-Mutant #2243, 4 wings in #2244, and 2 wings again in #2245. Sincerely, I don't want to go mad!
The Wasp's costumes
|
From the beginnings to Avengers #100 |
|
|
From the Giant-Wasp transformation to the separation from Hank |
|
|
From the Separation from Hank to the Secret Wars |
|
|
From the Secret Wars to end of her chairman period. |
|
|
From the West Coast Avengers parenthesis to the "death" in Infinity Gauntlet |
|
|
From the "death" in Infinity Gauntlet to Onslaught |
|
|
From "The Return" to Maximum Security |
|
|
From Maximum Security to her death in Secret Invasion |
|
|
Wasp's costumes from alternative timelines, parallel realities and other universes. |
|
|
Wasp's costumes that I wasn't able to put in (or not in) the marvel chronological continuity. |
|
|
See also:
|
If somebody
wishes to suggest me to correct any error (chronological, artistic or
grammar!) or lacks, PLEASE do it! If somebody wishes to suggest me a
costume I didn't reproduced, PLEASE do it! He can e-mail me a scan of
the costume but please (!): little images! Few bytes! It is enough I'm
able to distinguish all parts and colours of the costume.
:
mi potreste aiutare segnalandomi in quale edizione italiana è apparso
quel costume, oppure mandandomi anche voi dei suggerimenti o addirittura
degli scan di immagini di Wasp che non sono riportate in questo sito.
My e-mail address: ragnodimaggio@yahoo.com
Thanks to:
Jason de Rivera for his list of the Wasp many costume changes, without which my work could have been much harder.
Russ Chappell, for his Marvel Chronology Project and in particular for his list of Wasp's appearances through the Marvel Universe.
Mario Cappiello, che mi ha dato la
possibilità di effettuare i giusti collegamenti fra le serie originali
Marvel e le uscite in Italia della Editoriale Corno. Le sue liste mi
hanno aiutato tantissimo quando ho dovuto ricercare fra i miei vecchi
albi le storie da cui studiare i costumi da disegnare.
Van Plexico for his "Avengers Assemble" site. There I found "marvelous" images and expecially the George Pérez' poster of the Avengers 30th Anniversary, that gave me the possibility to re-build many Wasp's costumes and the "swarm" you can see on the left side of the page (if your browser supports frames).
Other webmasters' sites from where I took lots of cover scans to study Wasp's costumes and redraw them: Christopher DeLisle and his "Comics Collection", Nick Simon and "The Silver Age Marvel Comics Cover Index".
© - The characters mentioned and listed in this site are copyright or trademark Marvel Entertainment Group or DC Comics or Dark Horse or other companies, They are used without permission. My thanks go in particular to them.
