The Unstoppable Wasp is here! G.I.R.L. power flies! Super genius, POC and LBGTQ girls receive the spotlight they deserve in a Marvel comic - and practically all are from poor backgrounds, and only the Wasp, Nadia, is an actual costumed superhero. Feel the buzz on that!
'The Unstoppable Wasp: G.I.R.L. Power' (trade: issues 1-8) is a positive and unrelenting joy all throughout, with dramatic moments, sweet character development, and blooming relationships. As well as introducing new or newish Marvel characters, it makes sure to highlight the hell out of older ones who have been around for decades.
It turns out that the Marvel films didn't do the Wasp justice; those films are part of the reason for why I didn't want to read any comics about her originally. But whoever puts on the suit, and then shrinks, absorbs Pym particles, whatever, in 'The Unstoppable Wasp', is a beacon; an inspiration.
Nadia, Hank Pym's long-lost teen daughter who was raised to be an assassin and super scientist weapon in the Red Room, despite her background, is a darling creature. She's curious, optimistic, fun, altruistic, friendly, trusting, makes it her prerogative to try to look on the bright side of things, and is as sprightly as a pixie, than a real wasp. She won't let her locked-up, sheltered upbringing get the better of her.
She is also one of the smartest people in the world. Who says that scientists and inventors have to be perpetually miserable and antisocial?
While Nadia does occasionally show signs of issues related to her abusive childhood and assassin-trained programming, and she is very sensitive (her next comic confirms that she has bipolar disorder, inherited from her father), her newfound friends and adoptive family will help her out in any way, for she is loved very much. Nadia has pretty much the same backstory as Black Widow, but their personalities are opposite. This super teen will light up everyone's world.
Nadia is determined to recruit other teen girls to an organisation she calls G.I.R.L. (Genius In action Research Labs), after learning about the bias in the list of smartest people in the Marvel Universe, which has barely been updated in decades and mostly includes white men. The ordinary yet extraordinary teen girls like herself that Nadia meets (in New York) are:
Taina Miranda, a Latinx engineer on crutches, and her lacrosse player big sister Alexis; Lashayla "Shay" Smith, a pop culture-loving, black, queer, bespectacled physics prodigy and inventor; Priya Aggarwal, an Indian-American, best-biologist-ever and child of immigrants; and last but definitely not least, Ying, an Asian scientist and assassin, and Nadia's first friend from the Red Room who was originally sent to bring her back. She's tragic, yet as adorable as Nadia in her own way. Ying's queer as hell, too. All of these girls are brilliant, but it did take me a while to get to know them and their individual personalities and quirks.
G.I.R.L. is full of potential, like all girls and women, if you give them a chance to prove themselves.
Now onto the classic characters:
Jarvis, the Avengers' butler who serves as Nadia's guardian for most of the volume, is great. A brave, stiff yet funny and warm ordinary guy who has been through, well, everything. He has been involved in superheroes' affairs for so long.
Janet Van Dyne, the original Wasp - I love her, plain and simple. A true definition of a strong, smart, experienced, independent woman with endless connections, and who will warm up to Nadia without meaning to, as she sees herself in the poor, traumatized girl; but who bounces back and wants everyone to be happy. Their team-ups are magical. Janet never wants kids (and freaking good for her!), but she might sorta adopt Nadia and her friends. For reasons that have nothing to do with her being Nadia's father's ex-wife.
Mockingbird, aka Bobbi Morse, is in this, and she is absolutely wonderful as well. How I've missed her! She also takes a tearful shine to Nadia - the prodigy certainly has that effect on people.
Smart, capable and compassionate women abound in 'The Unstoppable Wasp', without assistance from men (a couple of them are divorced, like Janet and Bobbi). It's a shame that Shuri isn't in it.
Oh, and Matt Murdock/Daredevil (whom Nadia amusingly calls Modok) shows up too, I guess.
Other cameos include Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, Lunella Lafayette/Moon Girl (canonically the smartest person in the world, and she's nine-years-old) and her Devil Dino, and the female wrestlers Poundcakes and Letha, who were once criminals but thanks to the sympathies of Nadia might turn over a new leaf by the end of the comic.
'The Unstoppable Wasp: G.I.R.L. Power' - the whole package is so adorable, charming and touching. One of the best Marvel comics I've read. It merges the past, present and future of Marvel's history spectacularly to include feminist themes. Race, gender, sexuality (the only romance present is the beginnings of a relationship between Shay and Ying, and Nadia couldn't be less interested in anything sexual), mental illness, disability, different kinds of abuse, classism - it's all here, in a nonetheless colourful and fabulous book.
There is also the theme at the end about how your elders, like your parents, are also flawed and human, and not the perfect heroes you always thought they were. This is when Nadia learns the dark side of the apparently deceased father she never knew, and how it affects herself and the people Hank Pym knows; who she knows now too.
It's not perfect (after all these years I've yet to rate a Marvel comic five stars), but I recommend it. You're in for a treat. You're in for a glimpse into a brighter future full of progress and hope... and not just in the comics industry.
Final Score: 4/5
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