(This review may contain spoilers).
As with Hank Pym and Thor, Janet’s book was one of those I was particularly excited to read. It was interesting to see that there was a massive contrast between her first appearance, where she came across as merely Ant-Man’s sidekick, and the later comics, where she’s a leader in her own right… even though certain Avengers like Hercules don’t have a lot of respect for her.
I didn’t really like the first comic all that much. While it was interesting to see Jan’s origins as the Wasp, I felt that her claims to be falling in love with Hank happened far too quickly. It was interesting that Hank was drawn to her because of her resemblance to his first wife, but I felt that it moved far too quickly on the emotions front.
In the second set of comics, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the apparent love triangle between Jan, the Paladin and the Black Knight. I would have liked the opportunity to see more of their history and personalities.
I felt that, although there was violence in both sets of comics, the second set had a lot more involved. While it was nice to see Jarvis involved a bit more, it was really awful to see him caught up in the battle between the Avengers and the Masters of Evil.
Speaking of the villains… I was disappointed by the very small amount of depth they had to them, to the point of actually calling themselves evil. While a couple of the characters did have a bit more depth to them (such as Blackout and Moonstone), most of them came across as fairly stereotypical bad guys with a complete lack of depth.
I did find Blackout interesting to see and it would have been good to see him perhaps be able to, if not heal his tormented mind, at least find some semblance of peace. Since it seemed that he was being used by both Zemo and Moonstone, it would have been good to see him able to become his own person.
It was interesting to see Steve’s interactions with Zemo and the fact that more of Steve’s history was explored. I did also like the fact the Avengers were on call when they were needed… and that they were there for support when necessary.
I would definitely like to see more of Jan in other comics and also see more of her relationship with Hank Pym.
Ink of Blood 