That Time Hank Pym Planted Tracking Devices Inside the Wasp's Body

In Remember to Forget, we spotlight comic book stories that I wish I could forget, but I can’t, so I instead share them with you all!

Okay, as you all probably know by now, Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne have had themselves one crazy ride over the years. As soon as the Wasp was introduced, she was trying to get Hank Pym to settle down with her, but then they joined the Avengers, and the Wasp started to try to make Hank jealous by flirting heavily with her new Avengers teammates.

When they finally DID get married, it was only after Hank had a mental breakdown and created a new personality that claimed that he had killed Hank Pym. Wasp, knowing that this new character was actually Hank, went along with it and married him...

Some day I'll do a feature (maybe even really soon) about how Joe Casey valiantly tried to make that plot make some sense.

Anyhow, their marriage was a mainstay in the Marvel Universe throughout the 1970s, despite the fact that they rarely seemed to actually spend a whole lot of time together, as Wasp was a regular member of the Avengers for most of the time and Hank was, well, not. When he did rejoin the Avengrers in the early 1980s, he promptly got himself subject to a court martial for blasting a villain in the back while Captain America was talking her down.

He came up with some moronic plan to create a giant killer robot that would attack the Avengers during the court martial and that only he could stop it (due to him knowing where its fail safe button was) and the others would be all, "Wow, how could we get rid of you? You're awesome!" When Janet was all, "Hey, your plan is kind of insane," Hank struck her...

That was it for their marriage as they then divorced. Hank quit being a superhero and moved to the West Coast where he became the new science adviser for the West Coast Avengers. Over time, Hank dealt with some issues related to his depression and he decided to re-join the Avengers, but as just "Hank Pym" instead of as a superhero identity. Eventually, the Wasp ended up on the West Coast Avengers, as well, and she and Hank rekindled their romance.

In 1991, though, they decided to both take a break from the Avengers and also their relationship. Hank popped back up in the Avengers in 1993, now going back to his superhero roots as Giant-Man again. The Wasp, though, took one of the longer leaves of absences that she has taken over the years, roughly four years of not being part of the Avengers.

She showed up again in Avengers #390, as someone had been messing with her fortune (Iron Man had turned evil and was working for Kang, so it was PROBABLY him behind it, but WHY is not really clear).

Iron Man fought against the Avengers in Avengers #393 (by Terry Kavanagh, Mike Deodato and Tom Palmer) and accidentally blasted Janet with a seemingly fatal repulsor blast...

Hank decided to do some experimental procedure on her to save her life, but is shocked when a cocoon forms around her...

I'm sorry, dude, but a cocoon should never be a "What? Why did this happen?" situation. You should always know if something might have a cocoon pop up out of it at some point.

Okay, go to the next page to see what happened to the Wasp next!

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Sure enough, the next issue, she emerges from the cocoon healed, but also now a giant mutated wasp-like creature!

This was a sub-set of the crossover known as "The Crossing," which was to sort of try to "extreme"-ify the members of the Avengers to appeal to the 1990s audience.

Okay, so "The Crossing" is over and things are seemingly going back to normal, but then check this nonsense out.

In Avengers #397, they're on a mission and Hank is all sad about how Wasp is mutated, but she's all cool with it...