Wasp: Small Worlds

by Al Ewing (Writer), Kasia Nie (Illustrator), Tom Reilly (Cover Art)

Celebrate 60 years of the wondrous Wasp! Fashion designer, businesswoman, founding Avenger - Janet Van Dyne has worn many hats over the course of her super-heroic career…and many costumes! But when an old enemy threatens Janet and her fellow Wasp, Nadia - seemingly against his will - the Van Dynes must confront the ghosts in their shared history to get to the bottom of the mystery! But something about this case seems unnervingly familiar to Jan. Can she figure out what it is in time to save both their lives? Trapped in a past where Henry Pym, the Ant-Man, was never born, will they be wiped from existence altogether? Collecting WASP #1-4 and material from TALES TO ASTONISH (1959) #44.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Science Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published July 4, 2023

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this but it's not anything I'll read again. The creature from the Wasp's first appearance comes back to get vengeance on both Wasps, Janet and Nadia. I love Al Ewing's writing on the Immortal Hulk and that Ant-Man miniseries but this was an average story. The art didn't do a whole lot for me, either. It wasn't bad but the coloring and style weren't really for me. Still, not a bad book by any means. It had its moments and Nadia is still one of my favorite underused Marvel characters.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less confounding than Ant-Iversary, but not a whole lot better on the thrills front, Wasp: Small Worlds is perfectly adequate and perfectly skippable. Small Worlds doesn't use Ant-Iversary's "each issue an era" style, instead telling a uncomplicated tale where a monster from Janet Van Dyne's origin story has returned. She must team up with Nadia (nu-Wasp) to defeat the monster.

The plot is by the numbers (and the monster is pretty silly, in the end). The better bits are the quiet moments where the main characters reveal their pasts. Included in this volume is the 60-year-old Ant-Man issue in which Wasp was introduced - boy howdy have comics come a long way since then. Talk about text!

[Eva B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like the fact that I'm the #1 passenger on the Hank Pym train means that a lot of people would assume that I dislike Janet, but nothing could be further from the truth--she's easily in my top ten as well, and probably in my top five, as is Nadia. A perfect companion to Ant-Iversary to celebrate the most unsung (and best) founding Avengers.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kocham moją matkę (Janet Van Dyne) i mojom curke (Nadię Van Dyne)

[Alex Sarll]

A companion piece to Al Ewing's Ant-Man miniseries last year, marking the 60th anniversary of the other shrinking Avenger. With only two characters having had this title*, there's not scope for quite the same level of era-by-era revisits, but Al seemingly never met a character where he couldn't find something weird and worthy of a revisit deep in their continuity, and so it proves here: I can't have been the only one unaware of quite how bonkers Janet's origin story was, firmly embedded in the phase when Marvel's superhero books were evolving out of monster stories, but with a critter far stranger than the likes of Groot and Fin Fang Foom. Crucially, it also becomes clear that of all the founding Avengers, she was the one where that team name actually made a degree of sense. And now, that ancient history has become a matter of urgent import once again, thanks in part to some similarly smart recontextualisation of sinister society W.H.I.S.P.E.R. (and dear heavens organisations like that are an arseache to type, I don't know how writers and letterers cope with the multiple mentions). The sort of superhero comic which has its heart on its sleeve and its head tied in knots simultaneously, and which absolutely nobody else seems to get away with anymore.

*Assuming we discount Hank Pym's brief, traumatised brainfart, which Al very understandably seems happy to do.

[Rahul Nadella · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a pretty solid finale to this miniseries that told a very different story than Ewing's previous Ant-Man miniseries. While I do think the two miniseries featured different stories, I do also believe that they share a similar sentiment and intent, in that they were created to honor the legacies of the characters they were about. In both cases, it was the 60th Anniversary of the character. Here, Ewing and Nie put together a more straightforward story that does a nice job of depicting the relationship between Janet and Nadia while also advancing their story. On top of everything, I must say that Nie's art is just great. All in all, this was a nice miniseries to honor the Wasp and I'm looking forward to seeing what she does next.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

After Ant-Man's anniversary comes the Wasps, as Al Ewing snaps up both the Winsome and Unstoppable varieties for a story that digs into their history, both shared and otherwise.

I can always trust Al Ewing to do something fun and continuity-heavy. He pulls from all of Nadia's adventures (there aren't many, unfortunately) and Janet's annals in order to tell a four issue tour of what makes these women some of the most underrated heroes in comics. It's not quite as impressive as the Ant-Man book that preceded it, but there's only two Wasps compared to three Ant-Men, so the format wouldn't have fit the same anyway.

Kasia Nie handles the art, striking a nice balance between Elsa Charretier's Nadia-defining art and some more straight forward superheroics for an impressive visual that's all its own.

Wasp's anniversary deserves just as much attention as Ant-Man's, though for very different reasons. The laser focus on Janet and Nadia works in their favour, and there's no way you can read this and not come out with a new appreciation for these high-flying heroines. Plus, there's more to come...

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historia upamiętniająca sześćdziesięciolecie istnienia postaci Wasp, czyli Janet Van Dyne. Jak na taki wiek bohaterka trzyma się naprawdę nieźle ;). Ale tym razem nie jest sama. Towarzyszy jej młodziutka Nadia, która najpewniej ma przejąć jej schedę. Niemniej harda babka trzyma się jak na razie bardzo dobrze. Szkopuł w tym, że mając tak bogatą historię, łatwo mieć kogoś, kto chowa urazę do bohaterki i tylko czyha na jakąś okazję do zemsty.

Gorzej, jeżeli jest to byt, który się już kiedyś spacyfikowało w towarzystwie takiego mózgowca jak Henry Pym. Dawny wróg jednak ma własny niecny plan i konsekwentnie go realizuje. Stawką jest tu nie tylko życie bohaterek, ale i ich dusze. Przeciwnik bowiem pragnie na nich ucztować...

Całość wygląda pociesznie i miło dla oka. Szkoda tylko, że historia jest bardzo średnia. Od początku wiadomo jak całość się potoczy (na poziomie pewności cirka 80-90%), a cała bitwa ze złymi jakoś nie wywołuje emocji. Tytuł bardzo poprawny, nieco generyczny. Plus za zeszyt: "TALES TO ASTONISH (1959) #44", który pozwala nam zobaczyć genezę bohaterki. Archaiczny, przegadany, ale zacny kawałek historii komiksu.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Consider this book a placeholder for 'The Wasps' next adventures...

It's good. Don't get me wrong. It isn't a super strong stand alone story, though. It's more like the spackle and caulk you'd use to fill the holes of the overall structure. Nadia van Dyne has been one of the most underutilized characters in the MU. They tried to wedge her into 'Champions'. They created G.I.R.L. for her and her STEM fellows. Nothing has really stuck. When nothing sticks, it looks like the fall back is to flesh out her backstory. Luckily, giving her a Black Widow/Red Room origin and little connection to her true parents gives you a big canvas to work with.

I love that Janet is being consistently being shown as an adult who's 'done the work' She's not a Kardashian level fashion mogul. She isn't a mutated Wasp like alien. She's a founding Avenger who has SEEN SOME SHIT.

RESPECT.

--
Bonus: Shoutout to Tales to Astonish #44 (Wasp's origin story)
Bonus Bonus: Give Nadia her own book....again.

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess this was an okayish read like the story focuses on Janet and her remembering how her father died because of some gamma creature from the cosmos and in present day she meets Nadia and then being attacked by Whirlwind and then finding out some WHISPER agents maybe involved and so they investigate that and fight other people and then actually live out their dream scenarios after being trapped by that gamma creature in present day because obviously both stories connect and how they get out of it is the main story and yeah there is focus on Jarvis on one issue which was fun but the other stuff was sorta boring, but the ending was fascinating and maybe we will see it continued in Avengers, Inc.

So yeah if you are looking for a quick, fun, one-time read this is it! It will make you like Janet a bit more and also it builds up on Nadia's character which was fascinating!

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this from the library, along with the Ant-Man series, as I was enjoying Avengers Inc and thought they might provide a bit of recent background. This second series does this well in filling me in on recent history and it is actually a direct prequel!

While the Ant-Man series jumps through time to show the reader the past and tell stories in those eras, this one is more straightforward and is a modern story that brings back things from the past. It also builds on previous stories that Al Ewing has written and makes me want to move those runs up the backlog.

I really enjoyed the story and artwork. It was good catching up with Nadia, who I have only read through Mark Waid's ANAD Avengers and Champions, and Janet.

I wonder if we'll get an Avengers by Al Ewing complete collection at some point.

[Ernesto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Como acompañante de la miniserie de Antman es un "must have". Sin embargo, es completamente una historia distinta; principalmente por el hecho de que Wasp como personaje ha sido mayormente relegada a "la compañera"/esposa de Antman.

Afortunadamente, la historia brilla por sí misma. Sin embargo, a pesar de tener autoreferencialidad a las historias previas de ambas Wasp, peca un poco de exigir conocimiento excesivo de la retrocontinuidad, mayormente de parte del trabajo de Ewing,

Lo anterior, pues, como tal, se siente como una secuela/cierre de una historia previa, no genera la misma sensación de interés o experimento narrativo característico de Ewing. Aún así, con todo esto, es sumamente recomendable y se puede disfrutar, de paso el número de Astonish Tales #44 es un gran apoyo para esa experiencia.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had tempered my expectations for this book after reading the Ant-Man: Ant-Iversary and it was generally along the same lines but not as expansive. We have Janet and Nadia as our two wasps in this adventure, but we don't get an epic time travel epic like in the Ant-Man book. There was again that effort to explore one of her original villains from waaaay back and bring them into the modern day, but without the other bells and whistles it felt like a less-developed anniversary story versus what Ant-Man got.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars for the script/story
Nifty art by Kasia Nie and Carola Borelli keeps this spritely tale of an old foe come back to attack Janet Van Dyne and in turn the new Wasp Nadia Travaya, moving along at a frenetic pace - (I think) this introduces a new acronymic big bad to the Marvel universe in the form of W.H.I.S.P.E.R., that's been run (from the inevitable shadows) by 'Of Kosmos'. There's a rare heroic turn by Jaybird too.
The most annoying thing is that at the beginning, just looking at Of Kosmos can kill, but at the end everyone can look at the big pyramid of slime and be completely fine...

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Some terrific character moments with some beloved characters and you can always trust Ewing to have a rock solid grasp of the history and personality of all the characters he writes and make rewarding callbacks to those details. However the dialog felt overexplainy and handholding with those callbacks and the character challenges never felt challenging enough to be memorable. I think it would have been stronger if it'd had more time to breath, so I suppose we'll see where the story continues

[Shawn Ingle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great. A very pleasant surprise after reading Al Ewing's Ant-Man: Antiversary and thoroughly disliking it. I really liked the straightforward storytelling and distinctive characters here. The artwork is on the cartoonish side, but I thought it worked well. I've already read Avengers Inc. #1 and really enjoyed that as well. So I'm eager to dive further into that series with issue #3 now available.

[Tyler Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read celebrating 60 years of the character Wasp, I liked the Ant-Man version of this last year and I love that all of the covers match. I actually enjoyed this story more than the Ant-Man one because it didn’t involve Marvels time travel. This was just a good story of Janet and Nadia kicking ass.

[Antoinette · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Janet Van Dyne fan I was so happy with this book it showed her strengths and how she forms the world around her .


And her getting Jarvis in the break-up is perfect. Now I just need to see if Hank is back in the world somehow because if Nadia can learn to control they can be a nice broke but loved family .

[brand · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, but nothing much more than that. I love Ewing's eagerness to embrace long-forgotten villains and revitalize them for the modern age, and I'm a big fan of Nadia as the Wasp, but there isn't anything too special about this miniseries outside of that. Good for a read, but it's probably not worth revisiting.

70/100

[Shaun · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love Nadia Van Dyne and her connection to her stepmother Janet so I was really pumped for this series. It's solid, but not amazing. It calls back to both Wasps connections to the past. I enjoyed it, but it didn't resonate with me as much as Unbeatable Wasp did. I do hope for more in the future though.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both Ant-man and Wasp got mini-series to celebrate their anniversaries and the Wasp's is the better of the two.
The two Wasps (Jan and Nadia) and the Avengers loyal butler, Jarvis, team up to solve a case with a worrying connection to Jan's very first adventure with Ant-man.

Nice art and Al Ewing makes good use of Marvel history, while reminding us, the Wasp is a pretty cool character.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

A competent if unremarkable adventure with some decent character development for the elder and younger Wasps. An unexpected cliffhanger at the end of the book threw me for a loop - when does it get wrapped up?

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun romp through the Wasp(s) lives, rooted in what made Janet Van Dyne great.

Definitely worth reading if you're a fan of the character, or new to the Avengers and want to catch up on their history while staying current.

[Melia Glubka · Rating 4 out of 5]

best girls

[Kody Phillips]

You gonna read a book like everyday in your life recently

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Attempt to wrap the two Wasp origins together.

[Trike · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was this written by Al Ewing or by Al Ewing’s 12-year-old kid? It’s so clunky and awkward.

[Nolan Buro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Al Ewing never misses. Art team nailed it, classic vibe but still modern style.

[Peter Baran · Rating 5 out of 5]

As much, if not more, fun as Anti-versry was for Ant-Man, shows why Janet and Nadia are great characters and as ever play brilliantly with continuity.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely love the art in this comic. I'm a big fan of Nadia, and her scenes in the red room are amazing. Plus, there are some iconic Jarvis lines in this one.