Insecticide

[domarzione]

There are valid reasons for why Marvel swapped out Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym for Natasha Romanova and Clint Barton as founding members of the Avengers in the MCU. Especially for where Marvel's collective head was back in 2008-2011, when they weren't even sure there would be an Avengers to form. It required far less CGI (and thus less money), it fit better with the MCU conceit of the Avengers being a SHIELD-sponsored paramilitary unit instead of Team Treehouse living on Tony Stark's dime, it avoided tipping the team too far into Science Geeks Plus Cap territory, Black Widow and Hawkeye had more currency, etc. These may not be the best reasons, the only reasons, or insurmountable reasons, but they're valid reasons.

But Marvel is going to have to come up with perfect reasons to justify apparently fridging Janet in 2014 to give Hank a tragic past and Scott Lang an age-appropriate love interest.

They had options here, far more than they did in 2008 when this was all a pipe dream or in 2011 when they punched their golden ticket with The Avengers. The MCU has expanded greatly, both on Earth with Agents of SHIELD and out into space with Guardians of the Galaxy and there is plenty of room to fit Janet in. Janet's tiny, she fits everywhere.

Except, apparently, in the MCU as a living woman.

Hank Pym doesn't need a dead wife to justify any behavior; he was erratic and an asshole for decades before they retconned in the mental illness. Almost more than any other Marvel character, you can do anything with him and everyone will just shrug and go "it's Hank Pym."

If there is a truly compelling reason to not have Janet around in Ant-Man, then just uncouple her from Hank entirely. Marvel knows it works because It's not like they haven't stripped Natasha of her formative romantic history. Janet and Hank are not Reed and Sue Richards; they're not even Bucky and Natasha. They have a rocky history including physical violence; nobody's going to start a hashtag over that breakup.

Marvel just announced Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird is going to be on Agents of SHIELD; if they can do that without mentioning Clint, then they can manage a Janet without a Hank.

If there's a truly compelling reason to have Hope Van Dyne Pym exist (Love Interest is not one of them), then just give Janet a good reason to not be in the movie without killing her off. Establish her elsewhere in the extended universe. It would give Marvel a chance to create their first major older female character — someone contemporary with a Michael Douglas-aged Hank.

(I know, I know, a significant over-sixty female character not played by Helen Mirren or Judi Dench. The world can bear another one. Bonus points available for making her the Wasp without making her a WASP.)

Make her SHIELD personnel, either an ex-agent (a colleague or mentor of Melinda May's or Phil Coulson's or Nick Fury's) or a scientist (a mentor of Simmons or, possibly even better, Fitz) and have her be part of the SHIELD renaissance. Give her a nod for coining the name and make her the true architect of the Avengers Initiative. Make her Peggy Carter's protegee and use her to link Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD, and the MCU in a straighter line than “Everyone Loves Steve Rogers.” Use her backstory as a socialite to give her a history with Howard Stark, let her put Tony in his place by having awful stories of him from his days in diapers. Make her a new WSC rep — the Council can stand to have more than one woman alongside Hawley. There are million ways to go here besides "dead."

The MCU has, by and large, managed to avoid the worst of the casual and not so casual misogyny that plagues comics. They've managed to have women of agency outnumber damsels in distress and pretty much all of the gratuitous fleshpot scenes are of the guys, not for them. But Joss Whedon promising four prominent female roles in Avengers: Age of Ultron does not cancel out a gratuitous and entirely needless killing-off of an important woman in Marvel's history. Especially if that killing-off is to give one man motivation and another man a hotter babe to fall for.</p> There's time to fix this. It's up to Marvel whether they will.

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(originally posted to tumblr)

Comments

[ilyena_sylph]

Just dropping by to say that I really, really like this post, and all of your suggestions.

[domarzione]

Thank you. I don't have a huge history with Jan, but I still respect the heck out of her and her role in the Avengers' history.

[musesfool]

Ugh, yes to all of this. I was indifferent to an Antman movie before, hoping only for glimpses of Jan and Cassie, but now I'm completely uninterested and outright antipathetic towards it.

[domarzione]

Yeah. I have never really cared for Hank and thus didn't care too much that they were going to use Scott, but this just seems... lazy and possibly like they're taking their audience for granted. Just because we're going to go see the talking tree doesn't mean we'll go see this.

In theory, all of this is fixable; they haven't started shooting yet and with all of the director shuffling, script adjustment is ongoing anyway. It's easy enough to change, even if it's just "Jan is not in the story" as opposed to "Jan is not in the universe."

[metanewsmods]

Hi, can we link this at metanews?

[domarzione]

Go right ahead. Thanks.