Within Marvel’s ultimate crossover with DC–the Amalgam Universe–a few members of the Avengers got some pretty interesting power-ups, including one of the founding members themselves, Wasp whose upgrade was absolutely perfect.
The founding members of the Avengers were Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp, and Hulk, who formed the team in Avengers #1 after Loki’s attempt to manipulate Hulk against his brother. From that day, the Avengers became the top-tier superhero team in history, with a revolving door of increasingly powerful members, but the founding members all stuck around in different shape or form. While all are impressive, the most notable development out of the first five Avengers members has to be Janet van Dyne aka the Wasp, as she went from being little more than Ant-Man’s sidekick to a brilliant, wealthy, and strong Avenger. Not only that, but Janet was the one who came up with the name for the iconic team to begin with. Basically, the Wasp has only gotten cooler and more fleshed out as a character over time, but nothing can beat her Amalgam Universe upgrade.
The Wasp’s Powers were Natural, Not Tech-Based, in DC Crossover
In X-Patrol #1 by Barbara Kesel, Karl Kesel, and Roger Cruz, the amalgamation of X-Men and Doom Patrol are introduced to fans just as the members are introduced to each other. This issue marks the formation of the X-Patrol rather than chronicling the adventures of an established team, which allows readers to quickly get to know each character along with their unique power sets. One of them was Janet van Dyne aka Elasti-Girl, a fusion of Marvel’s Wasp and DC’s Elasti-Girl, and she has the power to shrink or expand to any size she wants.
Janet’s Elasti-Girl’s powers are essentially the same as her Wasp abilities, except she didn’t need Pym Particles to achieve them. Elasti-Girl is a metamutant, an amalgamation of DC’s metahuman and Marvel’s mutant. This would rather be echoed by Marvel’s Ultimate version of Wasp, who is also a mutant. This means that her size-alteration power is totally natural and isn’t reliant on any technology. That is a huge advantage for a professional superhero, as she doesn’t need to ‘suit-up’ to be ready for battle. Not only that, but the Wasp also gained the abilities of Giant-Man with this upgrade. While Janet could always technically become a giant if she wanted to the same way Hank Pym can, her Amalgam counterpart can do so with nothing more than a thought. No suit calibrations, no training her body to handle the size alteration, no major effort whatsoever. Elasti-Girl just thinks it, and she’s as big as a house–or as small as a wasp–in an instant.
While Janet van Dyne has made a name for herself as a founding Avenger and as an integral, lasting member of the team, no power increase she’s undergone has been as significant as the one she got from the Amalgam Universe, as that Marvel/DC crossover gave this original Avengers member an absolutely perfect upgrade.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
