4. The Superhero period (AVENGERS 262-285) 1986, 1987 “Wait a cock-eyed second,” you might say: “aren’t all Avengers stories superheroic?” Ah, but in this period the settings become detached largely from the view of the average person. We’re no longer in the familiar New York streets; everything’s exotic. As his run ends, Roger Stern writes the graduation of Captain Marvel, who came in with him as a rookie and, just as he turns in what will prove his last scripts on the title, becomes the team leader, the Wasp, handing the baton to another, very different young woman---someone a lot like a less-experienced version of Cap, a real model Avenger---who makes mistakes, but not out of impoverished character. Monica’s role models definitely include Miss Janet Van Dyne, the team leader of note through her entire evolution. She, like the Wasp, respects people’s experiences, even her parents, all the while thinking for herself. For my money, they are as strong a pair of characters in an...

Spotlight on : The Wasp, most distinguished of Roger Stern’s characters, in his classic run, 1983-1988 The Wasp just might be the best character in the run. It’s an era when a hero might make a mistake, but they’re not sinister, twisted people…unless they’re pushed over the edge by some inner weakness, and even there, while mistakes can’t be taken back, redemption as a person is still possible. Then there’s a different matter: when a character needs strong stories…when they can grow personally. The Wasp, as a character, often showed courage in the face of danger. Once she comes out of the shadow of her troubled husband, she no longer has people talking down to her, as though females in general were too emotional to be taken seriously. They didn’t come more feminine than socialite Janet Van Dyne; not just a young woman, but one who loved clothes and dreamed daily for some handsome man or another---sometimes flirting with the decidedly unavailable Norse Storm God Hunk, Thor. just ...