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| Wasp | |
|---|---|
Janet van Dyne as the Wasp.
Art by J. G. Jones. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Tales to Astonish #44 (June 1963) |
| Created by | Stan Lee Jack Kirby |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Janet van Dyne |
| Species | Human (empowered) |
| Team affiliations | Avengers Unity Squad Avengers Lady Liberators West Coast Avengers Mighty Avengers |
| Partnerships | Henry Pym |
| Abilities |
|
Wasp (Janet van Dyne) is a fictional character, a superheroine in the Marvel Comics universe and founding member of the Avengers. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Tales to Astonish #44 (June 1963).
"The Winsome Wasp", as she is sometimes referred to, is usually depicted as having the ability to shrink to a height of perhaps several centimeters, grow to giant size, fly by means of insectoid wings, and fire yellow energy blasts.
In May 2011, the Wasp placed 99th on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time. The character was ranked 94th in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.[1]
Her early partner and fellow Avengers member, Henry Pym, temporarily took the codename of "The Wasp" while she was presumed dead.
Janet van Dyne debuted as Henry "Hank" Pym's partner in Tales to Astonish #44 (written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby), originally only serving as his partner to avenge the death of her father, scientist Vernon van Dyne. Later in the same issue, she decides to stay with Hank only because she is in love with him, wanting him to realize that he loves her back. They both realize their feelings for each other in Tales to Astonish #56, although it isn't until later in the series that they act on them.
During her run in Astonish, van Dyne also joined Avengers in its first issue, along with her partner, Hank Pym. It is on this team that Janet becomes most well-known, at first the weak link of the team, but later on one of the smartest and craftiest members. She is the first one to propose to leave the team, after announcing how tired she is and how she wants to return to a normal life.[2] However, she misses being a superhero, and she returns to the team in issue #28. After marrying Hank in issue #60, Janet and Hank both decide to leave the team in issue #75.
Janet was a main character in Marvel Feature issues #6-10, and made sporadic guest appearances in various other books at the time.
Janet misses being a superhero, and re-joins the Avengers in issue #137, getting injured right away. After being rescued by her husband and hospitalized, Janet recovers and joins the team along with Hank.[3] Here she begins her longest run as a member of the Avengers. After being brutally slapped in the face by her husband, she divorces him, and in turn becomes the new Chairman of the Avengers, starting in issue #217.
Janet later resigns as Chairman, and joins the West Coast Avengers in issue #32, at first only to help stabilize the team after Tony Stark leaves, later becoming a full-time member in issue #42. Later in the run, she rekindles her old romance with Hank, and fully re-joins the Avengers.
Wasp returns in the 2010-2013 Avengers series, in the "End Times" storyline from issue #31 (December 2012) to its final issue #34 (January 2013).
In his 1970s run on The Avengers, artist George Pérez revamped the character's costume a number of times, having a significant impact on the character's development:
It became a joke. In the case of the Wasp, I noticed that she has so many costumes that eventually I said "Why not?" I think I was on the book long enough what was once a just a little bit of idiosyncrasy about the character became fully part of the character's persona.[4]
Janet Van Dyne is born in Cresskill, New Jersey. She is initially a shallow, self-centered, flighty heiress and debutante, daughter of wealthy scientist Vernon Van Dyne. During an experiment, however, an alien monster is unleashed from an alternate dimension and Dr. Van Dyne is killed. Her father's associate, Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym, has created a substance called "Pym particles", which allows the user to grow or shrink in size, and has become the superhero Ant-Man. When Janet's father dies, she convinces Pym to help her.[5] He gives her a supply of "Pym particles" and subjects her to a biochemical procedure which grants her the ability to grow wings upon shrinking. Initially, she uses a pin to poke people as means of a weapon, and she later uses a miniature air gun, the original wasp's sting.[6] Eventually, she gains the ability to harness her body's bio-electrical current and fire blasts of energy which she calls her "wasp's stings". Ant-Man and The Wasp defeat the monster and send it to its own dimension.[5] Janet becomes Pym's partner and falls in love with him before their first adventure, but Pym rejects her at first, afraid of what would happen if he were to lose her as he has lost his first wife, who has been killed.[5] Janet openly muses about her apparently unrequited feelings, often in front of him.[7] Pym rejects his feelings for her, but he later accepts them[8] and tries to act on them.[9] Later, they begin dating.[10]
Soon afterward, the superhero team, which Janet herself dubbed the Avengers, forms. Hank and Janet are among its founding members.[11] Still shallow, Janet frequently comments on the attractiveness of her male colleagues, especially Thor, in order to provoke jealousy from Pym. Never lacking confidence or bravery and by nature an outgoing personality, Janet is always in the thick of battles with villains, who includ Norse gods and aliens. Early on in her Avengers career, she is wounded in battle against Count Nefaria.[12] Although she and Hank take occasional leaves of absence,[2][13] the two have almost always remained members, staying on reserve when not on active duty. After their first leave of absence, she and Pym, as the first Goliath, rejoin the Avengers and battle the Collector.[14] During the course of their many adventures as Avengers, Janet grows as a person, becoming a resourceful and seasoned hero. Several years later, she is elected leader of the team.[volume & issue needed]
Janet hopes on several occasions for Hank to propose.[15] Their wedding comes about in a convoluted manner, beginning when new vigilante Yellowjacket breaks into Avengers HQ, demanding to be admitted as a member of the team and claiming to have killed Henry Pym. He knocks Janet unconscious and kidnaps her. Not believing that he has killed Hank, Janet attempts to find where Yellowjacket is holding him,[16] but instead determines that Yellowjacket is Henry Pym. Before revealing this, and during the period in which Yellowjacket still believes himself to have killed Hank, Janet marries him. The wedding itself is a tense affair, made worse by an attack from the Circus of Crime. During the fight it is revealed that Yellowjacket is Pym, who has a severe case of dissociative identity disorder caused by a lab accident. Janet realizes this very early on and takes advantage of it to marry Hank.[17]
Janet later leaves the Avengers,[18] though she has other adventures before rejoining the team.[19] She becomes temporarily trapped at insect size, and battles Whirlwind, Para-Man, and Dr. Nemesis.[20] She also battles Equinox alongside Spider-Man and Yellowjacket; during this time her powers are augmented.[21]
Janet's relationship with Pym becomes rocky, as he suffers a further series of mental problems, exacerbated by the stress upon his body from his frequent size changes and exposure to chemicals. Janet is kidnapped by a brainwashed Hank,[22] and her brain patterns are used to create Jocasta, an intended wife for Ultron.[23] Janet later rejoins the Avengers without Pym.[24] Years later, Hank has a complete breakdown, becoming paranoid, overbearing, and verbally abusive.[25] When Janet discovers that Hank has concocted a plan to make himself look good in front of his teammates by staging an attack upon them which only he could stop, she attempts to dissuade him and he strikes her.[26] The plan backfires and Pym is exposed, disgraced, and expelled from the Avengers.[27] Janet divorces Pym soon after, and then becomes Avengers chairperson; with the Avengers, she arrests Yellowjacket.[28] She eventually surrenders her Avengers chairmanship to the Vision.[29] Despite these hardships, Janet remains with the team and even begins dating other men, including Tony Stark,[30] and Paladin.[volume & issue needed] With Paladin, she battles Baron Brimstone,[31] and shortly thereafter she resumes her Avengers chairmanship.[32] Janet eventually steps down as chairperson again, and leaves the Avengers.[33] Jan battles the threat of Red Ronin alone.[34] She later joins the West Coast Avengers.[35] Initially, Janet is still acting as a leader, to the chagrin of other West Coast Avengers teammates who desire that role. During this time, she resumes a romantic relationship with Hank.[36] Although she is elected as a regular member of the Avengers West, Janet chooses to become a reserve member.[37]
Several years later, Janet returns to the Avengers, first at reserve status, and later as a full member of the team. During the Destiny War, the Janet of the present becomes the leader of a team of Avengers assembled from different time periods, cited as being chosen due to her "inner strength and flexibility to give the team direction without exerting too much control."[38] After the Destiny War, Janet returns to work with the Avengers once more, taking up leadership of the team and commanding the team through a number of conflicts, including Kang's invasion of Earth.[39]
Janet and Hank's relationship remains strong for some time. On a trip to Las Vegas, however, she turns down Pym's proposal, saying she wouldn't marry him again.[40] She has a brief fling with fellow team member Hawkeye,[41] but returns to Hank.[volume & issue needed]
While discussing her fling with Hawkeye with the Scarlet Witch, a slightly tipsy Wasp confesses to a pregnancy scare and inadvertently mentiones Wanda's own children,[42] whose unnatural existence Agatha Harkness has erased from the Witch's memory. The Wasp's slip of the tongue, combined with the Scarlet Witch's increasingly unstable and growing powers, cause Wanda to suffer a mental breakdown which leads to the events of Avengers Disassembled. Janet is knocked into a coma by a rampaging She-Hulk during an attack on Avengers Mansion by the Scarlet Witch. Hank watches over her in the hospital, and when she recovers, they reconcile. The two retire from the Avengers in order to pursue a new life together in Oxford.[43]
Janet is pulled into space and placed in a situation where she is expected to fight to the death with other heroes and villains. Instead of following the wishes of the Stranger—who they thought to be the Beyonder—Janet falls into the leadership position for the group, giving tactical orders in battle and calling upon her years of experience with the Avengers to handle the threats thrown at them. After tension between her and her ex-husband, Janet explains to Medusa why she can't reconcile with him, despite an attempt to do so while in London. Upon learning that the Space Phantom has taken on the form of Spider-Man, Janet leads the group against him and keeps one of the team from being trapped in limbo when the Space Phantom attempts to take his form.[44]
During the superhuman Civil War, Janet is pro-registration and suggests that they push forward the fifty-state initiative to get things under control after the Thor-Clone kills Bill Foster, an event which she is very upset by. She also becomes the host of a pro-registration reality show called America's Newest Superhero.[volume & issue needed]
Janet is selected as a member of the Mighty AvengersbyCarol Danvers and Tony Stark as part of the Fifty State Initiative.[45] During its attempt to destroy humanity, she correctly determines that Ultron has taken over Iron Man's body.[46] When alien symbiotes attack New York, Janet uses a refined growth formula given to her by Hank Pym—who, unbeknownst to her, is actually a Skrull impostor—which allows her to shift to giant-size without side effects. During the beginning of the fight, she is briefly turned into a symbiote monster before a cure is created by Stark.[47]
Janet is among the Mighty Avengers who are fighting heroes from the Skrull ship. She is later seen with the rest of the Avengers heading to New York to confront the Skrulls. While fighting the Skrulls, the true purpose of the serum that the Skrull Hank Pym has given her is revealed. After Queen Veranke is thought to be dead, Skrull Pym presses a button that makes Janet increase in size rapidly. She realizes that the "new" particles Pym has given her are turning her into a bio-bomb. Janet is seen growing to a huge size, emitting lethal amounts of black-purple energy, and about to explode. Janet tries to flee the battlefield, trying to take as many Skrulls with her as possible. Thor uses Mjolnir to create a spatial warp in order to save both the heroes and the city, apparently dispersing her into nothingness. Thor is devastated by the act and vows to avenge her.[48] After accepting her death, Hank Pym resolves to take up his fallen ex-wife's mantle and becomes the Wasp.[49]
Following the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline, it is revealed that Janet has not died after all, but has been shunted into the Microverse by Thor's spatial warp in the same spot that she appears to have died in Secret Invasion, where she claims to have been trapped for 10 years. Using her Avengers communication card she is able to send a signal with help from a local being called Cru-Sani. Giant Man, Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man go into the Microverse to rescue her and find her alive and fighting against an evil despot called "Lord Gouzar", who has conquered the Microverse. After defeating him and liberating the Microverse from his tyranny, Janet and her fellow Avengers return to their normal universe.[50]
After a brief hiatus, Janet returns to the team as a member of the Avengers Unity Squad. In addition to serving on the roster, she privately funds the team in order to avoid the problems that would come with government sponsorship.[51]
Making use of the cellular implantation of sub-atomic Pym particles, the Wasp possesses the power to alter her physical size, causing her body's mass to be shunted to or gained from an alternate dimension known as Kosmos. She is able to shrink to a minimum of several centimeters or grow to a maximum of several hundred feet. Smaller or larger sizes are possible but the exertion puts a strain on her body. Initially, these abilities stemm from use of a Pym particle gas released from special capsules, and later biochemical augmentation by Henry Pym. Over time, however, her body absorbs enough particles to cause cellular mutation due to repeated exposure to Pym particles, allowing her to alter her size at will.
At miniature size, her strength level increases as her body's mass is compacted. At giant size, her strength and endurance increase geometrically with her height, reaching superhuman levels. Despite the advantages of giant size, Janet usually prefers to remain the diminutive Wasp, calling on her growth power only in times of extreme emergency.
At miniature size, the Wasp grows a pair of translucent insect wings from her back, a result of genetic modifications provided by Hank Pym. These grant her the power of flight, at speeds up to 40 mph (64 km/h).
The Wasp is able to harness and augment her body's natural bio-electric energy, releasing it from her hands in powerful electrical force bursts, which she calls her "stinger blasts", "stingers", or "wasp's stings". Originally, she requirs special wrist devices to produce these, but again, Pym particle absorption allows her to create the ability unaided.
The Wasp's genetic modifications also grant her the ability to sprout small prehensile antennae from her temples which allowed her to telepathically communicate with and control insects. However, this is an ability she rarely uses.
Van Dyne displays several non-superhuman abilities that garner her special fame and attention, foremost of which is her fashion sense; in nearly all of her early appearances, she sports a new costume, presumably designed and manufactured on her own as she is a gifted fashion designer. She is also a skilled amateur screenwriter. The Wasp is trained in unarmed combat by Captain America and in combat utilizing her special powers by Henry Pym. In addition, the Wasp is one of the most intuitive, if not deductive, members of the Avengers, and is an experienced leader and strategist. She effectively determines that a chemical accident has created a schizophrenic break in Henry Pym[52] and that the relationship between the Scarlet Witch and the Vision is the result of the infused personality of Wonder Man,[volume & issue needed] and guesses the identity of Iron Man when Tony Stark fakes his own death.[volume & issue needed]
IGN ranked Wasp as the 99th greatest comic book hero of all time, stating that she remained one of the core Avengers members for much of the franchise's history, and her extensive wardrobe rivals even the likes of Wolverine's.[53]
In the alternate future of the "MC2" universe, Hank and Janet give birth to two children: Hope Pym (Red Queen) and Henry Pym, Jr. (Big Man). Giant-Man later perishes on the last mission of the original Avengers, and the Wasp dies of a broken heart. Her parents' deaths motivate Red Queen to form the Revengers. Big Man, a one-time member, however, joins a government reform team.[volume & issue needed]
The Marvel Adventures: The Avengers series (set in its own continuity) features Janet Van Dyne as Giant-Girl, showcasing her ability to grow rather than shrink, which she uses in combat. She is younger than her main universe counterpart and she cracks jokes along with her teammate Spider-Man. Issue 13 of the series reveals her origin as a wealthy socialite given access to size-changing Pym particles by scientist Henry Pym (here an employee of Janet's father, rather than a superhero). Her maximum size is unknown, but she grows tall enough to catch a school. Instead of having her powers naturally, Janet requires a suit powered by Pym particles to change her size. Like her Earth-616 counterpart, Janet seems to change her costume regularly. The first costume is purple and black with a mask adorned with antennae that looks remarkably similar to the Giant-Man costume worn by Hank Pym in the mainstream universe. This costume allows her to grow while having the added effect of letting her control insects (though she never uses this power). This costume is later destroyed, and Janet wears a second costume that does not include a mask, as her secret identity had been revealed. Finally, Janet gains a third suit that allows her to both grow and shrink, with the suit changing in appearance depending on her size. While using this suit to shrink, she calls herself Wasp and has powers similar to her mainstream counterpart, such as flight, proportionally superhuman strength, and the ability to project bio-electrical stings. A recent preview of Marvel Adventures the Avengers 19 has shown her wearing a costume which is primarily blue but has gold-yellow accents. Whether this costume increases her maximum size is yet to be seen. She also mentions that she has at least two brothers, although they have never been seen or given any names (see Marvel Adventures the Avengers #3).
The Marvel Zombies series features an alternate Wasp as one of the main characters. She is now a zombie, another victim of the virus that has infected nearly all her world's superhumans. After Earth's human population is almost entirely devoured, Wasp is one of the zombies who finally kills (and consumes) Magneto.[volume & issue needed]
Around this time, Wasp is part of a sub-team that makes its way to the Marvel Apes universe. A collection of heroes manages to reverse the dimensional tear and send them back, but not before Wasp secretly infects the local version of Iron Man, Iron Mandrill.[54]
The Wasp then discovers that Hank Pym has kept a secret food supply—a sedated and maimed Black Panther, held prisoner in Hank's lab. She confronts Hank, but he decapitates her by increasing in size and biting her head off in the struggle that follows. When the Black Panther later escapes the lab, he also takes the Wasp's head—still alive, but helpless. He eventually reaches safety, encountering Magneto's surviving Acolytes. The Acolytes announce that they will study the Wasp, seeking a cure for the virus.[55]
An epilogue, five years later, shows the Wasp exploring the deserted Earth alongside the Acolytes. Her severed head is now sealed within a liquid-filled helmet, controlling a robotic body.[volume & issue needed]
Forty years later in "Marvel Zombies 2", her head is fixed on a more advanced machine with her head exposed to the air. She also develops romantic feelings toward one of the Acolyte survivors, a scientist named Reynolds. As she indicates, forty years with the Acolytes is far longer than the time she has spent with Hank. At one point, the two share a kiss.[55]
A long period without feeding seems to have cured her completely of the hunger. Now Black Panther's adviser and friend, she is forced to infect him when an Acolyte assassin attempts to kill him. This incident is orchestrated by Malcolm Cortez, the son of Fabian Cortez, who wants to take leadership from Black Panther. When the hunger resurfaces, she nearly eats Panther's wife before being stopped by him. Instead, they eat the assassin and they state they will go into isolation in order to control their hunger. This is a success. Multiple powered zombies soon threaten the colony. Wasp fights alongside Panther, Hawkeye (who had also been decapitated and inhabits Janet's own former cybernetic body), Forge, and a reformed Luke Cage and Spider-Man to save the people of New Wakanda from Firelord, Giant Man, Wolverine, Gladiator, Hulk, Jean Grey, and Iron Man, who are seeking to finish off humanity and retain the inter-dimensional portal so they can enter a new universe. Eventually the zombies discover, as Janet has, that the hunger fades with time, and they stop their rampage only to have their numbers halved by the Hulk. Janet, along with the other remaining zombies (the new Colonel America, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Giant Man, Wolverine, and Black Panther), end up teleported to another universe by Malcolm Cortez.[56]
The Wasp ends in the dimension of 'Earth Z'. She leads an alien invasion of the zombie-infected Earth in an effort to quash the flesh-eating threat. She fails at this and is destroyed.[57]
Janet is shown as a member of the Avengers and aids them during the battle with Starro. She also gives Iron Man the idea to create a dimensional alarm and rallies other Avengers to defend the artifacts. After the final battle in the Savage Land against the Justice League, Janet ends up as an Avenger in the new merged world that the villain Krona created and is unaware of the changes. In this world she and Hank are good friends with Elongated Man and his wife Sue Dibny. When the two teams decide to team up against Krona, the Wasp fights alongside the Avengers until the battle is over.[58]
During the period when Janet is presumed dead, a cyborg version of the Wasp appears in the Core, an underground city populated by robots.[59] During a battle between the Descendants (the residents of the Core) and the Secret Avengers, Hawkeye encounters the cyborg Wasp. He muses that the cyborg must have been the reanimated corpse of Janet, and finds himself unable to harm her.[60] This Wasp is later revealed to be from an alternate future where most of Earth's superheroes had been killed and rebuilt using Deathlok technology. After the death of her timeline's version of Hank Pym, the Deathlok Wasp attempts to kidnap and assimilate his Earth-616 counterpart.[61]
In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Janet Pym is a 26-year-old [62] mutant[63] and a member of the Ultimates. She holds two Ph.D.s (one known to be in molecular biology[64]) and is portrayed as being of Asian descent.[65][66] She is moderately fluent in German.
Her mutant status remains hidden from the public but is known by Hank Pym and S.H.I.E.L.D. She can generate a glittering wasp-like sting which she discharges through her hands.[63][67][68] Her bio-electric blast, when applied from within the ear to the brain, reverts the Hulk to Banner during his New York massacre.[67] Side-effects of her insectoid genetics include the occasional consumption of bugs, forming her own larval nests, and laying egg-like constructs.[63]
During her college years, she shares a room with Betty Ross and starts seeing Henry Pym. He is abusive to her early in their relationship and during college is known to have hit her at least twice, putting her head through a door on one occasion and splitting the roof of her mouth on another. Betty Ross can also recall instances where Janet is missing chunks of hair. Janet also suffers from severe bulimia prior to joining the Ultimates.[69]
Hank's attempts at change through medication and enlistment in the Ultimates does not improve his behavior. As a result of his humiliating loss against the Hulk and simmering jealousy of Janet's friendship with Captain America, Henry and Janet fight viciously until Janet resorts to stinging him and Hank commands an army of ants against her. Janet is found in a state of anaphylactic shock, caused by receiving multiple ant stings she has received while at wasp-size. Captain America, upon learning of Hank's violence, tracks him down and beats him unconscious. Captain America's visits to Janet after the fight leave her exasperated and angry, stemming from embarrassment of her personal life becoming public.[70]
After stopping the Chitauri invasion, Captain America and the Wasp reconcile as friends and slowly start dating, despite Hank Pym's attempts at making amends. On one of their secret meetings, Janet later confesses to Hank, now classified as a security risk by S.H.I.E.L.D., that the generation gap between Captain America and herself, along with the elderly status of his friends, put a large strain on their relationship. She walks out on Steve and meets up with Hank in a bar.[71]
The invasion of America by the Liberators fails to take Janet into account. They discount the possibility that someone whose only ability is to make herself "smaller and weaker" could be a threat. By the time they find her, Janet has made her way to the cells in the Triskelion, where Captain America is being held under suspicion of murdering Hawkeye's entire family. Soldiers working for the Liberators enter his cell and find two metahuman signatures. At first, Janet is easily subdued, but they fail to realize that she has already liberated her boyfriend. Captain America easily beats the Schizoid Man, but stops fighting when several super soldiers threaten to tear Janet apart. However, Janet surprises them all by using her stinging powers at her normal size for the first time, killing or incapacitating all the super soldiers at once.[72]
At some point, Hank gives the Wasp a dose of the Giant-Man Serum, giving her the power to grow to gigantic proportions. Larger in size, Janet helps turn the tide in favor of American forces and crushes Swarm with one stomp of her foot. It is yet to be seen whether Janet can grow at will or whether this is a one-off experience.[73]
She is the new leader/co-leader with Ultimate Captain America of the team in The Ultimates 3 miniseries, and now sports a crimson-and-gold outfit and a mask, similar to her 616-Wasp counterpart. She begins to reconcile with Hank (who begins a new identity as "YellowJacket"), and later with the Ultimates and Wolverine stops the plans of Hank's android, Ultron.[74] She and Hawkeye frequently clash thanks to his almost suicidal nature after his family is killed.[75] After the flood from the Ultimatum Wave, she is missing. Both Hank Pym and Hawkeye search for her. Hawkeye finds her being eaten by the Blob, who is later killed by Hank, but is killed by an army of mutant suicide bombers, the Multiple Men. The comic came out one month after her mainstream Marvel Universe counterpart's death.[76]
Before his death, Pym tells Hawkeye, and Iron Man to take Janet's body to his lab and activate "the Jocasta project".[77]
InUltimate Comics: Spider-Man, shortly after the Death of Spider-Man story arc, Thor gives a eulogy at Spider-Man's funeral, claiming he has seen Spider-Man dining in Valhalla with other deceased superheroes, including Wasp.[78]
In the Ultimate Comics: Avengers a new Wasp appears (called Red Wasp). She is revealed to be a former Liberator soldier previously known as the Insect Queen, now reformed with an obedience chip and serving as a member of the Avengers.[79]InUltimate Comics: Avengers #5, a flashback reveals that she is Petra Laskov, the wife of a Georgian activist. One day the Red Skull kidnaps them, holds the couple's child at gunpoint, and forces her to kill her husband to save her child. She does so, only for the Red Skull to throw her infant out a window, and then order his men to rape her.[80] Along with the rest of the Avengers, she fights the Red Skull only to be overpowered until he is fatally injured by Captain America. A short while later when the Red Skull is in the hospital, Petra, dressed like a doctor, walks into his room and shoots him in the head, killing him.[81]
She appears to have the same powers as her predecessor.
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