Nadia van Dyne


Nadia van Dyne is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Mark Waid and Alan Davis, the character first appeared in Free Comic Book Day 2016 Civil War II.

Publication history

Nadia van Dyne is the Marvel Comics version of the Hope van Dyne seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and briefly had her own comic, The Unstoppable Wasp, but it was cancelled after eight issues for low sales. A second series with the same title debuted in October 2018. This second series was, in turn, cancelled after ten issues. She also had a 5 issues limited series with Ant-Man in 2018.

Fictional character biography

Nadia is the child of Hank Pym and his first wife, Maria Trovaya, who was abducted and supposedly killed by foreign agents. Nadia was raised in the Red Room until she obtained a Pym Particle sample and escaped. Initially intending to meet her father, Nadia learns that he is more or less dead, and instead uses parts of his costume and other materials to create a Wasp suit, hoping to obtain the admiration of her father's allies. She later meets Janet van Dyne, and they get along quite well, with Janet feeling that she has the potential to become a true hero.
Nadia soon joins the Avengers and gains U.S. citizenship. Upon realizing that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s index of the world's most intelligent people doesn't list any women above 27th place, she starts the program G.I.R.L. to look for women with genius intellects. When choosing a legal name, Nadia takes the surname 'van Dyne', as she does not know much about her birth parents and Janet has believed in and supported her.
At one point she aids Scott Lang - who is in outer space at that time - in an attempt to return to Earth, which results in a sequence of bizarre adventures in the microverse. However, in the process, the two of them became quantum-entangled with each other.
In issue 4 of the second series, it's revealed that Nadia has bipolar disorder, just like her dad.

Powers and abilities

Nadia uses Pym particles to alter her size at will. She has the ability to shrink down to sub atomic size and uses wasp like wings to fly at a tiny size. She also possess Pym Particles in her gauntlets that allow her to change the size of people and objects. Nadia is also able to grow in size much like her father and adopted mother, however it is yet known what the limit of this ability is yet.
Nadia is a skilled martial artist as a result of her Red Room training, particularly in Krav Maga.

Collected editions

In other media

Video games

The Nadia van Dyne/Wasp iteration of the character is a playable character in Marvel Future Fight.