From the Comics: The Bizarre Wedding of Ant-Man and the Wasp

In the late 60’s, Henry Pym (formerly Ant-Man) and Janet van Dyne were Avengers, fighting crime as Goliath and the Wasp. The duo had also been in a pretty stable and healthy relationship for many years. Though they had disagreements every now and then, it was clear that they cared for one another deeply. At this time, it seemed like a wedding would happen any day now but Hank was a bit reluctant to officially propose. Then, things took a turn for the weird as a variety of pretty unbelievable events occurred.

On a seemingly normal day in the life of the Avengers, a mysterious character, going by the name Yellowjacket, shows up out of the blue. He prevents a couple of minor crimes on his own and then goes on to demand membership on the Avengers’ roster. To demonstrate his suitability for the team, he even goes on to tell them that he defeated and killed Hank Pym in a fight, thus proving himself as a powerful warrior.

Instead of being impressed by this show of strength, the Avengers are immediately repulsed. They reject his plea for membership and attack Yellowjacket. However, the new villain is more resourceful than they believed and is able to temporarily fend off their attacks. Before the Avengers have a chance to regroup, Yellowjacket is holding the Wasp at gunpoint and is able to flee the scene, taking his hostage with him.

Once alone, Yellowjacket gloats to the Wasp about his victory over her heroic teammates. He then does something even more unexpected and forcibly kisses her. After the kiss, both Yellowjacket and the Wasp are disoriented. Yellowjacket claims this whole kidnapping was a mistake and tells the Wasp she can leave, but the Wasp, inexplicably, no longer wants to go.

A few moments later, the Avengers burst into Yellowjacket’s lair and completely overwhelm him. However, the Wasp tells them not to hurt him. They react with shock and ask why they shouldn’t, to which the Wasp replies “I’m going to marry him!”

The duo’s wedding takes place as soon as possible. Janet spends the day constantly fending off questions about why she is doing what she is doing. She shows total resolve in her own actions and insists that she is making the right decision. Her determination convinces the Avengers to withhold judgement, even if they do suspect Yellowjacket is only marrying her for some nefarious purpose.

Despite all of these problems, the start of the wedding goes off without a problem. The duo are married and proceed on to the reception. At this point, a variety of villains burst in on the wedding, looking for revenge on members of the Avengers.

This sudden intrusion on his special day deeply upsets Yellowjacket, especially when his bride is taken captive by the assailants. When this happens, his anger reaches its boiling point and he suddenly transforms… into Goliath! The newly revived Henry Pym easily dispatches the villains and, ultimately, saves the day.

Once all the dust settles, the happy couple goes on to explain exactly what happened. Days ago, Hank Pym had been working in his lab when he accidentally spilled some untested chemicals. These chemicals released gasses that threw him into a schizophrenic episode. Since, at the time he entered this episode, he was thinking about proposing to Janet, this motivation drove his decisions as Yellowjacket and precipitated the entire marriage. Janet then explains that she didn’t know it was Hank at first, but the initial kiss from Yellowjacket made her realize what had happened.

In the end, the two are officially married and are happy that the wedding took place. The comic issues somewhat gloss over the legality of this entire situation and don’t really explain why “Yellowjacket” attacked the Avengers in the first place. In this way, they end up being a pretty solid showcase of how over-the-top and pretty unbelievable the concepts in the Silver Age of comics books could be, even for something as important as a wedding between two major characters.

Recommended Reading

If you’re interested in reading these comic adventures for yourself, we recommend picking up the following titles:

• Avengers #59-60- In which the wedding and nearly everything leading up to it take place. These issues are collected in Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers Vol. 7 (Review).

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