I must be kidding on this one…

Insect Queen (Lana Lang)- Wasp

Should anyone other than a friend of mine ever leave a comment somewhere on this blawg, I would expect this post in particular to get a WTF? or two.

You have Superman’s paramour from his Smallville days, one that as an adult was used as a rival to Lois Lane, but was shown a time or two in the ‘50-’60s/Weisinger era taking a fairly super-heroic guise which has since been ignored. Then you have a character initially conceived as a flighty, spoiled rich spouse to Henry Pym but later as “her own woman” and a capable leader of the Avengers.

It’s just that the Wondrous Wasp is an important heroine in the MU, and I couldn’t justify pairing her with Jean Loring, the estranged lawyer wife of Ray Palmer who took leave of her sanity a few years ago and killed one of their friends in order to get his attention. That she did so using his shrinking methods may be suggested as a way to line her up with Jan, but…no.

So I’m going with this most imperfect pairing.

Commonalities:
Well…um…Lang useta get small and adopt characteristics of insects! Which is sorta what Jan does! I’m not sure how Lana has been played in recent years, but she’s not unlike Jan, is she? Anyone? And Jan’s been separated from the troubled Hank off and on for long enough that I can justify pairing her with someone with no connection to the Atom.

Differences:
Well, one has always been a superheroine…and the other hasn’t!

Alternate histories:

IQ: Socialite Lana Lang meets Ray Palmer, who has adopted the identity of the Atom and who mourns the loss of his first wife. Palmer grants Lana abilities similar to his own, and she takes the name the Insect Queen. She and Palmer become founding members of the Justice League, and the two are married are shortly thereafter. Some years later, Palmer becomes unhinged and strikes Lang; he is expelled from the League and the two divorce. While Palmer is rehabilitated, Lang becomes chairperson of the League. The two are sporadically reunited, and Lang currently serves in the League.

JVD: Janet Van Dyne dates Donald Blake, who soon discovers his Asgardian heritage, while both are teenagers; in one continuum, she is granted the ability to shrink and shoot force-blasts and dubs herself the Wasp. In the current continuum, Van Dyne remains close to Thor, although she eventually marries and currently is the CEO of the corporation once controlled by Victor Von Doom.

The Avengers, 1961-1978

Founding members

Thor
Captain America
Thundra
Mr. Fantastic
Iron Man
Sub-Mariner
Silver Surfer

Recruits

Hawkeye
Ant-Man/Yellowjacket
Captain Mar-Vell
Mockingbird
Beast
Vision
Ms. Marvel (Una, Mar-Vell’s wife and partner)
Scarlet Witch

The Avenger's Second String

Now we can say who the first three recruits to the Avengers would be…

Hawkeye
Ant-Man / Yellowjacket
Captain Mar-Vell

This iteration would later result in Yellowjacket becoming close to the Captain, a law and order-type soldier who would often be antagonized by the newly politicized Hawkeye…

Little men with big brains

Ray Palmer - Henry Pym

A no brainer, to be sure.

For a while, I paired Pym with Barry Allen. But the parallels are too numerous: these characters are mirror images of one another.

Commonalities:
Two unparalleled but occasionally troubled scientists who get small.

Differences:
Palmer cannot communicate with insects, never used his methods to become super-sized and never had a wife who was his partner in crime fighting. However, his wife did kill one of their friends and become a demon!

Alternate histories:

RP: Physicist Ray Palmer develops a method in which he can shrink himself, as well as animate and inanimate matter, to microscopic size. He loses his first wife, Jean Loring, and meets Lana Lang; the two use his discoveries as the Atom and the Insect Queen. The two co-found the Justice League of America with Superman, Green Lantern and an individual to be named later. Palmer then uses his methods to make himself grow to giant size and thus takes the identity of Atom-Smasher. He serves with distinction in the JLA for many years, but his invention of the Construct, a robot bent on destroying humanity, puts significant strain on his psyche. He eventually suffers a nervous breakdown, culminating in his striking his wife and his expulsion from the JLA. Palmer redeems himself and resumes his research and serves with the JLA. Most recently, he has joined Green Lantern’s drive to register all of America’s extra-normal operatives.

HP: Biochemist/ roboticist Henry Pym devises a method in which he can shrink himself and communicate with ants. He takes the guise of Ant-Man (later Yellowjacket) and becomes the second recruit to the Avengers. He later marries Maria Trovaya, and serves for years as the Avengers’ key scientific resource. Pym divorces Trovaya and then spends some time in a insect-proportioned society in South America, but returns to a teaching post at an prestigious East Coast university and sporadic missions with the Avengers. A reconciliation with Trovaya ends in murderous disaster, and Pym drops out of sight.