From 2016, the character of Nadia Pym (later Van Dyne), was created to reflect the character Evangeline Lilly played in 2015's Ant-Man film. Why they don't instead call her Hope in this comic is beyond me. If you're going to mirror the movie universe, go all out and do it right. Or don't do it at all. If I had anything to say about this book, I wouldn't advised Marvel to just scrap it.
First of all, readers are supposed to forget nearly 50 years of comic book history. Instead of being killed by Communists, Hank Pym's original wife survived long enough to have a child. The child, a daughter, was raised by the Red Room, the same clandestine Soviet training center that created Black Widow and all of her 'sisters'. Now free from Russian/Soviet influences, Nadia makes her way to NYC and seeks to become a superhero like her famous father.
Oh, geez. I'm having trouble with this review. I've been frustrated with my fellow fans today about being so negative and anti-woke. I really like to think I'm a little more open minded. I like issue writer Jeremy Whitley. I've interviewed him before. I am a big fan of his Princeless world of books. I just didn't like this book.
In reaction to SHIELD's lack of respect for women scientists, by book's end, Nadia creates a think tank that specializes in women and STEM studies in order to save the world. My culinary field is considered a career and technical education subject of study. My department strives to empower minorities and females in an industry that is dominated by men. So I am all for STEM and STEAM, as Culinary arts are a form of art. I just didn't like this issue!
This story just felt too saccharine for me. Maybe it's because Nadia is a millennial or a member of Gen Z. Maybe Nadia is just too positive and cheerful; like Santa Claus, at Disneyland... getting laid! Something about this issue just rubbed me the wrong way.
I looked at some other reviews of this book, and I think I've put my finger on what was getting on my nerves. A lot of readers seem to have the same complaint. It's how she and her teen friends talk. If you thought Cher in Clueless was bad, you will hate the dialogue in this book! Maybe it's because I am in my 40s. I am sure my parents and grandparents hated how I talked. It's that generation thing, surely. Though I don't recall any of my high school students from my past 5 years of teaching ever talking like this. It's almost like how DC writers in the late 60s and 70s would be criticized over how these 'old fogeys' didn't understand how modern teens of the time talked. I like Jeremy Whitley. I just don't think he was ever around teens in the mid-2010s.
A good story that is just a bit out of touch with today's youth. Maybe if the dialogue was more realistic and not in YEET-speak. Thank God my students don't talk like this. I don't think I could continue working with them if they did.
Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.
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