Janet van Dyne

"It's okay. I'm... I'm here now. We have time."

- Janet van Dyne to Hope van Dyne

Janet van Dyne is the wife of Hank Pym and the mother of Hope van Dyne. She operated by the codename Wasp in S.H.I.E.L.D. until she sacrificed herself to disarm a Soviet bound to the United States in 1987, saving millions of lives but also becoming lost to the Quantum Realm.

When she sent a message to Scott Lang, he notified her family, Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne, which led to the possibility and wonder of her being alive in the Quantum Realm. Their ambitions succeeded, and she was freed from the Quantum Realm as an evolved human with superhuman powers. Not long after, Janet was one of the trillions of victims in the Snap, but was resurrected in the Blip five years later.

Having a Family
Janet van Dyne married Hank Pym, a scientist who developed a way to shrink a human to the size of an ant and maintain their strength. He also discovered a way to communicate with ants. Together they had a daughter named Hope van Dyne.

Ant-Man and the Wasp
"Mommy?" "Oh, Jellybean. Daddy and I have a last minute business trip, so Rose is going to stay with you for a few days." "No. I don't want you to go."

- Hope van Dyne and Janet van Dyne Van Dyne convinced Hank Pym to let her join his missions for S.H.I.E.L.D.. With her own shrinking suit, she became known as the Wasp alongside Pym as the Ant-Man.

Lost to the Quantum Realm
"I knew I had to shrink between the molecules to disarm the missile, but my regulator had sustained too much damage. Your mother, she didn't hesitate."

- Hank Pym

The duo undertook many S.H.I.E.L.D. operations, until a mission in 1987 to disarm a Soviet  en-route to the United States. In order to stop the missile, Janet disabled her regulator to shrink small enough to enter the missile and though the mission was successful, Janet was lost to the Quantum Realm. To protect their daughter, Hope, from the horrifying truth, Hank told her that Janet had died in a plane crash, and he himself from Hope to study the Quantum Realm in hopes of retrieving Janet. He finally told her the truth in 2015. Seeing that Scott Lang survived and returned from the Quantum Realm after a showdown with Darren Cross, Pym wondered if his wife was still alive as well.

Escape from the Quantum Realm
"I was back in the Quantum Realm, and I think I saw your wife."

- Scott Lang to Hank Pym

Janet manages to communicate with Scott Lang after coming into contact with him in the Quantum Realm, and leaves a message behind. This then causes Scott to contact Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne, after ceasing contact with them due to him being under house arrest. Meanwhile, Pym and Hope continues to create a Quantum Tunnel in order to bring back Janet and recruits Lang. The trio is then forced to work together to overcome Ghost and Foster, who were attempting to enter the Quantum Realm to cure Ava's condition. Pym enters the Quantum Realm while Hope and Lang fight off Sonny Burch, who was attempting to steal Pym's technology for his own purposes. Ghost arrives and steals Pym's portable lab. Meanwhile, Hank Pym begins to lose consciousness after he used the Quantum Tunnel to enter the realm but was saved by Janet. The couple reunited and begin their escape. Ghost then manages to begin the extraction process, extracting quantum energy from Janet to cure her condition and killing Janet in the process. Hope and Lang arrives and successfully stops her, saving Janet. Janet and Hank successfully escapes the Quantum Realm and Janet compliments Hope and Lang on their abilities. Van Dyne then manages to briefly stabilize Ava Starr's condition but realizes that they would need to harvest quantum energy to cure her completely. The Pym family reunites and began to build a new life in San Francisco. Hank creates a smaller Quantum Tunnel that is portable while Lang finishes his house arrest. The Pym family sends Lang to harvest quantum energy for Ava and Janet warns him not to fall into a time vortex, as it would be near impossible to get him out.

Thanos' Victory
Lang enters the Quantum Realm and gathers enough energy for Starr. However, once Lang requested to get out of the Quantum Realm, van Dyne, Pym, and Hope suddenly become unresponsive to his requests to leave. Van Dyne, Pym, and Hope were all disintegrated by Thanos' use of the Infinity Stones, leaving Lang trapped in the Quantum Realm.

Resurrection
After the Hulk used the Nano Gauntlet to undo the damage done by Thanos, Janet was resurrected alongside her family. She later attended the funeral of Tony Stark after he sacrificed his life to stop Thanos and his army.

Personality
"Janet was the only one who could endure him and chose to stick it out."

- Bill Foster

From Hank Pym's account about her, Janet was a selfless person who would not hesitate to give her life to save millions, shown when she used her regulator to shrink between the molecules to disable a Soviet missile becoming trapped in the Quantum Realm as a result. Hank was very much in love with her and was extremely distraught at her apparent death to the point of becoming distant towards Hope and studying the Quantum Realm relentlessly for years.

Despite being trapped in the Quantum Realm for years, Janet never lost hope that she would be reunited with Hank and Hope. Janet appeared to have a witty, somewhat dry, sense of humor as she warned Scott to stay away from creatures in the Quantum Realm that looked cute but could eat him.

Former Powers
"Your mother convinced me to let her join me on my missions. They called her the Wasp. She was born to it. And there's not a day that goes by that I don’t regret having said yes."

- Hank Pym to Hope van Dyne

Wasp Suit
 * Size Manipulation: Similar to Ant-Man, van Dyne was able to reduce herself to the size of an insect by using Pym Particles. She still maintained her regular sized strength and durability while in a reduced scale as the process amplifies the amount of force she can generate and increases her density. Additionally, the process of altering size compresses force and energy, manifesting as brief shockwaves of vibration around the target, which briefly augments her force and momentum as she returns to normal size.
 * Superhuman Strength: When decreased in size, van Dyne possessed superhuman strength. She can exert force in her shrunken state that allows him to leap vast distances and great heights, though still in a small scale. She notably was able to smash through the internal mechanisms of a missile that she entered.
 * Superhuman Durability: When decreased in size, van Dyne possessed superhuman durability, enough to survive falls from great heights and other impacts that would injure or kill even normal sized humans.
 * Flight: By utilizing four artificial insect-like wings, van Dyne could fly at impressive speeds and maneuver with great agility with ease. However, after being in the Quantum Realm for 30 years, two of the wings have been destroyed, leaving her unable to fly.

Quantum Powers
"I thought I was gone. But that energy from your hands... how did you do that?" "I'm not the same woman I was 30 years ago, Henry. This place... it changes you. Adaptation is part of it, but some of it is... evolution."

- Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne

"Your pain. I can feel it." "It hurts. It always hurts." "I'm sorry. I think I can help you."
 * Quantum Entanglement: After coming in contact with Scott Lang, Janet was tied to him, making her able to psionically communicate with him via perception altering dreams that revealed her location. She was also able to possess Lang’s body and use him to reveal her precise location.
 * Quantum Particle Manipulation: After spending three decades in the Quantum Realm, Janet could use the molecules around her to shape herself and remain stable. This allowed her to survive in the realm for decades seemingly without sustenance.

- Janet Van Dyne and Ghost


 * Quantum Healing: After absorbing quantum energies at an unprecedented rate, Janet was able to manipulate the structure of living organisms on the atomic level and prevent them from experiencing quantum displacement; she could also reverse existing quantum displacement, as she did for Ghost. Additionally, she was able to remove the hallucinogenic effects of the Quantum Realm, as she did for Hank Pym.

Abilities
"All I'm saying is that she is a brilliant scientist. She may be able to help."

- Bill Foster to Ghost


 * Genius-Level Intellect: Janet was one of the foremost scientists on the planet earth before and after existing in the Quantum Realm. She was able to (through Scott Lang) perfectly align the machinery on the Quantum Tunnel to her precise location. She also knew enough about Quantum Physics and Biochemistry to physically evolve herself to withstand the conditions of the Realm, and it was her genius that miniaturized Hank Pym’s Quantum Tunnel.
 * Expert Combatant:  Janet is a highly trained fighter, able to fight evenly with the use of Wasp Suit, helping to dominate stronger opponents.

Equipment

 * Wasp Suit: An advanced Pym Particle-based suit, similar to the Ant-Man Suit. The first suit was created by her and Hank Pym for any super heroics.

Family

 * Hank Pym - Husband
 * Hope van Dyne/Wasp - Daughter

Allies

 * S.H.I.E.L.D. (First Incarnation)
 * Howard Stark †
 * Peggy Carter †
 * Rose
 * Bill Foster - Former Colleague
 * X-Con Security Consultants
 * Scott Lang/Ant-Man - Friend
 * Luis
 * Dave
 * Kurt
 * Ava Starr/Ghost - Former Attempted Killer
 * Bruce Banner/Hulk - Resurrector

Enemies

 * Thanos † - Killer

Trivia

 * In the comics, Janet van Dyne was the original incarnation of Wasp and a founding member of the Avengers, actually giving this name to the team.

Behind the Scenes

 * Joss Whedon intended to use Wasp in The Avengers as one of the female leads when Scarlett Johansson's involvement was still unconfirmed. However, plans to use both Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne were ultimately scrapped.
 * Michelle Pfeiffer's appearance in  was the primary reference for Janet van Dyne's youthful appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
 * Before Michelle Pfeiffer was cast as Janet van Dyne, was considered for the role.
 * While developing the story of Avengers: Endgame, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely considered having Janet and Hank Pym appearing with their Ant-Man Suits during the Battle of Earth sequence, but they ultimately scrapped them from the battle to not make it a "character orgy".
 * Renae Moneymaker was a stunt double for Michelle Pfeiffer in the role of Janet van Dyne.
 * Melinda Russell was a stand-in for Michelle Pfeiffer in the role of Janet van Dyne.