Maybe Black Shoulder Wings would be a better name

I've always liked Yellowjacket's costume, but one part of it in particular has always driven me nuts:

yellowjacket.jpg

Try to ignore the Flying Squat he's got going on in the illustration and focus on those shoulder pads. Er, wings. Imagine how this would work in real life. You've got gigantic black blinders on either side of your noggin, meaning you can only see what's directly ahead of you. Maybe that's why he's always teaming up with the android Avenger, Peripheral Vision.

So just from an optical physics point of view, this costume doesn't make much sense. But then I'm asked to believe that he uses these vision-blocking shoulder flaps to fly.

Wha-hunh?!

Look, I'm no ornithologist, but I'm pretty sure that you ain't gettin' off the ground by wrapping wings around your shoulders. Maybe Henry Pym should check with his wife Janet for proper flight-appendage placement, because my bet is that he built this costume while in one of his trademark drunken stupors.

8 Responses to Maybe Black Shoulder Wings would be a better name

  1. EnderX says:

    (Note: The following has nothing to do with in-universe reality…at least, to this individual’s personal knowledge.)

    It’s an additional power, inherent in the costume. As with most other superhero costumes, they’re obviously designed with fibers woven from specially developed handwavium. This means that any kind of ‘Huh? That shouldn’t work’ logic is automatically brushed aside.

  2. Rick says:

    I think I have only seen one rendition of his “wings” that at least let him see over his shoulders and that was a John Byrne version from Marvel Team-Up way back when. I am much more disturbed with the wiggle…

  3. Jeff Hebert says:

    I think “handwavium” is now my all time favorite word.

  4. Tejas says:

    no way he is stupid he doesn’t look good he would be a villain is insnti”t huh.
    and why is the color black?,he looks evil.

  5. Cavalier says:

    Actually, didn’t Pym become Yellow-Jacket during a psychotic episode, saying he was someone else who killed Pym? Being psychotic, he also proposed and married Janet Van Dyne. A marriage held as legal even when he got his head sorted out, which shows that the legal system in Mavel-World is always in a psychotic episode.

    Short answer: yes, they are stupid. But he’s got a good power set.

  6. TheNate says:

    “I’ve always liked Yellowjacket’s costume …”

    Guess that’s why there’s a bee/hornet in the insignias.

  7. Bael says:

    What is it with Hank Pym, these days? Personally, I have nothing against him, but I seem to recall whole decades where was nothing but costumed tech support for the Avengers when Iron man was indisposed. Now, somebody at Marvel has decided he’s Important again and I can’t get away from the guy. I can remember when Tony Stark would barely talk to him, and now they’re like Pinky and the Brain plotting the future of the Marvel Universe.

  8. Jeremy says:

    Bookmarked for future reference. TY