Yellowjacket is a Superhero from The Golden Age of Comic Books, published by Charlton Comics in Yellowjacket Comics 1-10 and Jack in the Box Comics 1.
Crime author Vince Harley is thinking of a new novel premise when one comes to him. You see, Judy Graves appears near his house, bringing the mob after her. In the ensuing scuffle, Vince learns that he can communicate with bees. Using his newfound abilities, Vince defeats the gangsters and embarks on a new career as "the Yellowjacket"
Grant Morrison brought him to the DC Universe in The Multiversity. This page is for his Golden Age incarnation.
Not to be confused with one of the many identities of Hank Pym.
This comic contains examples of:
- Academy of Evil: The Big Bad of the second story in Yellowjacket Comics #4 starts a crime school after getting out of prison.
- Artistic License – Biology: The Yellowjacket takes his name from a species of wasp, despite controlling bees. However, "Yellowjacket" is a far better alias than "Bee."
- Buried Alive: The baddies of the first story in Yellowjacket Comics #4 lock our hero in a steel coffin and drop him in a river, making this an unusual case of being buried alive at sea.
- Disc-One Final Boss: In Yellowjacket Comics #9, it seems that Monte Woods was responsible for the apartment complex collapse out hero is investigating. However, the investigation reveals that he did it on the orders of the property owner, Guy Wentworth.
- The Fagin: The Big Bad Duumvirate of the first story in Yellowjacket Comics #5 bribe children to steal checks from the mail.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Big Bad of the second story in Yellowjacket Comics #6 is a conman peddling a fake of a legendary horn. This horn is said to contain a pathway to the treasure of a pirate who killed his entire crew.
- Mad Scientist: The Big Bad of Yellowjacket Comics #3 is a disgraced doctor willing to kill anybody in his experiments to create a human limb regeneration serum.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Averted; one of the villains lost his license to practice medicine after too many patients died in experiments he secretly carried out.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Vince Harley is a crime writer.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
- The baddies of the second story in Yellowjacket Comics #5 kill a stand-in for Ernest Hemingway.
- In the first story of Yellowjacket Comics #6, there's a stand-in for Paramount being blackmailed.
- Not Me This Time: In Yellowjacket Comics #2, "Lips" Lenton is a racketeer who was near a radio executive when he was murdered. However, the actual killer was a disgruntled employee, and "Lips" himself performed a Heel–Face Turn and was there to see the exec's ward, who is his son.
- One-Word Title
- The Perfect Crime: In the first story of Yellowjacket Comics #4, Vince writes a story featuring one, which is shown to be flawed when he escapes that exact same crime himself.
- Protagonist Title
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The first issue has Yellowjacket going after the gangsters who left him to be stung to death by his own bees.
- Show Within a Show:
- Vince writes pulp stories for Dark Detective Magazine.
- In Yellowjacket Comics #2, Vince goes to watch the live recording of a crime radio show called Dark Night Program.
- The first story of Yellowjacket Comics #6 centers around the Biopic of a fictional pioneer.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Jake Mallon only shows up for the first issue, but he ends up kickstarting Vince Harley's superhero career by leaving him to be stung to death by bees, causing our hero to discover his control over them.
- The Sociopath: R. Krause tortures people to death so he can figure out how to regenerate limbs and make a lot of money.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: The Yellowjacket can control bees.
- Starter Villain: The first foe we see is Jake Mallon, a jewel thief who chased a girl into Vince's house.
- They Called Me Mad!:
- The Big Bad of Yellowjacket Comics #8 goes on a murder spree of the local architects' union because they laughed at his designs!
- The villain of Jack in the Box Comics #11 broke out of a madhouse in order to hijack a submarine he designed.
