NH teen scientist featured in issue No. 1 of Marvel’s ‘Unstoppable Wasp’ relaunch
Comic and science fans will get a chance to meet Julie Sage and buy a signed comic at Double Midnight Comics on Oct. 20 between 11 a.m. and noon.
MANCHESTER, NH — Today, comic book stores across the country released Issue No. 1 of the Unstoppable Wasp, which will feature an interview with Nashua ninth-grader Julie Seven Sage.
And comic and science fans will get a chance to meet Sage and buy a signed comic at Double Midnight Comics on Oct. 20 between 11 a.m. and noon.
Sage, 14, hosts a YouTube channel where she explains science news in terms most young people can understand. She aspires to be the next science communicator, in the tradition of Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson.
But she’s also a scientist in her own right, conducting experiments that get launched into space by a NASA sounding rocket as part of the Cubes in Space program.
The Marvel title first launched in January, 2017 and was cancelled after eight issues. When that series first came out, Sage posted a video about how much she enjoyed the book and how it championed young women in the sciences.
Soon, she was chatting up the creators of the series on Twitter, who saw her video. She would speak with writer Jeremy Whitley and editor Alanna Smith, whom she met in person over the summer.
“Eventually, I became really good friends with them,” Sage said.
Whitley interviewed Sage, and the printed exchange in the back pages of the comic is conceived as an interview by titular character Nadia Van Dyne (Hank Pym’s daughter from his first wife).
Sage even got an illustrated avatar made by the new series’ ink and color artist duo, which goes by the pseudonym Gurihiru.
In the story, Van Dyne creates a team of scientists called G.I.R.L., which stands for Genius In Action Research Labs.
“I think the comic will help a lot of girls feel like they can do (science),” Sage said.
She said the characters are all very relatable, likeable and the story demonstrates a great deal of emotional depth.
The back pages of every Unstoppable Wasp issue includes interviews with scientists.
When Sage first heard they wanted to interview her for the book, she said she crawled up into a ball and “happy cried.”
“It’s very much an honor,” Sage said of being featured in the first issue of the series relaunch. “It’s just crazy to be featured in an actual Marvel comic.”
Sage said she has two more YouTube shows coming soon through her network, dubbed 7 Sage Labs.
