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For the first Yellowjacket, Hank Pym, see Henry Pym

Yellowjacket was the alias of Rita DeMara, a fictional character, an initial reluctant supervillainess and later superheroine in the Marvel Comics universe.

Introduced in Avengers #264, Rita DeMara was a reluctant supervillainess who was most notable for her brief affiliation with two incarnations of the Masters of Evil. She had stolen one of Henry Pym's Yellowjacket costumes, and modified it, making it more feminine (and removing the insect emblem).

Yellowjacket participates in a takeover of the Avengers Mansion, assisting one of the more powerful versions of the Masters of Evil. Defeated, Yellowjacket is sent to prison but is freed by the Fixer, who has amorous intentions. She flees and tries to gain revenge on the Wasp, by way of the Black Knight. Furious at being rejected, the Fixer tries to kill her. Black Knight helps Yellowjacket defeat him and the two part on possibly romantic terms.

During a time when no Avengers were active, her costume receives a call for help from an automated system at an old Avengers base. She finds herself teaming up with The Beast, The Captain, Falcon, Hercules, The Hulk and Jocasta. They battle the High Evolutionary, who wished to jumpstart humanity's evolution through worldwide catastrophe. Yellowjacket helps battle through the Evolutionary's underground submarine base, fighting against dozens of his soldiers. Eventually the Evolutionary is defeated by Hercules, the two evolving out of reality.

Her second affiliation with the Masters of Evil ended during the Infinity War. Her team confronted the Guardians of the Galaxy inside the Avengers Mansion as the Masters had wished to take it over. Yellowjacket was soon betrayed by her side. Moments later, both teams were overwhelmed by waves of evil aliens. Each member of each team had a double and when one was destroyed, yet another would appear. To survive, they had to work together. They fought until the aliens stopped coming, stopped at the source by other super-teams in other dimensions. When the current leader of the Masters, Doctor Octopus, desires to continue the fight, his men turn on him, not wanting to hurt those who had helped them. Yellowjacket was left behind and joined the Guardians.

She went to the 31st century with them and further proved her worth when she saved the life of Charlie-27 by shrinking, flying inside his throat, and performing "surgery" on a massive blood clot with her stings. She formed a close friendship with Nikki. She later used 31st century technology to redesign her costume, making it look less like Henry Pym's design (she even found a way to fly without installing wings on her costume).

She used her powers as a valued member of the team, until, homesick, she attempted to return to the 20th century. On the way, she stopped in the near future and learned that a disaster was about to happen to the Avengers in her target time. When she returned to the present to warn them, she was killed by Iron Man, who was being mind controlled by Immortus in the guise of Kang the Conqueror.

Similar to her predecessor, Rita had the ability to shrink to the size of an insect. She could fly at high speeds, and fire bioelectric "stinger" blasts. She also demonstrated growing powers on occasion. However, due to the strain this placed on her heart, she rarely used them.

In this darker reality, Rita joins with Doc Samson and Stingray to create the Defenders, a team intended to take up the slack left by the defeated Avengers.

• Marvel.com profile - Rita DeMara