The Avengers Encyclopedia

The Avengers Encyclopedia
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley
Writers: Matt Forbeck, Matthew K. Manning, Dan Wallace, Alan Cowsill, and Glenn Dakin
Published: Sept 2015
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 352

A quick note that a review copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review purposes.

The size and weight of this encyclopedia is impressive, one could almost say… Mighty. There’s a stunning amount of information jammed into the 350 plus oversized pages. This book isn’t your typical encyclopedia that’s alphabetically divided and feels artificial. Instead you get a well-thought out, thematic division of subject matter, coloured coded for easy reference.

The book respectfully balances the scope of Avengers history from the Silver Age to present. Written by a small army of authors, the encyclopedia breaks down over 250 characters, profiles significant events and storylines, and highlights the various team incarnations. I was also impressed the level of detail presented in the Key Storyline sections that go well beyond a simple summary and make a point of acknowledging comic book creators’ contributions.

The number of images jam packed into each page really pulls you into the book and really gives readers a solid feel for the character or event across the different comic book ages. I really enjoyed the write-ups on Hank Pym, who usually gets overlooked because of his convoluted history and continuity (and not because of his Ant-Man stature).

The Avengers Encyclopedia is the ultimate Avengers reference guide. Face Front True Believers, this volume has it all! If you’re looking to brush up on your Avengers history before Captain America: Civil War, pick up a copy of this book.

Marvel's Ant-Man - A Spoiler-Free Review

 

From the moment I had heard they were thinking of using Scott Lang, I had a bad feeling about this movie. I grew up on Roger Stern's Avengers and loved the way he restored Pym to his rightful place as proud founding father of the team. Scott Lang seemed an odd choice, but then again so was choosing to do an Ant-Man movie.

I went into the movie really expecting not to like it especially after seeing some early numbers on rottentomatoes.com. But, it turns out I really enjoyed it and it was nice to see the movie's rating climb up to 75%. Marvel succeeds again at pulling off a hit, leveraging some great humor and setting up a really fun heist feel. The acting was solid and cast really had a dynamic together. There were a few flaws in the story that I could overlook as I was swept up in the drama.

I really liked how Marvel continues to shape their cinematic universe, establishing a rich history and backstory. There are some really great tie-ins and guest appearances that will make you smile. It may not rank in the top tier of the Marvel movies, but Ant-Man was a lot of fun. I can help but wonder what the original script by Edgar Wright was like. Perhaps in the DVD bonus features, we'll get a glimpse of what might have been...

If you enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man has a similar feel with a great supporting cast who are almost more co-protagonists. Don't miss this great summer movie!

And make sure you stay for the two extra scenes, one mid-credits, and one after the credits.

1987: The Whackos' Cross Time Craziness part II: La Espirita Bonita

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

Gearing up to his 2nd anniversary as writer of West Coast Avengers, Steve Englehart decided to pull out all the stops and have his team go on an adventure they wouldn't soon forget, temporal paradoxes be damned. Two issues in and time had already split in three. Let's dig in...

Telling a story that simultaneously takes places in three different time periods is an ambitious undertaking to say the least. Englehart carefully plotted his tale to make sure events from past, present and future would interconnnect. But, to make sure the readership could keep track he still added a recap page to every issue. Nowadays, every single Marvel comic starts with one irregardless of whether they need it. But most creators approach an issue like they're writing an episode of a TV show. So, without further ado... "Previously, on West Coast Avengers...".

Starting with the present, Bonita "Firebird" Juarez had arrived at the Avengers Compound in time to prevent Hank Pym from blowing his brains out. In her new guise as La Espirita, she was trying to save his soul by inspiring him to find a new purpose in life. Which is a bit daunting if you consider the man had already reinvented himself at least four times by then: from Ant-Man to Giant-Man to Goliath and, most recently, Yellowjacket. Still, the religious La Espirita believed in the beauty of divine redemption and had Hank walk her through his many different guises and powers.

                                   "Now... tell me everything you can about Pym particles!"

Asking a scientist to tell you everything about their single greatest discovery? Oh Bonita, you'll be needing a time machine to survive that lecture. After listening to Pym explain the ins and outs of the size-changing particles he discovered, he also demonstrated its effect on living beings by growing and shrinking an ant Bonita had brought for the occasion.

"Dios mio!"

Unfortunately, the insect didn't survive the rapid changes. So much for your holy mission trying to save innocent life, sister Espirita... Still, their search for Pym's purpose continued while in the past the Avengers just left 1870s Arizona without Mockingbird. Understandably upset after seeing his wife get kidnapped by the Phantom Rider, the Avengers' leader lost his cool a little. He wanted to go back, forgetting for a moment the time machine that got them stranded in 1876 in the first place was defective: it could only go backwards. 

"And anyway, Mockingbird's an Avenger! She can take care of herself!"

Well, sufferin' suffragette Tigra, I do hope you're right... How's Bobbi doing anyway? After getting knocked out by the Phantom Rider, she was dragged to his hidden cave. There, in typical Englehart fashion, Lincoln Slade waxed poetically for a page and a half about his sad origins. He felt trapped as the Phantom Rider, a role forced on him by the Comanche.

When he encountered Mockingbird, he was immediately smitten and decided he just had to have her. To make sure she'd find him equally irresistible he slipped her the proverbial mickey: a mystical Comanche love potion that should make Bobbi love him and, ever so conveniently, have her forget all about her previous life as well.

                                                    "The potions worked! I'm SAVED!!"

Now, I could go off on a tangent about just how morally reprehensible Hamilton Slade's actions were. Sure, he might be mentally unbalanced and yes, back in the 1870s women had about as many rights as a horse no matter what Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman wants you to believe. But there's no doubt we can all agree that kidnapping someone and taking advantage of them while they're drugged and unable to defend themselves is wrong. No matter how goofy you dance to this this tune. 

Dazed and madly in love, Mockingbird prepared to accompany the Phantom Rider back to his hometown of Lordsburg where he works as the local sheriff. She also spotted a rusted, metal object in the cave that looked an awful lot like one of Hawkeye's arrowheads. Fascinated, though unsure why, she decided to hang on to it even as they fought off Two-Gun Kid and Kid Colt who had come looking for them. Phantom Rider and Mockingbird escaped and headed for Lordsburg where Slade began preparations for a quicky wedding and Bobbi kept playing with that arrowhead. 

"That arrowhead... It looks like something Hawkeye would have used!"

Speaking of Hawkeye and the others... By now they had figured out their time jump had landed them back to 1776, mainly because they landed near a contingent of Spanish soldiers who immediately took them for British spies and got ready to shoot them. Yes, hard to believe as it is, when the American founding fathers signed the famous declaration of independence, both Spain and Great Britain were still actively trying to take control of what they considered their colonies.

Unfortunately for the Spanish, determination and a handful of muskets won't exactly give you the upperhand against a nimble werecat, a man in high tech combat armor, and an ionic being eager to prove himself. Yes, Wonder Man's ego was acting up again. Eager to upstage Iron Man, he showed off by quickly disarming the soldiers and destroying their weapons.

"All *I* have to do is grab all their rifles and powder horns and crush them..." 

...Simon Williams, ladies and gentlemen. Former owner of a munitions factory, yet totally unaware anything loaded with gunpowder is essentially an explosive waiting to happen. No wonder Stark Industries outperformed you at every turn. Wonder Man wasn't hurt by the explosion, the same couldn't be said for the not quite as indestructible Hawkeye. Suffering rather severe burns, Clint was taken to a nearby cave to recuperate.

There, they encountered a young missionary called Carlotta Valdez who had witnessed their fight with the Spanish and offered her medicinal salves to help soothe Hawkeye's burns. Though in considerable pain, seeing the woman reminded Clint of a conversation he had with Firebird not too long ago (relatively speaking, of course).

"Carlotta, do you ever dream about being someone else...?"

Because with mad sand drawing skills like that, you could make a living as an artist instead of putting home made salve on masked gringo burn victims.

Figuring there was a link between Carlotta and Bonita "Firebird" Juarez, the archer took perhaps the longest shot of his career. Asking Carlotta for more of the petticoat she'd used to bandage his wounds, he took one of his inkjet arrows, snapped off the head and wrote a little message.

"Take this message and keep it safe until someone else claims it...
Even if you have to pass it on to future generations!"

Ever accommodating, though she believed the poor man was hallucinating, Carlotta took the message and promised to keep it in her family bible. When she left, Hawkeye caught an earful from Tigra who was furious with him for what he'd done. Clint hadn't told Carlotta the whole story, or even half of it. In Firebird's vision, the woman was eventually shot in the back during a raid. Greer figured he could have at least warned her, just sending her off to die wasn't fair.

      "Nobody ever said life was fair, Tigra! If it were, we wouldn't be here and my wife wouldn't be in                 1876.  So let's fly this thing to present-day Egypt so we can get to ancient Egypt."

Well said, Hawkeye... We all have our crosses to bear in life and sending someone to die in order to give others a fighting chance to live is exactly the kind of tough call a leader has to make... and live with. But still, tossing that spent ink arrowhead to the side of the cave is just bad behavior. Who knows who might pick it up later?

And with that, the team's long schlepp to Egypt began. It took the Jews over 40 years to get out of the country, the Avengers got in within 24 hours. And that's including a brief pitstop in Philadelphia to get Hawkeye some proper medical care before they started their Atlantic crossing. While in the city of brotherly love, they almost ran into Doctor Strange and Clea who were time travelling as well. Strange could have sent them all home, literally with the flick of his wrist... But alas, they had to do it the hard way. Still, all those hours of flying gave Tigra ample opportunity to set the snotty Wonder Man straight.

"We don't need this "team's strongest man" contest you started with Tony, okay?"
- "Then maybe I've outgrown the team...!"

Literally leaving that ominious bit of foreboding hanging... the Avengers began their travel across the Atlantic Ocean. The trip was especially hard on Hawkeye, whose injuries began to take their toll. It doesn't help that the team was forced to fight a horde of angry Egyptian muslims the second they landed and tried to set up the time machine near the Sphinx. Too weak to even carry his bow any more, Clint still managed to be useful...

"A gas arrow doesn't need to be fired to be effective!
... If I hold my breath!"

The Avengers escaped all the way to the year 2900 B.C. where they're once again attacked by angry Egyptians. Though this time Rama Tut's high priest stopped the fighting before anyone was seriously injured. As it turned out, they had arrived on the eve of the Pharaoh's great sleep. Y'see, Rama Tut was about to enter a state of suspended animation so he could wake up in about 2000 years to help Hawkeye and the Avengers fight Kang the Conqueror. A villain who was actually a younger version of Rama Tut, not to be confused with an even younger version of Rama Tut who was still evil. Confused? You're not the only one, as the Avengers discovered when they were granted an audience with the great pharaoh...

"Time? Time is an illusion. I live in the future... I live in the past. I must stop myself from my sins as Kang to come. Must keep myself from Mantis... The Celestial Madonna! Must sleep!"

Well, guess it wouldn't be a Steve Englehart Avengers saga without at least paying lipservice to Steve's favorite character Mantis. Rama Tut's rambling refered to Englehart's earlier work on Avengers, specifically the Celestial Madonna arc. In this ambitious mid-1970s storyline, cosmic forces deemed former Vietnamese prostitute Mantis the perfect human (ow, Steve!). She was then married by Immortus, another future version of Kang, to the leader of the Cotati... A walking, talking alien plant that had assumed the form of Mantis' dead lover the Swordsman. Yeah, that actually happened... The 1970s were a confusing time for all of us.

In his present state of mind, or lack thereof, Rama Tut couldn't help the Avengers. That's why he suggested they went back a bit further in time, to his first reign. Back then he was still coherent enough to know how to fix a time machine.

Taking his advice, and picking up Hawkeye who by then had all but collapsed, the Avengers made one final temporal jump only to be instantly blasted from behind by Rama the Younger. Tut might have been smarter in the past, but he was also a homidical, evil nutjob.

"Nothing can halt the destiny of pharaoh Rama-Tut! No matter how many I have to kill!"

Talk about being in a trans-temporal pickle. All hope seemed lost, for both the Avengers in ancient Egypt as well as Mockingbird who was about to become a madman's blushing bride... And no one in the present knew what was going on or seemed even remotely worried. 

                                              "Forget about the past... that's what I say!"

And with that, we'll wrap up this instalment. When we meet next, time has split in five and the Avengers are about to expand. More on that in part III of The Whackos' Cross Time Craziness: Khonshu Forget About Me?*

*(with sincerest apologies to the Simple Minds)    

1987: The Whackos' Cross Time Craziness part I: Down Time's River By Way Of Albuquerque

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

Hard to imagine, but once upon a time Marvel only put out one Avengers comic a month. The 1980s changed all that when Hawkeye moved to LA with some fan favorite Avengers and banded together as the West Coast Avengers. About a year and a half in, the team literally had an adventure for the ages as we'll cover in this multipart retrospective.

                                  "Beginning the West Coast Avengers' Greatest Adventure!" 

Readers probably didn't realize at the time just how right that promo blurb on the cover of February 1987's West Coast Avengers I#17 would turn out to be. With no online sollicitations spoiling storylines three months in advance, people were just going to have to stick around to see what long time Avengers scribe Steve Englehart was up to.

Things started off slowly, with the Avengers deciding to invite Firebird (Bonita Juarez) to join up. She'd been hanging around the Avengers' LA compound for most of their early missions and was actively trying to join, but Hawkeye still believed the team was bound by the government's old rule that prohibited the Avengers from having more than six active members. Disappointed, Bonita eventually went home to Albuquerque. All the more reason for the team to surprise her in person with the good news.

At first glance, the Avengers' trip to New Mexico wasn't the most important part of the issue. No, that dubious honor went to Hank Pym. At one time a celebrated founding member, but he'd left the team in disgrace following a lenghty storyline in the early 80s. Now, he was hanging around the Avengers West Coast operation, acting as the team's major domo of sorts. But after getting dumped by Tigra and a particularly scathing run in with his former foe Whirlwind, his self confidence was shot.

                                                               "It's time I killed myself..."

Who knew overreacting was a super power? But before we get back to Hank, who got busy putting his affairs in order, let's check in with the Avengers who were having trouble of their own in Albuquerque.. Y'know, apart from keeping the spelling of the town name straight. As it turned out, Firebird had gone missing! No one had seen her in over a month, leading the Avengers to search the town which led to their run in with the hidden supervillains shown on the cover.

They're quite the colorful bunch...

                                  "You face the fury of Sunstroke! And Gila! And Butte!"

... And don't forget Cactus, though I couldn't if I tried. This team of desert based supervillains exemplified a problem that plagued the book: the West Coast Avengers had a laughable rogues gallery. Sure, they came together fighting Graviton and even held their own against Ultron, but for every adamantium killer robot they faced, there was a Blank, Master Pandemonium and whatever the heck Headlok was supposed to be. So in a sense these jokers fit right in and actually proved somewhat formidable.

                                                      "Who does Simon think he is anyway?
                                             His ionic energy may make him stronger than I am,
                                                     but we've never found that out for sure!" 

During the fight, Englehart managed to deliver some interesting exposition. This particular grouping of Avengers was troubled, specifically because of Wonder Man's renewed sense of arrogant entitlement. After having overcome his fear of death, self doubt and shame over his past misdeeds, Simon Williams was now a a celebrated Hollywood star with an ionic ego to match. He felt he was more powerful, smarter and competent than anyone on the team, which rubbed the equally immodest Iron Man the wrong way. Nothing wrong with a little friendly competition, but as we'll see next time, Wonder Man's arrogance would lead to reckless and potentially lethal behavior.

For now, the Avengers managed to beat back their opponents who, rather mysteriously, were all pulled away by an unknown force. Snubbing Wonder Man who also wanted to chase them, Iron Man claimed he was the fastest Avenger and took off. He traced the villains to a hollowed out butte in the desert and when the Avengers went in to confront the bad guys, they encountered the villain of the piece: Dominus.

                              "Hawkeye! We were standing on... Doc Doom's time machine...!"

Well, that's one way of getting rid of your enemies: just lure them to your lair and have them stand on a faulty time machine, preprogrammed to whisk them away to the distant past. And so, the Avengers find themselves transported from 1987 to, as they soon found out, sometime during the 1870s. The West was still being won and Mockingbird had a little trouble taking it all in.

                       "S.H.I.E.L.D. trained me in hard science, Clint... Not time travel!"

Bobbi's confusion adds a welcome layer of realism to the situation. To long time Avengers like Hawkeye, Iron Man and even Wonder Man the idea of finding yourself stuck in a different era is pretty much old hat. The last time Clint travelled through time with Englehart at the helm, he was guided by a talking stick called the Synchro-Staff (secretly a disguised Space Phantom working for Immortus, but that's neither here nor there).

After helping his wife calm down, Hawkeye learned that Doctor Doom's time platform was damaged. Apparently, the device was so damaged it actually travelled with them through time, control system and all. Iron Man offered to look it over, but here's where Wonder Man's ego asserted itself once again.

                     "They all ignored me when I was a coward, but now that I've gotten
                                         self-confidence, and Hollywood stardom...
                           Wonder Man's getting tired of playing a supporting role!"

Which led Wondy to take charge of trying to repair the transistor powered time machine when spare parts from Iron Man's armor turned out to be incompatible. Before they could determine their next course of action, the team was alerted by the sound of nearby gunfire. They decided to check it out and discovered Hawkeye's old friend the Two-Gun Kid was in the thick of things. Of course, the superheroes quickly turned the tide and sent the bad guys packing.

       "I never thought I'd see you again, Hawkeye. Not after I went with you to your time
                                     and then decided I liked it better back in mine!"

Man, Steve Englehart sure knew how to condense a character's recent backstory into a solid, although not altogether realistic sounding monologue. Thanks to the Two-Gun Kid, the Avengers got a sense of when and where they were. Wonder Man flew the device to the nearest town where he started work with local blacksmith Boomer to try and recreate the damaged components. At the same time, Hawkeye and the others kept busy by helping Two-Gun and his allies Rawhide Kid and the Phantom Rider deal with a rather curious group of bad guys led by even weirder folks...

"Well, I'd say the gang leaders are our 'super-villains' "

Combing through issues of Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt and Two-Gun Kid, Steve Englehart came up with a rather colorful bunch of semi-superpowered baddies. Iron Mask looks like a bargain basement Doctor Doom, Red Raven is so shamelessly a rip-off of the Golden Age character they didn't even bother to change his name and the less said about "master of magnetism" Doctor Danger the better. But, they kept the heroes occupied for a couple of pages even if it didn't exactly do wonders for their reputation...

                    "He's got a horseshoe magnet... Magneto would laugh himself silly!"

And if you thought ordinary magnets, an iron mask and the Kingpin's predecessor with some boomerangs wasn't enough to further cement the Whackos' reputation for fighting lame villains, check out what the gang's secret weapon was...

                                                "Who-dares-disturb-the-Living-Totem?"

Could be just me, but when were totem poles ever consider a threat? When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby dreamed up Tomazooma in Fantastic Four, the effect was the opposite of intimidating and the same goes for this fella. He was quickly taken care of, along with the remaining 1870s bad guys. With the immediate danger passed, the Avengers returned to Wonder Man who was forced to admit he couldn't fix the time platform. The crafting techniques of the era simply weren't advanced enough to produce the necessary parts. But never fear, Wondy had an idea...

                "If we go all the way back to ancient Egypt, we could get the reformed Rama-Tut
                                                    to fix our machine and send us home!"

Despite the Phantom Rider's protests, the Avengers decided that aiming for Rama-Tut's Egypt was their best bet. So, they programmed Doom's time platform to continue their journey into what was, conveniently ignoring the fact it's a time machine, not a time and space machine... In other words, to reach Rama-Tut's ancient Egypt, they'd have to travel to Egypt first. Instead, the team figured the best course of action was to make their next jump right then and there. Only for the Phantom Rider to do something rather unexpected at the last possible moment.

                       "Mockingbird must not be lost! The goddess must remain with the ghost!"

Can we really expect sane and rational decisions from a man who dresses in white fluorescent paint, pretending to be an actual ghost? Moments before the time platform sent the Avengers on their way, Phantom Rider kidnapped Mockingbird and rode off with her. This meant what started out as a straightforward superhero tale turned into a story told in three timeperiods. The 1870s, the Avengers' next destination and... the present. Remember how we left Henry Pym just when he was ready to blow his brains out?

                                                                "He can smell the bullet..."

Wha, another super power, Henry? All kidding aside, Al Milgrom is often disparaged for his art and while Secret Wars II certainly isn't his best work... Consider this sequence. You almost don't need that one line about Pym being able to smell the bullet to get what is going on. Hank's emotional journey to actually getting ready to pull the trigger is remarkable. He goes from feeling lost and terrible to committing to his action, even fighting off a brief moment of doubt. Great work from the art team of Milgrom and inker Joe Sinnott.

But, before the tragedy can take place... All of a sudden, there's God so quickly.

"Stop, Henry Pym! I am La Espirita...
Known to you once as Firebird...
And I bring you hope from God!"

And with that, we come full circle... For part one at least. Next time the Avengers' temporal trip will continue as the heroes discover the rushing river that is time has more than a few unexpected twists and turns. More on that in part II of The Whackos' Cross Time Craziness: La Espirita Bonita*

*(with sincerest apologies to Madonna)

1981-1983: Avengers Sorta Disassembled part IV: Ant’s For The Memories, Man!

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

In this fourth installment, Hank Pym finally gets his day in court… but not before he’s subjected to an ultimate insult or two whilst still behind bars. No, not from his fellow inmates necessarily, the hurt’s a bit closer to home.

Unfortunately, the road to Yellowjacket’s big story was a rocky one. By mid 1982, Jim Shooter was no longer writing the book due to his other full-time job as Marvel Comics’ Editor-In-Chief. That’s why he intermittently plotted some issues, hoping the general direction he had set out on would still be followed.

Avengers #223 however, was written by former Avengers scribe David Michelinie who indulged himself with a story about Hawkeye and Scott “Ant-Man” Lang teaming up to save Hawk’s friend Marcy Carson from the Taskmaster. This Michelinie-created baddie was out to take over Marcy’s travelling carnival so he could have a mobile training academy. While it is a perfectly well written and absolutely non offensive issue, it might as well have been a Marvel Team Up stock story.

Still, it coincidentally served  the larger story arc, as it emphasized Scott Lang’s ties to the Avengers…  Which was all the more convenient when Scott put on his Ant-Man costume an issue later and decided to break out Hank Pym so he could clear his name. Hank forcefully declined the offer, choosing to have his day in court instead of incriminating himself even further.

Speaking of # 224, the cover promises ‘the most off beat Avengers tale ever’ and for once, there might be some truth in advertising. The tale is plotted by Shooter, but scripted by one Alan Zelenetz. His work for Marvel is limited to having (co)written some issues of Thor, Conan the King and Moonknight and his most recent claim is advising on movies as an ordained rabbi. In retrospect, this makes him an interesting choice for the issue that features the budding romance between… of all people… Iron Man and the Wasp.

During a rather pedestrian mission clearing out a collapsed subway tunnel, Tony first notices just how ravishing the newly divorced Janet van Dyne is. Over the course of the issue, he pursues her in his civilian guise as Tony Stark and sparks fly between the two wealthy socialites. But there’s one slight problem: Janet doesn’t know Tony is Iron Man yet… which really complicates their budding romance.

Captain America isn’t too pleased about it, either.

Hank’s archenemy Egghead is over the moon however, when he reads about it in the society pages… one would think sinister evil geniuses would skip those sections, but hey.

Wrecked with guilt, Tony eventually decides to reveal his dual identity to the Wasp who, quite understandably, breaks off their romance. She simply cannot deal with the notion of dating a team member who also happens to be one of Hank’s oldest friends. Tony decides the best thing to do is quickly start dating another girl so the press will forget all about his fling with Janet. Naturally, that backfires big time.…

The letter column to Avengers #224 broke the news: Jim Shooter had officially left the book. This meant #225, aka the big anniversary issue, was written by Steven Grant who crafted an okay-ish two parter that saw the team  transported to Avalon by Doctor Druid to fight the demonic Fomor for the life of the newly resurrected Black Knight. This tale really meant the end of an era of transference for the Avengers.

By the time he left, Shooter had brought the Avengers into the 80s. His jarring storylines had pulled both the team and the readership out of their silver age comfort zone. By showing just how far a founding Avenger might fall, the entire team was forced to change and mature.

For the first time, seemingly infallible heroes like Thor, Cap and Iron Man engaged in some serious soul searching over Hank’s fate. And while Hank’s character also evolved considerably, no one was more changed, and was the better for it, than the Wasp.

She emerged from her divorce a new woman, no longer a mere one note throwback to the ditzy air headed dames Stan Lee used to write. Janet van Dyne reinvented and reasserted herself, by taking over as Avengers chairwoman and proving her worth, while still retaining her fun loving personality. A new wind was blowing and with the arrival of Roger Stern in # 227, the ship was finally headed into its new direction.

And if you’d permit me to continue the ‘Avengers as a ship’ analogy a bit further. If Roger Stern’s the ship’s captain plotting the course, the figurehead has to be Monica Rambeau, the second Captain Marvel. Stern opens # 227 with Monica joining the Avengers, only a few short months after she made her debut in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual # 16.

After an impressive display of Captain Marvel’s powers, the Wasp launches a precursor to the Avengers Initiative: Avenger-in-training, a superhero internship of sorts which allowed young heroes like C.M. to train with experienced Avengers. They’d also get first crack at any open slots in the roster To his credit, Stern masterfully finds the voices of the team and sets up a number of subplots that would pay off nicely… But before he could fully embark on his own course, Stern had to deal with the curious court case of doctor Hank Pym.

Handling this task with appropriate aplomb, Stern used most of # 227 to have Pym recap his life’s story for the benefit of new readers, all the while keeping things interesting for long time fans by peppering this history lesson with plenty of Hank’s wry personal observations. With everyone on the same page, Hank’s court trial began in # 228.

While the trial got underway, Egghead was having trouble furthering his research into immortality. Luckily, he had a plan… A plan that required flunkies. That’s why he freed most of  his Masters of Evil from jail,  trading Scorpion for the Shocker and the Beetle and even adding original member Radioactive Man.

The ‘next bold move’ Egghead refers to is have the Masters barge into the courtroom to kidnap Henry Pym, while making it appear they were actually there to rescue him as per Pym’s own orders. The Avengers were present to beat the Masters back, but they still managed to get away with Pym.  Only the Shocker is captured, but even that turns out to be part of Egghead’s plan, as the villain reveals to his furious guest.

With the whole world against him, Henry Pym has no choice but to join his greatest enemy. Egghead has Hank work on a way to become immortal for days, while the Avengers fret and fume impatiently at the mansion, biting each other’s head off at every turn…

That is until Scott Lang arrived to deliver a little present from Iron Man: a handy dandy mind scanner Tony had been working on ever since their repeated run ins with Moondragon. Not only does the scanner detect mind control, it also breaks it. Deciding to use the device on the Shocker, they learn the truth: Egghead really is alive and Hank is innocent after all.

As the team rushed to the villain’s secret base in a quiet, suburban neighbourhood  Hank Pym called in Egghead and the Masters to tell them he solved the mystery of eternal life. In under two days.
Rightfully suspicious of this extremely early success,  the villains decided to test this ‘immortality device’ on Hank first to make sure it isn’t a death trap. They strap him into the contraption and active the device.

Well, was it a deathtrap? Find out why the issue was called Final Curtain  in the fifth and final part of Avengers Sorta Disassembled: All We Are Is Pym Particles In The Wind.

Avengers Sorta Disassambled part III: Kick An Ant-Man When He’s Down

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

After getting himself booted out of the Avengers for dishonorable conduct and being framed for crimes he didn’t commit by his archnemesis Egghead, Hank Pym found himself in jail. Can things get any worse? Ow, you’d better believe it…

He suffered the ultimate insult for the next 6 months or so: being completely ignored. Jim Shooter had the entire fall and rise of Hank Pym all planned out when his duties as editor in chief unfortunately proved too time consuming and he had to take breaks. This meant fill in issues and guest writers scripting over Shooter’s plots... as a result, poor ol’ jailbird Hank got lost in the shuffle.

The effects were jarring, to say the least. After the Yellowjacket centric # 217, which ended with him in jail, one would expect # 218 to pick up on or even mention the matter. Instead, we get a perfectly decent stock story by J.M. DeMatteis which sees the Avengers trying to deal with the plight of the Forever Man, a human being who cannot die and is tired of this unending cycle of reincarnation.

Shooter returns for issues #  219  and 220, but the matter of Yellowjacket’s upcoming legal issues aren’t addressed at all by the team. It takes Moondragon of all people to even remind the readers something is going down with Hank.

 
Yes, Moondragon makes her triumphant return to the book. The last time she crossed paths with  the Avengers, the self important high priestess of the mind decided to help them pick their new line up. But now, she was pursuing higher goals, travelling the galaxy with her father Drax the Destroyer to bring peace wherever they went. In this case, the planet known as Ba-Bani.

Having succeeded in ending a planetary war by using most of her powers to ‘influence’ military leaders, Moondragon was left vulnerable to an imminent rebel attack on her stronghold. Because she had cured Drax of his rage issues, he couldn’t defend her so she decided to summon her former team to come to her aid. Sending her ship the Sensia to Earth, the remaining 4 Avengers feel oddly compelled to board the vessel and soon arrive on Ba Bani ready to defend Moondragon.

Lets face it, this two parter makes no sense. It takes the Avengers an entire issue to discover there’s no rebellion,  Moondragon actually controls the entire Ba-Bani population. Why did she go through this whole song and dance? Seemingly, all she wanted from the Avengers was to  mentally seduce Thor and take him as a lover.  If so, why did she need to bring the others?

Iron Man meanwhile manages to get through to the newly pacifist Drax, who breaks free from his  mental conditioning. Enraged, the Destroyer goes to confront his daughter, who feels she has no choice but to do this…

The effort of killing her father weakens Moondragon sufficiently for the Avengers to take her out. With the Ba-Bani free (and already back at war), the team agrees Moondragon has to pay for her crimes. Unfortunately, common Earth courts don’t exactly cover interplanetary mental domination and super powered patricide.

Shooter brilliantly solved this by having Thor teleport her to Asgard. If Moondragon insists on thinking she’s as a goddess, she ought to be judged by the gods, he reasons. Thor leaves Moondragon with Odin himself, who is ready to sit in judgement over her actions. This resolution would eventually turn out to be a neat set up for J.M. DeMatteis, when he drafted Moondragon for his New Defenders run.

Alas, the ill plotted Moondragon two parter were the last full issues of the title Shooter would write. David Michelinie scripted # 221 which saw the four remaining active Avengers finally dealing with their depleted ranks… all the while not mentioning Hank a single time.

At any rate, the team had two slots to fill and everyone had their own ideas on how to reach the quota of six members. Thor sought out Spider-Man who kindly refused, while Iron Man and Cap simply went to Hawkeye and asked the all too eager archer to rejoin. Wasp was the only one who took a little effort and held a recruitment drive of her own. Inviting the Invisible Girl, Black Widow, Dazzler, Spider-Woman and the She Hulk to an all girl tea party at her house,  Janet was about to make her pitch when an uninvited ‘friend’ dropped by.

Fabian Stankowicz was introduced in # 217 as a good hearted but slightly goofy inventor who had gained a small fortune after winning the lottery. Hungering for a taste of fame to go along with his fortune, he decided to pitting his mechanical genius against the Avengers would certainly get him some press.

He got beaten up mercilessly by the assembled heroines, who one after another took their leave until only the She-Hulk remained and happily accepted Janet’s offer for membership. The Avengers were back to fighting strength, right on time for # 222 which saw Steven Grant scripting Shooter’s plot and the return of Egghead and… the latest incarnation of the Masters of Evil.

Issue # 222 is significant for many reasons. It’s the first time we see the new Avengers in action against Egghead’s equally new Masters of Evil… but its also the first time in 5 months Hank Pym is mentioned ánd seen. Shooter even tries to explain away Hank’s absence from the book with an awkward exchange between Tony Stark and Scott Lang.

Scott Lang taking an interest in Hank’s case only makes sense, considering he owns his super hero identity to the man. It also shows a real sense of neglect on the part of Tony and the other Avengers. Sure, they can’t do an awful lot until Hank’s case comes to trial… but is a visit or a show of sympathy really too much to ask?

Meanwhile, the reason why Pym’s in the pokey is having troubles of his own. Egghead was initially rather pleased with causing the downfall of his nemesis, but that joy proved rather fleeting.

His plight actually helps inspire his latest nefarious scheme: come up with a cure for eternal life and get filthy rich selling it to the highest bidder. But to achieve all of this, he’ll need a few super powered henchmen to do the heavy lifting. That’s why not too long afterwards, a remote controlled torpedo destroys the Atlantean prison holding the fierce Tiger Shark. The aquatic baddie soon shows up at the Ryker’s Island prison to gather a few more recruits, like inmate David Cannon, better known as the Whirlwind. Right before his breakout, he was just having some lunch with fellow prisoner Hank Pym.


In a nice nod to established continuity, Shooter reminds the readers that Whirlwind is actually obsessed with the Wasp. He even posed as her driver in the early issues in order to get close to her. With his parole hearing coming up soon, Cannon openly fantasized about paying Janet a little visit. Naturally, that didn’t sit well with her new ex-husband.

Only moments after Pym is dragged away to solitary, Tiger Shark bursts through a wall and starts a jail break. He takes Whirlwind, the Scorpion and Moonstone and leaves the other prisoners to fend for themselves. Egghead is pleased by his latest Masters of Evil and he plans for them to rob a New York medical research center that night.

Having a few hours to kill before the job, Whirlwind decides to make good on his earlier promise and looks up the Wasp. He knocks out her driver Carrothers and waits for her right outside Avengers Mansion. When she finally enters the car, she isn’t too pleased to see him.

Also: picking a fight with the Avengers’ chairman in front of their headquarters? Not the smartest thing to do. Hawkeye is the first to come rushing to Jan’s aid, but luckily for Whirlwind his fellow Masters are nearby as well.

Despite their best efforts, the outnumbered Masters are quickly routed and sent back to jail. But Egghead isn’t too depressed about it, figuring this defeat may help the Masters see the wisdom of obeying his orders… next time.

Speaking of next time, in the fourth part of this retrospective on a certain TPB called The Trial of Yellowjacket, we’ll skip over half a dozen inconsequential issues and finally get to the trial and redemption of the aforementioned Yellowjacket in Avengers Sorta Disassembled: Ant’s For The Memories, Man!