Synopsis
Avengers, The (1963 series) #63 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
The 3 current Avengers (Black Panther, Hawkeye and Vision) are returning from Wakanda in a Wakandan atomic aircraft when the autopilot malfunctions as they approach the roof of Avengers Mansion. BP takes manual control but the plane might still overshoot. Hawkeye prepares to fire a Wakandan-designed electromagnetic cable-arrow to act as an anchor, but his bowstring breaks. So Vision takes the arrow and ghosts through the hull to throw it to the roof. And then increases his mass to stop the landed plane skidding off the roof. Hawkeye expresses his inferiority complex compared to others on the team.
When they enter the building they find Henry and Janet Pym back from honeymoon (they got married in #60). Jan is still Wasp but Hank has decided to ditch his Goliath id and remain as Yellowjacket. He figures that growing giant-size contributed to the schizotic phase that made him pretend to be the new hero YJ. So now he'll rely on his original Ant-Man shrinking power as YJ. His artificial wings will allow him to fly when ant-size and he's made his electric stingers more powerful. Jan comments that she'd already designed a new Goliath costume before Hank made the decision to switch, and Hank says he has an improved growth serum too, but they lock them away.
Then they get a call from Nick Fury to say that Black Widow has gone missing on a SHIELD mission to the Caribbean, and he asks them to investigate. Rotating Chairman T'Challa accepts the task but orders Hawkeye to stay behind because of his romantic attachment to Natasha Romanoff. Hawkeye's not happy but has to obey. Edwin Jarvis gets a quinjet fuelled and 4 Avengers leave in it.
So only Hawkeye is around to receive another video-call, this 1 from BW herself. She's managed to sneak this call to say she's a prisoner somewhere in New York, and then has to sign off. Hawkeye recognises the background noises as the Coney Island funfair so plans to rush to the rescue, but not as the weak archer. He takes the new Goliath duds (obviously treated to expand) and drinks the new growth serum and suddenly he's a giant, even bigger than Hank used to get.
Widow is a prisoner of Egghead, Mad Thinker and Puppet Master. Egghead boasts how he faked the Nick Fury call to send the Avengers off in the wrong direction. Puppet Master says it was *his* idea. Thinker is too busy noticing on a scanner that a giant is approaching Coney Island riding atop an elevated railway train. Egghead assumes it's his old enemy Henry Pym in Goliath mode, and he sends a giant android designed by Thinker to head him off while they escape and split up to go to their separate bases.
The giant android has Widow grasped in his hand while he trades punches with Goliath with the other. Natasha recognises Hawkeye's voice and doesn't understand what's going on. Hawkeye pulls his punches to avoid harming his girlfriend so the android succeeds in knocking him down. But the android is programmed to attack the largest moving thing so it switches its attention to ascending observation deck of the Astrotower. The 2 giants fight atop it until Goliath switches tactic and shrinks to human size causing the android's next mis-punch to send it plumetting to the ground, making a big hole. Luckily it dropped BW and Hawkeye/Goliath catches her.
The 2 heroes compare notes and decide they'd better contact the other Avengers.
Characters:
Plus: Egghead (
Elihas Starr), Goliath (
Clint Barton).