Avengers #62: Review

Feb 2003

Geoff Johns, Gary Frank

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Story Name:

Broken hearts

Review & Comments

Rating:

Avengers #62 Review by Rob Johnson (January 9, 2021)

Richard Starkings and Albert Deschesne keep on doing the lettering together.

Iron Man, Jack of Hearts, Wasp and Yellowjacket are listed in the title page as the only Avengers present. Ant-Man declined membership last issue but joins this issue.

Cassie Lang was introduced during Scott Lang's début as Ant-Man in Marvel Premiere #47. (Scott himself had previously appeared as a Stark scientist in Avengers #181.) She's been with her father in many apps since then. The latest were our #26 and a tale in Marvel Double Shot #3.

This is the 1st app of Cassie's new step-father Blake Burdick. But surprisingly it's also the 1st app of her mother Peggy.

IM mentions AM helping the Avengers against Taskmaster (#195-#197) and the Masters Of Evil (#275-277).

Jack Of Hearts will presumably be spending most of his time in the Zero Room because he doesn't reappear until #65.

Wasp and Yellowjacket are off until #71.

Ant-Man will be here next issue.

Iron Man is the only char here to have apps before then.
Tony Stark has a cameo in The Call #2 and then stars as IM in a tale in Marvel Double-Shot #4. He has a fly-by in the epilogue of Punisher (2001) #37.
IM#59-61 gives him an Arthurian adventure in the In Shining Iron arc, and then he mixes it with some terrorists in #62-63.
Then it's Thor #58, IM #64 and our #63 which comprise the Standoff crossover which ends Thor's relationship with the Avengers for this series.

But other Avengers will do stuff before #63 too, mainly Captain America.
His 2002 series kicks in with #1-3 (Enemy) in which he too fights terrorists, then reveals his identity to the world, and the story continues into #4-6 (Warlords).
The Marvel Chronology Project throws in 2 stories here from CA: Red, White & Blue. Cap visits a dying old soldier he knew in WWII. And he stops a plot to infect a Ku Klux Klan rally with anthrax from tainted race-hate comics.
Then in #7-11 (The Extremists) Cap fights a Native American channelling the Sioux thunder god, and calls in Thor to defeat him in #11.
#12-16 (Ice) seem to suggest that Cap's suspended animation from WWII until the Marvel Age were actually a US Government plot. But then in #16 (guest-starring Sub-Mariner) I think this turns out to be a brainwashing attempt.
#17-20 (CA Lives Again) is set in an alternate timeline where Cap is revived to find that the Nazis won WWII.
#21-25 (Homeland) involves Cap with Guantanamo Bay and yet more terrorists.
Cap and Falcon guest in Black Panther (1998) #59 while T'Challa is in New York working with a new Panther, Kevin Cole.
Then Cap moves on to IM#64 and our #63 in Standoff, with Ant-man, Falcon, Scarlet Witch and She-Hulk joining in #63.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers #62 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

This issue concentrates on the problems of Ant-Man and Jack Of Hearts.

Jack Hart exits from 1 of his daily 10-hour sessions in the Zero Room. We learn that he can take nothing in there to amuse himself with because the current levels of neutro-mist necessary to prevent the build-up of his dangerous energy disintegrate everything in the Room including his body armour (but not his body). Iron Man and Yellowjacket supervise his recovery and he gets a replacement containment suit. This kind of regular imprisonment understandably makes him tetchy.

Scott Lang goes to family court for the hearing on custody of his daughter Cassie. Cassie Lang runs to her father but is called back by her mother Peggy. Scott asks Peggy Lang why she wants custody now when she never did before. She replies that she's getting remarried. The judge is holding the hearing behind closed doors to avoid press interest in 1 of the Avengers. Scott correctly denies that he is 1, he just helped out in the Kang Dynasty War (and a few times before that). The judge says he's disregarding Scott's earlier criminal history but he's concerned about the danger to Cassie if Ant-Man continues 'helping out'.

Henry Pym tells Jack that when he returned to Earth after many years in space the atmosphere accelerated the continuous nuclear fission in his cells. His armour and the neutro-mist are struggling to cope. From now on he's going to have to spend 14 hours a day in the Zero Room to stop him going off like an atomic bomb. Jack loses his temper until Tony Stark calms him down.

They review Jack's history. His father developed a prospective fuel he called the Zero Fluid. When villains tried to steal it an accident killed his dad and turned him into JOH. Later he learned that his deceased mother was actually an alien Contraxian. But YJ tells him they've studied his father's journals and discovered that the Zero Fluid didn't give him his dangerous power. He was born with it and his dad designed the ZF to keep it under control. The idea that this means his father died because of *him* sends Jack over the edge and he blasts through the ceiling to escape into the sky. Iron Man goes after him.

Back in the courtroom the judge awards Peggy custody for Cassie's safety. Scott will have visitation rights every weekend, and he'll have a review hearing in a year. Cassie's unhappy as she leaves with her mother. Scott follows them out where they all meet Patrolman Blake Burdick, Peggy's fiancé, who pointedly swats a fly.

IM catches up with JOH and tries to persuade him to come back. Hank wants the opportunity to fix him. Jack asks Tony if he knows what it's like to have nothing to do but listen to your heartbeat and wonder when it will stop. For Stark this is of course ironic. JOH flies off again, but heads back to Avengers Mansion ...

... where Scott arrives as Ant-Man and asks Wasp if the offer of a job is still open because he no longer has to worry about his daughter's safety. Jack chooses that moment to return and once again takes his anger out on Scott who has it easy and can just opt in whenever he wants while others (like himself) have to work hard for their place. Janet Van Dyne leaps to the defence saying Scott has his problems too, but Jack says he's getting preferential treatment because he's the 2nd Ant-Man. Iron Man jets in to say that Scott has proven his worth several times, but so has Jack. JOH slinks inside and Jan and Tony welcome Ant-Man to the team. (And that's as much of an argument as you're going to get to justify the cover image.)

Scott heads to his room and Jack enters the Zero Room again. We leave them both sitting dejected.

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