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Avengers #71

Nov 2003
Geoff Johns, Steve Sadowski

Avengers #71 cover

Story Name:

Whirlwinds


Synopsis

Avengers #71 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Avengers Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne are on vacation in Las Vegas, and right now they're in the hotel room using their size-changing powers to spice up their sex life. They haven't checked their e-mail (or possibly switched on the news) for 3 days. This it seems is the only vacation they've ever taken together, not even a honeymoon when they were married. Henry Pym has always been a workaholic. And this would have been their anniversary if they were *still* married.

Elsewhere in town Davey Cannon is beating up a prostitute he paid to dress up as the Wasp. (And it seems she's not the 1st.) Then he uses his Whirlwind power to blow her out of a window, all the while claiming he's crazy in love with the real deal.

Now our couple are out of their room and wandering the Strip. They comment that the Star Trek Experience was a letdown for people who've been on actual spaceships. Hank says that now he's in Vegas he's got to take a gamble, and he produces a ring and asks Jan to marry him (again). But she turns him down because their current relationship is good.

Pym turns to self-pity saying that he'd probably screw it up like he did last time, and everything else in his life. When he 1st discovered the shrink/grow particles that he named after himself he thought they would make him famous. Then with Wasp they co-founded the Avengers but he felt inferior to Iron Man and Thor, and even to Jan, which was why he kept changing identities Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket, Dr Pym (and back and forth between them). But the only time he felt right was just as Hank with her. Jan still doesn't want to marry him again, but she says she does love him.

Whirlwind has been watching them. He thanks Plant Man and the Maggia for providing the ladies and the lead to his target's whereabouts, and then spins down on the attack. He stuns Hank and then picks him up and ploughs with him through a building and a rollercoaster. Jan turns into Wasp and takes the fight to Cannon, but he smashes her into the top of a pyramid.

Standing over her body he denies his motive is revenge, but claims that all his supervillain posturing over the years has been trying to get her attention because he loves her. But now he has her in his grasp he'll take the 'love' he desires.

But then a very giant (and naked) Hank Pym interrupts with a blast from his stinger (wherever he's got it). But as he menaces the villain Wasp gets up and beats him to a pulp. Giant-Pym picks him up and suggests next time he take on someone easier like Iron Man or Captain America.

As the emergency services clear up Hank and Jan embrace their continuing current relationship.


 

Review / Commentaries


Avengers #71 Review by (March 12, 2021)
J G Jones painted the cover again for the last time.

Wasp and Yellowjacket went on vacation to Las Vegas in #64. Deliberately staying out of touch must be why they didn't get involved with the Red Zone epidemic in #65-70. And this issue presumably occurs sometime during that event.

Davey Cannon as Human Top was Giant-Man and Wasp's 1st repeat villain, appearing in Tales To Astonish #50-51, #55 and #59 (with Hulk) and #68-69 (the end of their run). He then reappeared as Whirlwind in original Avengers #46, also as Jan Van Dyne's chauffeur Charles Williams. It was as Williams that he developed his unrequited 'love' for the heroine. Whirlwind's latest apps were cameos in a tale in Captain America (1998) #50 and in Spider-Man's Tangled Web #13 and #19, after not much more of a role in our #44.

I don't know how Whirlwind is getting help from both the Maggia and Plantman. Villain Plantman was connected to the Maggia a long time ago in original X-Men #22-23 but not after that, and at this time he has become the hero Blackheath in the Thunderbolts.

Whirlwind's next gig is another cameo in Deadline #2 and then he tries attacking Wasp while the big boys are away again in the framing tale of Avengers Fairy Tales #4.

Wasp and Yellowjacket won't be in an actual Avengers issue after this until #77 and #78 respectively. But before that they'll accompany the team in Alias #28, and Cap and Iron Man in Marvel Holiday Special 2004. Then Wasp will go alone to Av Fairy Tales #4, She-Hulk (2005) #1-2 and Iron Man #84-85 before rejoining YJ for the Av/Thunderbolts mini-series and X-Statix #26.



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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Steve Sadowski
Andrew Currie
Chris Sotomayor
J. G. Jones (Cover Penciler)
J. G. Jones (Cover Inker)
J. G. Jones (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Rus Wooton.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: Joe Quesada.

Characters

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Wasp
Wasp

(Janet Van Dyne)
Whirlwind
Whirlwind

(David Cannon)
Yellowjacket
Yellowjacket

(Hank Pym)


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