Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Last issue the Avengers found the missing berserk She-Hulk and Jack Of Hearts restored her to her non-berserk state. But the whole berserk thing only happened because Jack's alien physiology has been messing with Shulk's gamma radiation. So now they both can't stay as Avengers.
But before we get to that we find Ant-Man's daughter Cassie Lang confronting 2 boys torturing ants. She frightens them into stopping by telling them what a swarm of fire ants could do to them. When they've gone a man calls to her and asks for help to find his daughter Jessica Cooley because her mother has been in a car accident. Cassie wants to consult a teacher, but Mr Cooley doesn't want to do that. In the last panel we see her abandoned skipping rope.
In Avengers Embassy sub-basement Jack Hart has half an hour before he's due back in the Zero Room that stops him from violently exploding. Upstairs the rest of the team are discussing the JOH/She-Hulk situation. Newly-rejoined (last issue) Avenger Hawkeye thinks the answer's obvious, and he summarises Jack's situation for us. He has to spend 14 hours a day in the Zero Room. And he slowly depletes Shulk's store of gamma radiation which either turns her back to Jennifer Walters or into Savage She-Hulk. So he says the man's got to go. But Jen says the man can't help it, and they're not going to chuck him out without a discussion. So she forcibly puts Clint Barton in his place. Clint says he likes it when she's aggressive.
Captain America believes the only option is for 1 of the pair to leave the team. Black Panther thinks the decision should be Jennifer's as a long-standing Avenger. Iron Man agrees but offers Stark Labs to continue looking for a cure for him. BP offers Wakandan help with that. (This pair have gone from sniping enemies to best buds.) Clint thought Jack was safe in space, but Cap says he's evolved beyond that state. Vision butts in to say that Jack should have a say in his fate, and his ex-wife Scarlet Witch concurs. However Ant-Man agrees with Hawkeye that the answer's obvious - Jack must go. (But then Scott Lang and Jack Hart have been at odds ever since they met.) Falcon is on Jack's side, but Scott goes on to say that temperamental Jack just isn't a team player.
Jack has been listening to at least the end of this conversation and makes his presence known. Cap tells him he'd still be an Avenger but it would be best if for now he went into the care of IM and BP until they can cure the problem. Jen assures him that they know he didn't deliberately hurt her. But Scott can't contain his anger at Jack. So Jack leaves for some last fresh air before the Zero Room, and gives them permission to ship him to Stark Enterprises. But Steve Rogers suggests that Scott should take this last chance to patch things up between them.
Ant-Man follows JOH up onto the roof. But before they can talk Scott gets a call from his ex-wife Peggy Burdick to say that their daughter's been kidnapped. He shrinks and flies off on the back of 1 of a swarm of flying ants. Jack checks his countdown timer and elects to follow him.
Peggy is with her new husband Blake Burdick, an off-duty patrolman. The cops have the kidnapper surrounded in an abandoned building. Jack Of Hearts arrives and is told that the villain is Charles Cooley who murdered his own daughter Jessica. Inside a boarded up apartment Cooley has Cassie and a gun. He says this is where Jessica ... died. He didn't want her to grow up and lose her innocence. And he doesn't want that for Cassie either, and points his gun at her.
But Cassie's eyes light up when she sees ants all over the walls and knows help has arrived. Ant-Man grows explosively and socks the man in the jaw. Then Scott turns to check on Cassie but Cooley shoots him in the shoulder from behind. AM sends a swarm of bees to sting him. Cooley drops the gun and begs to be taken to hospital because he's allergic. But Scott picks up the gun and presses it to the man's forehead.
Then JOH smashes in through a wall and hits Cooley with an energy-blast. He tells Scott to drop the gun. Scott tells him to mind his own business but Jack says Scott really doesn't want his daughter to see him kill someone. Scott turns and sees Cassie cowering in fear again. They run into each other's arms and Jack says he'd better get back to the Zero Room.
However Cooley gets the gun again and makes another attempt to 'protect' Cassie's innocence. But Jack melts the gun and grabs Cooley. Scott reminds him that his time's nearly up, but Jack replies that he's finally realised what Scott has been trying to tell him in previous issues. It's not about *him* being a *hero* it's about making the world a safer place. Cooley killed his own daughter and now this Avenger is going to do some avenging. And he flies off with the bad guy.
Jack Of Hearts takes Charles Cooley out into space as his timer counts down to zero. Cooley is probably dead already before Scott and Cassie see an explosion in the sky. Cassie asks her dad who was that masked man, and Scott replies "An Avenger". Strangely we then see Jack's body orbiting Saturn and breaking up into bits to add to the rings.