Synopsis
In the Infinite Avengers Mansion Tigra finds Hank Pym in his lab. She's carrying her baby son William and wants to know the results of tests Hank's run. He tells her that, given that the only catperson he can use for comparison is *her*, the boy is perfectly healthy. She's surprised because since his father was a Skrull masquerading as Hank (in the Avengers Initiative period leading up to the Secret Invasion event) she expected him to be half-Skrull. But Pym has to inform her that the Skrull impersonations at that time were perfect down to the molecular level, including DNA. So genetically speaking William is *his* son. Greer Nelson reacts badly thinking Hank wants the son he never had with Jan Van Dyne. Hank thinks it's because of his history of mental instability and messing everything up. Greer angrily says she *did* want to ask him to look after the kid if anything happened to her, including if she goes feral again (like in some issues of West Coast Avengers). Hank says he'd be honoured, and everybody's friends again.
She notices the picture of him and Jan (as Giant-Man and the Wasp) he'd been looking at and asks if he misses her. He says he's missed her ever since they got divorced (Avengers #214), and even while they were unsuccessfully trying to rebuild their relationship. (That was before the Skrull replaced him and she left. When he and the other replaced escaped from the Skrulls Jan had been killed in Secret Invasion.) But the photo of them capturing Human Top reminds him that the villain renamed as Whirlwind told him in #5 that using Wasp as his current superhero id wasn't honouring her memory it was insulting her. And that reminds him how his continual rebranding was his way of dealing with his neuroses. Yellowjacket was his attempt to ditch his scientist persona and be an alpha male (we see him and the Avengers fighting Korvac). Then he became Dr Pym in the WCA to say he was a scientist and *not* a superhero (we see him using a gizmo against the U-Foes). The only time he thinks he got the scientist/superhero balance right was as Giant-Man in the original Avengers. Then he drops the bombshell that he thinks he can get Jan back.
We skip to later in the day where the Mayor (J Jonah Jameson) has asked the Avengers Academy to supervise the transportation from the NYPD Code Blue facility of Absorbing Man (Crusher Creel) in a stasis container. Jocasta and Justice watch while Dr Pym and the students load the container into a truck. Justice tells Hank that they should maybe think it through. Striker overhears and opines that the Mayor has seen how the people love them since they went public (in the previous 2 issues). Vance Astro says he's OK with transporting Creel because Iron Man or Thor can handle him if they have trouble. He tells Henry he was talking about the idea that Tigra has mentioned to him. Hank says they can talk about it later, and he and the students are driven off with Creel.
The Jocasta robot avatar confides in Vance that she too thinks Henry's plan to recreate Janet is much more risky than he's prepared to admit. But he won't listen to her because he thinks it's just jealousy because of she and Hank's earlier romantic relationship (when they were in the Mighty Avengers). She reviews what happened after Jan was atomised at the end of Secret Invasion. Hank found her atoms scattered through Underspace. He created the Infinite Mansion as a substitute nervous system to keep her now huge scattered body intact. And because Jocasta's mind is based on Jan's brain patterns (when Ultron created her in Av#162) she agreed to do something similar for Jan's mind. (Her robot bodies scattered through the Mansion act as neurons.) She explains that Dr Pym has found a way to reintegrate her body, but they've seen no sign of mental activity. Hank thinks (hopes) her brain has shut down as a defence mechanism, and she'll wake up when she gets her body again. But Jocasta fears that unless they work out how to do it properly she'll suffer brain damage. However she thinks Hank desperately needs to get Jan back *now*.
In the transport Dr Pym tells the students that Absorbing Man is 1 of the Avengers most powerful foes but he's not a criminal mastermind. Empathy-free Finesse asks why they don't just kill him while he's helpless. Reptil protests that they can't execute someone without a trial. Cynical Hazmat scoffs at that, but Pym backs him. Mettle comes up with a reasonable suggestion of at least destroying his ball and chain, but Pym says it's been tried and doesn't work (because it was hit by the same Asgardian magic that gave Creel his powers). Veil asks how they're keeping AM asleep, and he replies transcranial magnetic stimulation. He goes on to generalise about attacking a physically powerful foe's vulnerable mind, but then wanders off into saying that the mind is fragile and can be shattered when confronted by something it can't deal with. (He peters out, probably because he recognises Jocasta's argument against trying to revive Jan.)
Just then Mettle notices Absorbing Man's chain clinking against the ball. The ball rises into the air so he grabs the chain, but he can't stop the ball smashing the front of Creel's container. The villain awakes and the truck crashes into a lamppost.
90 seconds later Henry Pym revives to see a giant-size Absorbing Man, his body a collage of flesh, brick and concrete with 1 arm the same organic-iridium substance as Mettle. Justice and Tigra have joined the students. He sees Tigra taking Finesse to join Reptil in the med-bay (of the Infinite Mansion which has doorways everywhere?) because they are unconscious. She tells him they're on their own because the Avengers are off in a different dimension (I don't know where), the Secret Avengers are abroad (Hong Kong in their #6-10) (she doesn't mention the New Avengers), and she can't contact Academy staff Quicksilver and Speedball.
A-Man smashes Justice with his ball and sneers at having to face the New Warriors. He thinks little of Veil's turning to gas, and Striker's lightning just powers him up. However Hazmat's radioactivity interests him. But then a giant-hand grips his giant shoulder and he's facing Henry Pym as Giant-Man. (They're portrayed as straddling small buildings.)
They wind up in the river where GM hits AB in the face with his own ball, but Creel sends electricity through the water and then punches his face with his Mettle fist. GM grabs him and they disappear with a pop into the Microverse. But Absorbing Man uses Pym's superpower against him to enlarge them both back to giant-size. But Pym then takes it further and expands them into the Overspace where the abstract entities live (we see Epoch, In-Betweener, Living Tribunal and Lord Chaos). Carl Creel's mind is blown and returns his body to flesh and blood if only Pym will take him back down.
They return to Earth where everyone (including Jocasta) is waiting. Weary Hank injects Creel with a serum that will temporarily dampen his powers as Code Blue turn up to take him away. But Carl begs him not to let them put him in stasis again because he was aware all the time. So later in the Raft Henry creates a special cell for him with walls made of solid water (but not ice). If he tries to escape he'll just turn to water. The guards have a control which will allow then to create temporary openings.
Even later he, Jocasta and Vance discuss Jan in his lab. It only took minutes in Overspace to break Creel's mind, and Jan's been in Underspace for months. He tells them (and us) new info about Jan's mother who suffered a brain injury and lived in a vegetative state for years until her death. So he's not prepared to bring Jan back until he's sure that won't be the result. The others leave him alone and Hank places his hand on the control that would presumably initiate the revival process. Then he takes his hand away and tells Jan he loves her and wants her back, but only when it's best for her. Then he leaves. But a plume of gas resolves into Veil who reaches out to the control.
Characters:
Plus: Epoch, In-Betweener, Justice (
Vance Astrovik), Living Tribunal, Lord Chaos.