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Mighty Avengers #15

Jun 2008
Brian Michael Bendis, John Romita Jr.

Mighty Avengers #15 cover

Story Name:

(no title given)


Synopsis

Mighty Avengers #15 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Several months ago Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne are living in England. He's currently giving a lecture at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford. When he's finished he asks for questions from the audience. A female student asks why the Avengers broke up. He says they're just taking a break and they'll be back when they're needed. Later he's working on his computer in their apartment when Jan returns drunk from a business party where she was seeking support in restarting her fashion business. They argue. He falls asleep at his desk. And in the morning she's left him.

In the next scene he's in bed with that female student. Post-coitus they get around to discussing his marital status. He's famous so she knows he's married, but he says they've separated. They've repeatedly tried to make it work but it doesn't. She comments that he's the oldest person she's ever been with, but she means it as a compliment. He's worried about their relationship becoming public, say on the Internet, but she promises to keep quiet. But she points him to an Internet report that the Avengers have reformed after a mass supervillain breakout at the Raft prison. (New Avengers #1-3). He responds that he's not going to join them - he's committed to his work here.

They become a couple (with at least 1 person taking a picture on his phone that will doubtless go online). And she keeps asking him questions, including about his creation Ultron, his shrinking ability and the Kree-Skrull War. He tells her the Kree are a noble people who humans should aspire to be like. Captain Mar-Vell was a Kree. But the shape-shifting Skrulls rely on deception and lies. They could be here among us and we'd never know. But she shouldn't worry because we've always beaten them before, and Reed Richards knows how to detect them.

At this point the girl reveals that she herself is a Skrull by turning Skrull-green but also Hulk-like to beat him unconscious. Then she reverts to a normal Skrull female. But the doorbell rings so she has to become the human female again, and wrap something round her naked form before opening the door. Outside it's Jan here to tell Hank she's returning to the US. She notes the age and state of the girl and advises her she could do better.

Next we see the ceremony whereby the female Skrull Criti Noll takes on the form and memories of Henry Pym. I believe it is Veranke who performs the ceremony, and she expresses doubts whether Pym is worth replacing. But Criti asks for a week to prove herself.

The next scene is dated 2 months ago while Ultron was menacing the world in a female form with Jan's face, created from Tony Stark's body and his morphed armour (#2-6). Skrull-Hank is working with SHIELD to find a way to defeat the robot. Black Widow contacts Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) to go to the Baxter Building for help from Reed Richards. Pym is miffed because he's the expert in this situation. (And he does devise a computer virus which defeats the foe in #6.)

Later Pym tells a warehouse full of Skrull infiltrators, including Veranke as Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman) and the replacement for Dum-Dum Dugan plus the Skrull versions of Black Bolt and Edwin Jarvis in the background, how Ultron revealed that Tony Stark's link with his armour was now biological (since Extremis), which is why the Skrulls were unable to subvert it. But the superior intellect of Ultron worked how to do it, and now the Skrulls know how too (as we've seen in Secret Invasion #1). So the last barrier is down and he advises Veranke to begin the Invasion.

Meanwhile he visits Wasp, working on fashion designs, and gives her a new version of her size-change formula which will enable her to grow giant-size as well as shrink to insect-size.


 

Review / Commentaries


Mighty Avengers #15 Review by (May 25, 2024)
The inkers this issue are Klaus Janson and Tom Palmer. Colours are by Edgar Delgado and Guru-eFX.

This issue shows how Henry Pym got replaced by a Skrull. The cover is a Skrullised version of Avengers #213 featuring his expulsion from the team.

Hank and Jan's marital status is slightly misstated here. They got divorced a long time ago after Av#214. Although they have been an on-off couple since then they never remarried and they keep 'separating'.

Henry Pym has been keeping a low profile after the Avengers disbanded in the Av: Finale 1-shot. He had a holographic conference with Reed Richards and Tony Stark in Wolverine v3 #22 (part of the Enemy Of The State arc). And flashbacks in the Irredeemable Ant-Man series show how Eric O'Grady got hold of the Ant-Man suit Pym was developing for SHIELD. And Pym got visited by 1 of the alternate timeline Invisible Women in Age Of Ultron #10.
Jan only got to appear in a photo in the Young Avengers Special.

Obviously the 'several months ago' scene is about the time of the Breakout in New Avengers #1-2 with news of it breaking just after Hank 1st sleeps with the Skrull who replaces him. Which itself obviously happens sometime later after they've been 'dating' for a while. But then again not too long because the Marvel Chronology Project has Veranke initiating the Skrull (Criti Noll) before she gets recruited into the NAv in their #3.

Obviously (again) Hank won't be seen again until all the replaced people return in Secret Invasion #8.
Meanwhile Wasp will go on, amongst other things, to get involved in House Of M and the Beyond mini-series alongside the Skrull-Yellowjacket, and they were both on the same side in the Civil War event. Then she joins the new Mighty Avengers.

Criti Noll has a scene with Veranke in NAv#42 after she joins the team where they discuss that situation as a chance to crack Tony Stark's Iron Man tech. Then they're both sucked into House Of M. Among other things 'Yellowjacket' gets 'taken' with Wasp and others to an alien planet in the Beyond mini-series, before the Civil War event happens.
Then our #17 will show how and why this Skrull is replaced by another 1, also called Criti Noll.

It is CN II who features in the last pages of this issue. Wasp calls Hank to help out the fight against Ultron in our #3-6, and Ultron's speech and the scene with Black Widow (temporarily running SHIELD because Maria Hill has been knocked out) here are copied from #4. The meeting of Skrulls is obviously new, but the gift to Wasp of a growth potion is taken from a flashback in #8 and she surprises her team by using it later in that issue. But we don't know until Secret Invasion #8 that the new serum turns her into a bomb that CN II can activate.
Veranke's attendance at the meeting is placed between her as Spider-Woman taking the Skrull-Elektra's corpse from the NAv in their #32 and delivering it to Tony Stark at the end of our #6.



> Mighty Avengers comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
statue
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Main/1st Story Full Credits

John Romita Jr.
Unknown
Unknown
Marko Djurdjevic (Cover Penciler)
Marko Djurdjevic (Cover Inker)
Marko Djurdjevic (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Dave Lanphear.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: Joe Quesada.

Characters

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Black Widow
Black Widow

(Natasha Romanoff)
Janet Van Dyne
Janet Van Dyne

(Janet Pym)
Spider-Woman
Spider-Woman

(Veranke)
Plus: Yellowjacket (Criti Noll).

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