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Mighty Avengers #25

Jun 2009
Dan Slott, Stephen Segovia

Story Name:

Mighty/Fantastic - part 1: The Baxter Job


Synopsis

Mighty Avengers #25 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
A few years ago in his lab Dr Henry Pym (Yellowjacket) is examining a device Dr Bill Foster (Goliath) has created, based on the size-changing Pym Particles. They knew that extreme shrinking took you out of the normal universe to the Microverse, and Foster has extended the effect to allow travel between any universes. Janet Van Dyne interrupts to remind Hank they have important matters to discuss. Pym says he'll be with her in a minute but then gets back to working with Foster on his dimensional wave inducer.

These days Henry Pym has taken the id Wasp in memory of the (believed) dead Jan, and his lab is now in a pocket universe dubbed the Pym Pocket. And he's currently leading the Mighty Avengers who are based there. Scarlet Witch (really the currently female Loki) has been transporting them to problem situations to be resolved. Her brother Quicksilver heard about this and has joined them, but she seems to be avoiding him. The Pym Pocket has many doors leading to various places around the globe. Last issue Jocasta severed the link to the prime doorway to stop HAMMER troops breaking in.

Now the team have returned from their latest mission (without SW) to find that many of the doorways now just lead back into the Pocket. Jocasta admits what she had had to do, and Pym tells them that without that prime link all the other doors will stop working and within 2 days there'll be no way out of the pocket dimension. US Agent says he and Quicksilver have to get to Lhasa for a job from the Global Reaction Agency for Mysterious Paranormal Activity (GRAMPA), who the team joined last issue. Jocasta tells them the nearest available remaining door is Xining, China - but they may not be able to get back. Stature and Vision (Jonas) also want to leave, to return to Avengers Mansion where they left the rest of the Young Avengers last issue, but Pym says that 1 has already gone too. Hank loses his cool and complains that Jocasta has ruined all the plans he and Bill Foster had. Edwin Jarvis consoles the robot that it would have been worse if she'd let HAMMER in. Hercules takes Henry aside to encourage him to think of a solution, and Pym says he has 1. He just needs to make a call ...

... to the Baxter Building. The Fantastic Four are all there with Reed & Sue's kids Franklin & Valeria (and a couple of HERBIE robots). Apparently Val has just invented a canine AI and they're just off to a Cybernetics Expo and an option meeting with Disney. Henry interrupts Reed Richards to say that his lab is about to get stranded in a side-dimension and he could fix it with Foster's dimensional wave inducer which he knows the FF have. Reed says sorry but he can't have it, even though he helped create it. Bill (who was killed during Civil War) left it to Ben Grimm and Reed thinks it's safer here. Henry reminds him that Bill's will left it to *him* but he'd been replaced by a Skrull so it went to Ben. Reed says he can't be trusted with a device this important. He's been unstable since his return from Skrull captivity and learning about the deaths of Jan, Bill and Captain America. And when he was unstable before he created Ultron and the robot Salvation 1 which he attacked the Avengers with (in their #213). Pym counters that Richards let the Skrulls learn everything they needed to invade Earth (when *he* was their captive in Illuminati #1), *he* built the clone/cyborg Thor that killed Bill Foster and *he* was trapped within TV transmissions while Pym's Mighty Avengers defeated Chthon (our #21-23). Moreover Foster's device is based on Pym Particles which of course he discovered. But Richards response to that is to claim the *he* knows more about Pym Particles than Pym does, and with that he terminates the call. The last we see of the FF is Human Torch thinking it's hilarious, Thing thinking his friend has lost his mind and Sue Richards demanding that her husband call back and apologise.

As far as Wasp is concerned this is war and he comes up with a plan to get what he wants from the Baxter Building. He starts by describing to the team the FF's security measures. Any breach causes their HQ to go into 'molecular level' lockdown which only allows FF members to pass via a DNA-encoded key in their uniforms. The inside is patrolled by HERBIEs (Humanoid Experimental Robots with B-type Integrated Electronics) and recycled Doombots. There's a rooftop exit for their Pogo Plane. Vision asks if that's how Dr Pym expects to get *out*. Hank replies no, but that he expects to persuade the FF to use it.

Another part of his plan then appears - it's a Skrull in Edwin Jarvis' clothes. Jarvis was replaced by a Skrull for Secret Invasion, and Hercules and Stature think it's that 1. But it turns out to be the real EJ using an image inducer which they'll all be given. But Jocasta and Vizh say they don't need 1 because their artificial bodies can play that trick already. However Wasp tells them *his* IIs have an extra feature which triggers Dr Richards' Skrull-detection system. He says it'll take him a few hours to create enough IIs for them and the rest(?!) of his army.

Meanwhile Pietro Maximoff and John Walker are in Xining wondering how to get to Tibet at speed. Quicksilver could do it easy but refuses to carry his partner (or use a pedal cart). Suddenly they are attacked by a flying (or leaping?) woman who grazes USA with a heart-shaped dart and successfully evades Q's super-speed for a while. But this was just to show off her skills and she introduces herself as Ban-Luck of GRAMPA and says she can get them where they need to be. She explains that the Inhumans appear to be allying with Communist China which would alter the global power balance. GRAMPA needs Pietro as an expert on the Inhumans (he was married to 1).

Back in Pym's lab Stature and Vision are wondering whether helping DrP preserve his Pym Pocket is worth the effort. Herc is doing it for the sake of Pym's honour. Amadeus Cho just likes challenging authority, especially geniuses like Reed Richards. But neither motive suit the pair of Young Avengers. Jocasta interrupts to show them something that might change their minds, a very large machine which Pym calls Salvation 2. Jonas recognises that it's way beyond the 40th Century tech of *his* body. Jocasta explains that it can only exist here in PymSpace. Vision is convinced ...

... but Cassie Lang not. She wanders off and runs into Cho who has deduced her state of mind. He suggests that she intends to quit the team when they go to the Baxter Building in New York and return to her friends the Young Avengers. She says she also doesn't want to attack the FF because they're her heroes and her (currently-dead) dad Ant-Man was 1 of them for a while (in their #384-408 and she lived with them then). Amadeus asks if it's OK that he's been using Scott's helmet recently. She replies that she likes him, so yes. And rather him than the current Ant-Man Eric O'Grady (who she knew in the Initiative) because she thinks *he*'s disgusting. This cheers him up because he *likes* her too ...

... so he's whistling when he rejoins Dr Pym who's just finishing the last image inducer he needs. He tells Wasp that when they go into battle he'll use Scott Lang's ant-communication helmet to keep in mental contact with him. After all 2 super-geniuses are better than Reed Richards' 1. Pym tosses the II to Hercules and says they're ready to roll.

Thing is at the Ben Grimm Youth Centre in Yancy Street watching kids train while outside others outside spray graffiti on his Fantasti-Cycle. Then he's alerted to the FF signal flare over Baxter Building and the Pogo Plane taking off. But before he can fly after them he's attacked by the Red Hulk. Except we can see that it's Herc with the image inducer.


 

Review / Commentaries


Mighty Avengers #25 Review by (August 24, 2024)
The Marvel Chronology Project have chosen to place the opening flashback for Jan Van Dyne between her apps in Avengers (1998) #71 and #77. In #77 Wasp for the 1st time uses Pym particles to grow giant-size rather than shrink to insect-size. Perhaps this is what she wanted to discus with Hank Pym.
In more particular the MCP have Wasp and Yellowjacket between Alias #28 and Marvel Holiday Special 2004. For Bill Foster the fb falls between Av(1998)#66 and Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man #2.

The bit about Bill Foster's will doesn't make sense. If the will was read before the end of Secret Invasion then the maguffin would have gone to the Skrull-Pym because he hadn't yet been unmasked. If it was after SI then it would have gone to the real Henry Pym. There's no real scope for it to have been diverted to Thing from a known Skrull-Pym.

This is Ban-Luck's 1st app.

This issue of course occurs while Cassie Lang is in the Young Avengers and her father is dead. Between Avengers Disassembled when he died and Children's Crusade when she'll use time travel to rescue him from dying (only to get killed herself).

For the Fantastic Four this issue follows the Doom's Master arc in their #566-569. In particular the MCP has it immediately following the last bit of #569 where Ben Grimm decides not to marry Debbie Green because it would put her in too much danger.
Mr Fantastic's intemperate behaviour here is probably connected with his obsession with 'solving everything' which began during Civil War and has already resulted in the creation of the dimensional Bridge in the Dark Reign: FF mini-series. That Bridge will result in him joining the Interdimensional Council of Reeds.



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Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Stephen Segovia
Noah Salonga
Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Khoi Pham (Cover Penciler)
Khoi Pham (Cover Inker)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Dave Lanphear.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: Joe Quesada.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Hercules
Hercules

(Heracles)
Human Torch
Human Torch

(Johnny Storm)
Invisible Woman
Invisible Woman

(Sue Storm)
Jocasta
Jocasta

(Jocasta Pym)
Loki
Loki

(Loki Laufeyson)
Mr. Fantastic
Mr. Fantastic

(Reed Richards)
Quicksilver
Quicksilver

(Pietro Maximoff)
Thing
Thing

(Ben Grimm)
U.S. Agent
U.S. Agent

(John Walker)
Wasp
Wasp

(Henry Pym)

Plus: Ban-Luck, Mastermind Excello (Amadeus Cho).