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Mighty Avengers #26

Jun 2009
Dan Slott, Stephen Segovia

Story Name:

Mighty/Fantastic - part 2: You can't get there from here


Synopsis

Mighty Avengers #26 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Dr Henry Pym (currently Wasp) based his Mighty Avengers team in his own small Pym Pocket universe with secret doors to all over the world. Unfortunately they had to shut the prime doorway to stop Norman Osborn's HAMMER troops breaking in, and now all the other doors have been failing 1 by 1. If Pym can't do anything about it the Pocket will be completely cut off from the 'real' universe. They *could* just abandon the place but Hank has an important experiment here. All he needs to get them out of the fix is the Dimensional Wave Inducer that he and Bill Foster invented that is currently in the possession of Mr Fantastic. But last issue Reed Richards refused to let him have it. So Pym came up with a plan to break in to the Baxter Building HQ of the Fantastic Four to get it. Last issue ended with Hercules using an image inducer to pose as Red Hulk and engage the Thing in battle away from the BB.

Now we go back half an hour as the team are readying for battle. Hercules is annoyed that their leader isn't here to see his troops off. Amadeus Cho is monitoring the remaining doors and says the 1 to Zurich is holding up best so that will be their final escape route. Jocasta announces that they'll get to Manhattan for the Baxter raid via a door to Janet Van Dyne's penthouse. The 1st wave is Herc as Red Hulk and Vision (Jonas) as the Red Ghost. Stature is now angry that she wasn't told they had a surviving door to New York. (Last issue she had intended to return to her main team the Young Avengers in Avengers Mansion but was told that door had gone.) She accuses Jocasta of believing that she'd abandon the MAv at the earliest opportunity. The female robot checks with her that Jan Van Dyne was her role model, and reminds her that she herself has Jan's brain patterns. And in Jan's place she tells Cassie Lang she's acting like a spoiled brat. Then she walks out to check Hank's progress. Henry Pym is tinkering with his giant Salvation 2 project but without the DWI it won't work - and it still might not work with it. She reminds him of things he's accomplished and says she believes in him. And Edwin Jarvis walks in on them sharing a kiss.

Now we skip forward 10 minutes to when Reed and Sue Richards are getting ready to take their kids Franklin and Valeria out. Reed has just put the DWI in the Zeno Room for safety. Sue notes he hasn't locked the door but he reminds her that isn't necessary. Suddenly a green emergency alarm goes off, and green means Skrulls. Reed says there's hundreds of them in the air vents. Sue rushes the kids to the Pogo Plane and the 3 of them head for Wakanda. Reed fires the FF flare. (Thing saw the Plane and flare before 'Red Hulk' attacked him.) Mr Fantastic  then finds that his HERBIE and Doombot servitors have had their works clogged up by what turns out to be ants with tech that makes them register as Skrulls. (We saw Dr Pym creating hundreds of the devices last issue.)

Another 10 minutes later Johnny Storm is a celebrity judge on America's Next Top Supermodel when he's told about the FF flare. Before he can leave the studio he's attacked by Red Ghost (Vision) claiming to be 1 of a new Frightful Four (with a terrible Russian accent). At the same time Thing is fighting Red Hulk (Hercules). In the Baxter Building Reed Richards of course realises that Henry Pym is behind the ants which are now attacking *him*. He balloons out his elastic body to shake them off and heads for where he's stashed the DWI. Which is exactly what Wasp wants (currently disguised by image inducer as 1 of the ants). He contacts Cassie to help him follow MrF, expecting her to be another ant, but gets no reply. Amadeus informs him that Cassie's tracker says she's on the Pogo Plane.

And at this moment Franklin Richards notices an ant on the Plane standing on its rear legs. Valeria Richards thinks it must be a Skrull. But Stature deactivates her image inducer to let them know it's her. She reminds them of the time her now-dead dad Scott Lang was 1 of the FF and they both lived with them. They're like family to her so she had to tell them what's going on. There are no Skrulls invading, it's just the Avengers helping Dr Pym 'steal' the DWI.

Tiny Wasp has flown after MrF and followed his pliable body under a door and into a room. He enlarges to human size expecting to face defensive measures. But Reed Richards is just sitting at a desk with the Dimensional Wave Inducer on it. Reed tells him not to bother trying to take the box because he'll never get his hands on it. Hank dashes forward expecting a fight but he just never seems to get close to the desk. Reed explains that this is the Zeno Room, an embodiment of Zeno's paradox which proved that Achilles could never catch up with a tortoise. Reed has accomplished this with a spatial distortion field, and even by growing giant-size Pym can't get through it. He advises Henry to use the remaining time before his pocket universe gets cut off to salvage whatever he can from it.

Meanwhile on Yancy Street Thing is still fighting Red Hulk when Human Torch flies by after an equally-flying Red Ghost who keeps going insubstantial to avoid the effects of his flames. Ben Grimm points out that while the Ghost can do that he's never been known to fly. So Vision drops his disguise followed quickly by Hercules. Torch figures out they've just been keeping them from answering the FF flare and he flies off to the BB. But Thing continues to battle Herc.

Vizh contacts Hank to warn him that HT is on the way. Jarvis and Jocasta say there are only 3 working doors from the Pocket left. Cho suggests various tactics which Pym has already tried. But a comment about Richards' annoying gloating gives Henry an idea. He realises that their voices *do* cross the distance between them therefore Reed must have made his distortion field not affect sound. So he uses a sonic tractor beam to pick up the DWI. Mr Fantastic reacts by using his flexible arms to stop Wasp taking it. And in the tussle the device gets switched on.

Invisible Woman lands the Pogo Plane back in their HQ and asks Cassie to keep an eye on the kids while she investigates the situation. (Cassie used to babysit Franklin when she and her dad lived with the FF.) But all 4 of them go together to find the place overrun with ants. Val recognises that the ants are acting too purposefully so someone must be controlling them. The young genius quickly creates a feedback loop which burns out Amadeus Cho's Ant-Man helmet. And she sends a message which lets him know he's been beaten by a 2 year old.

Jocasta's lost contact with Wasp. She knows that the DWI was activated so they could be anywhere/when in the universe (or maybe even the multiverse). Jarvis chooses this moment to suggest that her 'close' relationship with Hank Pym is inappropriate. Her brain is patterned after his ex-wife Jan. Plus Dr Pym created Ultron who created her so he's her grandfather. She counters that she and her robotic brethren consider Hank as the creator of modern AI, so kissing him is more like kissing God.

Torch reaches the Baxter Building to find his sister consorting with the enemy (Avenger Cassie). She tells him that Henry Pym and Reed were in the Zeno Room but now the Room's gone, replaced by a black void.

Elsewhere the 2 scientists are being taken for an uncontrolled ride by the DWI. Hank says the it was never meant to be used by itself, which Reed describes as trying to fly a jet engine without a jet. They agree to cooperate to get themselves out of this. We see a collage of strange scenes as they exchange scientific gobbledygook until they figure out how to gain control. And then they're in a white space which Reed says obviously isn't home. But Henry admits that this is the dimension that *he* wants to move his lab to. Reed looks around and realises what's so special about the place. And agrees to let Hank keep the DWI.

Then they exit the Zeno room and the others in the BB are confused as to why Wasp has the DWI now. Outside Hercules and Vision are still keeping Thing away from the Building. But then the others come out to join them and tell them everyone's friends now. The Mighty Avengers (including Stature) leave with the DWI, with Herc and Ben Grimm still exchanging insults.

Later, with only the Zurich door left and only 4 minutes till that goes, Herc whiles away the time composing a ballad (more like a limerick) to commemorate Cho's defeat by Valeria. Henry Pym is still confidant. He's fitted the Dimensional Wave Inducer to Salvation 2 and he just needs to add the final component - Jocasta. She willingly steps forward to take her place in the mechanism. Jarvis, Hercules and Vision protest but she says she trusts and believes in Hank. She seems to lose consciousness as the machine hums to life. Cassie asks if he would have added Vision to the mix if necessary? Would he have sacrificed all of them?

But Pym says Jocasta's perfectly OK, and her voice comes from the machine itself to say that the plan has worked and the new base is ready. Amadeus Cho asks if Jocasta is the new base that the Pym Pocket is tethered to. Hank says yes and no and invites them to step through a new door to see for themselves ...

... next issue.


 

Review / Commentaries


Mighty Avengers #26 Review by (August 24, 2024)
Paco Diaz and Harvey Tolibao helped Stephen Segovia and Noah Salonga out with the art. June Chung joined Jean-Francois Beaulieu on the colours.



> Mighty Avengers comic book info and issue index

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Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Stephen Segovia
Noah Salonga
Jean-Francois Beaulieu
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

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Hercules
Hercules

(Heracles)
Human Torch
Human Torch

(Johnny Storm)
Invisible Woman
Invisible Woman

(Sue Storm)
Jarvis
Jarvis

(Edwin Jarvis)
Jocasta
Jocasta

(Jocasta Pym)
Mr. Fantastic
Mr. Fantastic

(Reed Richards)
Thing
Thing

(Ben Grimm)
Wasp
Wasp

(Henry Pym)

Plus: Mastermind Excello (Amadeus Cho), Vision (Jonas).