Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The US government has perfected Hank Pym’s growth formula and is employing their new Giant Men as heroes, leading Hank to further depths of despair and bitterness. He links up with a team of hero wannabees who call themselves the Defenders: Nighthawk, Hellcat, Power Man, Son of Satan, and Valkyrie, who are thrilled when he demonstrates his new shrinking abilities as…Ant-Man! Later, Hank visits the Triskelion and tries to interest Nick Fury in the androids he’s working on, but Fury brushes him off. While there, he runs into Janet, and the meeting is awkward, moreso after Captain America arrives and tells Hank to get out. That night the Defenders plan to break up a warehouse robbery they’ gotten a tip on. The team splits up to find the right warehouse and it is Nighthawk who comes across the bad guys, a gang of teenage punks. His leap into their midst goes wrong and he breaks an ankle. The punks beat him savagely and throw him out of a window. When Valkyrie sees them pouring gasoline on her fallen comrade, she panics and calls for Hank who turns giant and grabs the crooks, though he doesn’t have a large costume. The result: a humiliating picture of a naked Hank Pym on the front pages, accompanied by an insulting news article. Talking it over with Valkyrie later, Hank gets her to admit none of the team has any real skills or abilities, not even the meager ones they claimed. Later a dejected Hank get a visit from an old Ultimate colleague, who is the traitor they were warned about, who reveals his growing disillusionment with his country and the fact that, as Thor warned, the Ultimates are being used as tools of the administration’s imperialist policies: "we crippled a nation this morning."