Meanwhile
Wonder Man is flying over the nearby ocean with
Tigra in his arms. She's catly afraid of falling in the water - and she fears she's becoming more cat than human as time passes. For his part
Simon Williams is still afraid of dying, since he 'died' in his 1st appearance in
Av#9, and he still doesn't feel good enough to be an
Avenger (a feeling Tigra has shared).
Suddenly
Iron Man zooms past them to attack some clunky robots that were sneaking up behind them.
WM joins the fight without stopping to put Tigra down, but he has to keep shielding her from blasts. So she struggles free and dives into the ocean.
The other 2 keep battling. Tearing the robots' arms off seems the best tactic, and then hitting them with them. In mid-fight
Tony Stark thinks Simon Williams' 'inadequacy' is nothing compared to the alcoholism he himself has had to fight free of in the recent long stretch in his own title. But some of the robots escape. And WM dives to rescue Tigra.
Back in his holding cell Goliath refuses to answer Hank Pym's questions, his ionic energy glowing in his eyes like Wonder Man's. He insists that he will soon be free.
Clint Barton tells
Bobbi how Pym messed up and was fired from the Avengers in
Av#212-213. But they move on to how the team is still looking for a 6th member. Hawkeye's insecurity shows beneath his bluster as he comments that nobody wants to join an untested team, especially 1 that was created by
Vision while he was under the control of the
Titanian computer
ISAAC and tried to take over the world (as revealed in the issues leading up to
Av#254).
The other 3 arrive, Tigra swathed in a towel. Tony Stark is taken aback to see Henry Pym because he feels guilty about dating his ex-wife
Jan in
Av#224 soon after their divorce (and while Pym was in prison). But Hank greets him like a friend. Goliath unexpectedly laughs when they mention the robots. And Tigra's kittenish nature causes her to make a play for Hank, even though she didn't like him while Jan was divorcing him in
Av#213-217. And Pym responds.
The team detect a large power source in San Pedro. Hank offers to mind the store while the others go investigate in a
quinjet. On the way out Simon objects to Clint trusting Pym, possibly out of jealousy over Tigra. (Tigra and Wonder Man struck up a close friendship in the
WCA mini-series. Maybe he read more into it than that.)
The power source turns out to be a boat, and Tigra wishes she'd stayed home again. 3 of them wait while Hawkeye and
Wondie investigate the boat. Tigra confides in Bobbi how
Greer Nelson became the
Cat (in her own short-lived series) and then was converted to the form of Tigra, fabled warrior of the
Cat People, in order to save her life (
Giant-Size Creatures #1). But the personality of the original Tigra has begun to surface, making her act more like a cat. (She wasn't afraid of the sea in
#4 of the mini-series.)
Hawkeye signals all clear. Iron Man flies
MB over, but Tigra challenges her aquaphobia by running up a mooring line. They enter a cargo hold strangely filled with steel beams welded together in a rat's nest. As they pick their way through they are assaulted by
Ultron-12.
Hawkeye fires an arrow that releases a gas designed by Yellowjacket (
Av#171) to protect them from Ultron's
Encephalo-Ray eye blasts. Meanwhile he considers that Ultron may have sent the robots but he can't have anything to do with Goliath. Maybe he's after his creator/'father' Henry Pym (who
was a different Goliath, but not then).
As Ultron goes into his standard rant about killing the Avengers and then all humans, Clint orders everybody out. But the spaces within the tangle of beams start filling with
adamantium rods. Ultron says they must eventually kill all the humans, even armoured Iron Man. Wonder Man says his body composed of ionic energy will survive, but Ultron says he want him alive.
As the others concentrate on avoiding/deflecting the beams Hawkeye fires a
vibranium arrow that lodges into a gap between a rod and the hole it is coming out of. As he hoped the metal's vibration-absorption property stops the whole mechanism. And the team work their way out of the maze.
Meanwhile Pym has discovered that Goliath's ionic energy incorporates the growth serum he himself invented. His mind is drawn to his other big invention Ultron, who he believes was destroyed on
Battleworld in
Thing #22. Then the base gets a video call from his ex-wife
Wasp, current leader of the (East Coast) Avengers.
He doesn't want to answer the call, even though they parted on good terms the last 2 times they met (
Av#230 and
#242). But he can't let her think there's something wrong here. He explains that he
isn't joining the team - he's just here for research purposes, and holding the fort while they're on a mission. And just then the team return.
Hawkeye updates Wasp on what's happened. Then she privately asks him for confirmation that Henry isn't returning to the superhero business. And offers to send some Avengers to help with Ultron. Clint answers no to both. He says they can look after themselves, thank you. And reminds Jan of
Av#50-51 when that team was just him, her and Hank (coincidentally that time he
was Goliath).
An alarm goes off warning of intrusion, and hurting Tigra's sensitive ears. Assuming it's Ultron after Henry Pym Hawkeye tells Iron Man to guard him in the secure basement. He sends Tigra to watch over Goliath and takes Mockingbird and Wonder Man to face the foe.
As they search the grounds Bobbi asks her hubby why Ultron hates Hank. Cue the potted history:- Pym created the 1st crude Ultron with a basic AI. It escaped and continually improves itself to surpass it's 'father'. It also hates the Avengers because they are Hank's friends. It created Vision with Simon Williams' brain patterns expecting its 'son' to follow in its footsteps. But Vision/Simon rebelled.
Ultron overhears this and is astonished to hear that hated Pym is here - this
wasn't his target. Apparently he's here to get WM for an ally. And there's a lackey involved.
That lackey is
Man-Ape who faces Tigra to reach Goliath.
Erik Josten directs
M'Baku to a button that will open his cage. Tigra successfully holds Man-Ape off until Ultron clonks her from behind. The robot tells M'Baku and Goliath that
they will have to capture WM -
he has something more important to do.
That mission is to break into the basement with his eye-blasts (with the humorous sound-effect Bar-Soom). Henry Pym is staggered (claiming that his immunisation gas (see above) only protects from the radiation not the blast effect). But
IM's armour is made of sterner stuff, and he takes the fight out of the room.
Goliath grows to giant-size and breaks out of
their room with
Man-Ape to fight the 3 Avengers on the outside. Wondie launches himself at the giant while Hawkeye fires an ultrasonic arrow, telling
Mocky to put earplugs in. Goliath was defeated by ultrasonics from
Iron Man (James Rhodes) in
IM An #7, but this time he just catches the arrow and breaks it. Meanwhile Bobbi takes on M'Baku.
Ultron tries to drain IM's power as he did in
Av#202, but the new suit is proof against that. However IM's
repulsors are equally ineffective against the robot. So the battle degenerates into an armoured fist fight.
Wonder Man attacks Goliath again but the giant just smashes him into the ground with his fist. Then a blast from Ultron floors Hawkeye and MB. The robot has apparently won his fight against IM and now carries unconscious Henry Pym over his shoulders. Goliath picks up Man-Ape and Wonder Man in his hands and Ultron grabs him by the back of his costume and flies off with the prizes.
When the other 2 revive Hawkeye has figured it all out. Erik Josten as
Power Man and Man-Ape were members of
Grim Reaper's
Lethal Legion in
Av#78-79. Ultron doesn't care about Wonder Man but Grim Reaper hates him. So Ultron must be working with
GR. (Which raises the question what was in it for Ultron before he learned Pym was here?)
Continued in
VISION & SCARLET WITCH #1.