Synopsis
Avengers (1998 series) #62 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
This issue concentrates on the problems of Ant-Man and Jack Of Hearts.
Jack Hart exits from 1 of his daily 10-hour sessions in the Zero Room. We learn that he can take nothing in there to amuse himself with because the current levels of neutro-mist necessary to prevent the build-up of his dangerous energy disintegrate everything in the Room including his body armour (but not his body). Iron Man and Yellowjacket supervise his recovery and he gets a replacement containment suit. This kind of regular imprisonment understandably makes him tetchy.
Scott Lang goes to family court for the hearing on custody of his daughter Cassie. Cassie Lang runs to her father but is called back by her mother Peggy. Scott asks Peggy Lang why she wants custody now when she never did before. She replies that she's getting remarried. The judge is holding the hearing behind closed doors to avoid press interest in 1 of the Avengers. Scott correctly denies that he is 1, he just helped out in the Kang Dynasty War (and a few times before that). The judge says he's disregarding Scott's earlier criminal history but he's concerned about the danger to Cassie if Ant-Man continues 'helping out'.
Henry Pym tells Jack that when he returned to Earth after many years in space the atmosphere accelerated the continuous nuclear fission in his cells. His armour and the neutro-mist are struggling to cope. From now on he's going to have to spend 14 hours a day in the Zero Room to stop him going off like an atomic bomb. Jack loses his temper until Tony Stark calms him down.
They review Jack's history. His father developed a prospective fuel he called the Zero Fluid. When villains tried to steal it an accident killed his dad and turned him into JOH. Later he learned that his deceased mother was actually an alien Contraxian. But YJ tells him they've studied his father's journals and discovered that the Zero Fluid didn't give him his dangerous power. He was born with it and his dad designed the ZF to keep it under control. The idea that this means his father died because of *him* sends Jack over the edge and he blasts through the ceiling to escape into the sky. Iron Man goes after him.
Back in the courtroom the judge awards Peggy custody for Cassie's safety. Scott will have visitation rights every weekend, and he'll have a review hearing in a year. Cassie's unhappy as she leaves with her mother. Scott follows them out where they all meet Patrolman Blake Burdick, Peggy's fiancé, who pointedly swats a fly.
IM catches up with JOH and tries to persuade him to come back. Hank wants the opportunity to fix him. Jack asks Tony if he knows what it's like to have nothing to do but listen to your heartbeat and wonder when it will stop. For Stark this is of course ironic. JOH flies off again, but heads back to Avengers Mansion ...
... where Scott arrives as Ant-Man and asks Wasp if the offer of a job is still open because he no longer has to worry about his daughter's safety. Jack chooses that moment to return and once again takes his anger out on Scott who has it easy and can just opt in whenever he wants while others (like himself) have to work hard for their place. Janet Van Dyne leaps to the defence saying Scott has his problems too, but Jack says he's getting preferential treatment because he's the 2nd Ant-Man. Iron Man jets in to say that Scott has proven his worth several times, but so has Jack. JOH slinks inside and Jan and Tony welcome Ant-Man to the team. (And that's as much of an argument as you're going to get to justify the cover image.)
Scott heads to his room and Jack enters the Zero Room again. We leave them both sitting dejected.
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Blake Burdick, Cassie Lang, Peggy Burdick (
Peggy Lang).