This cover is from Avengers #213, the trial of Hank Pym. Who could be drawing this one? It could be anybody. Guess what, it’s John Romita, Jr.! Bendis’ first (But not last!) team-up with the GOAT. Johnny just provides breakdowns for this one, with finishes by Klaus Janson and Tom Palmer, so this should be kinda like his early-to-mid 80s comics, except also nothing like them, in no small part due to the very modern coloring of Edgar Delgado. We open on Hank Pym, Marvel writers’ favorite punching bag, giving a lecture months ago and taking questions. A young lady who looks a lot like Gwen Stacy asks why the Avengers broke up, and Hank is clearly interested in her. But he goes home to this:
Eternal socialite Janet Van Dyne being like this isn’t out of the question or anything, but it’s also not been depicted before, and is kind of not great.
Always have been and probably always will be fascinated by the concept of “breakdowns.” As with the 80s stuff we looked at, there’s no denying who drew this book, even if he didn’t fully draw it. And finished by a longtime collaborator like Janson, who really knows Romita’s line, you’d probably think he did full pencils without the credits page. But in the hands of other finishers on ASM in the 80s, his stuff often looked… not great! Such a weird alchemy, the traditional comics process. The modern era, wherein most artists work digitally and have no inker, doubtless gives the artist a chance to show their own, unfiltered style, but there was just something so interesting about what happens with a penciler and inker team up. Well anyway, Hank is thusly straight into the girl from the lecture’s bed. And as they talk, she informs him the Avengers just got back together, and shows him a picture of the Drudge Report, of all websites, covering it. But Hank says that was another life, and he’s dedicated to his research now. He asks the unnamed girl if she wants to go to dinner. She says yes, because she has a million questions.
Hank, you dumby.
Hank’s appraisal of the brutal, elitist, warlike Kree is the most telling thing in this book, I think. Well, the girl gets Hank to talk about how awful the Skrulls are and how they always beat them before hulking out and beating the crap out of him. She calls the other Skrulls to confirm the capture, but then Janet appears at the door. She turns back into an alluring young woman, answers the door and makes Janet angry enough to leave without seeing Hank. Then that Skrull goes through the ritual first shown in the last issue of New Avengers and takes his place. Veranke says she’s still not convinced Hank is a valuable asset to their cause. Skrull-Hank says “give me a week.” Cut to Hank asserting that he, not Reed Richards, is the scientist they need to defeat Ultron in the first Mighty Avengers story.
Boy, that puts an ominous new spin on this moment from Mighty Avengers 6, doesn’t it? I just loved this stuff. Bendis turning over all his cards. All these things suddenly having more than one meaning. Nothing up his sleeve. So much of it was on the page already, we just didn’t know what to be looking for. Ok, time to get back to the main book.