Saturday Splash Page #11

 

"Welcome to Monster Isle," in X-Men: First Class (vol. 2) #2, by Jeff Parker (writer), Roger Cruz (artist), Val Staples (colorist), Nate Piekos (letterer)

The 8-issue mini-series ended, followed the next month by the special we looked at last week. The month after that, the ongoing series started up. It ran for 16 issues, and largely followed the same pattern as the mini-series. Mostly done-in-one stories about the Original 5 X-Men facing some problem and having to overcome it, maybe growing some as young adults in the process.

Parker and Cruz bring in other characters than from the first mini-series. The Black Widow shows up in the "black mask/fishnets" look she had briefly after her face turn. The team runs into the Man-Thing and get a look at horrible possible futures for each of them. Jean gets a ride-along day with the Invisible Woman. Machine Man shows up, but it's X-50, not X-51, the future Aaron Stack. So it's fun to watch them take advantage of the Marvel Universe back in its early stages. Characters the X-Men never met until much later, or ones at a much different place at this time.

There are a couple of threads that run more than one issues. Angel leaves the school for a few issues after he goes looking for his archaeologist aunt (who bears a remarkable resemblance to a certain tomb raider), and finds a lost civilization that doesn't make him hide his wings. Jean's powers continue to expand, little things like that.

After the series ended, there was one more four-issue mini-series, the graduation for the five of them, which ends with them heading off on one more mission to a little place called Krakoa. Marvel would go to the "First Class" well subsequently with Uncanny X-Men First Class (8 issues) and Wolverine First Class (21 issues). The latter was really about Kitty Pryde as a student, but got use the name that sells. But Parker and Cruz weren't involved with either of those.

Saturday Splash Page #10

 

"Jean's Dragon," in X-Men: First Class Special, by Jeff Parker (writer), Paul Smith (artist), Pete Pantazis (colorist), Nate Piekos (letterer)

After X-Men: First Class wrapped up, Marvel released this larger-than-normal (36 pages doesn't seem like it merits "giant-size") one-shot, consisting of several stories. The best known is the one-page Colleen Coover-drawn story where Xavier tasks Jean with studying baby ducks, in the hopes mutants can learn to adapt some of their lovable traits to be better accepted by humans.

No doubt Magneto was studying fully grown swans to better learn how to be an asshole.

Beyond that and two other short Coover comics, there's one story about Iceman and Beast visiting a museum of oddities to figure out what's haunting it, drawn and lettered by Kevin Nowlan. Nick Dragotta pencils a story about a mutant beatnik doing a hallucinogenic poetry jam in the X-Men's favorite coffee shop, inked by Mike Allred and colored by Laura Allred.

Finally, there's this one, drawn Paul Smith, about Jean Grey befriending Dragon Man and him staying with them for a time. Not sure where Jean got "Rhino Chow" from to feed it, or why a synthetic creature brought to life through alchemy would eat rhino chow. It's framed oddly, because Parker presents it as Cyclops telling Kitty Pryde about this, sometime after she got Lockheed. 

In-story, Jean's sad about ultimately having to say good-bye to her pet dragon, but it had to be done. While Scott told Kitty this nice story as an attempt to connect with the newest student, even though it's painful for him because Jean's dead. I mean, because Jean's busy sleeping in an energy cocoon at the bottom of the East River.

Saturday Splash Page #9

 

"Everybody Flee the Bald Guy in the Sky," in X-Men First Class (vol. 1) #1, by Jeff Parker (writer), Roger Cruz (penciler), Victor Olazaba (inker), Val Staples (colorist), Nate Piekos (letterer)

Predating the movie of the same name by about 5 years, this was a sort of all-ages, 8-issue mini-series focusing on the original 5 X-Men. Before a morally compromised Hank McCoy dragged them into our present day as a way to try and shame a wildly radicalized Scott Summers. Yeah, the years were not kind to any of them.

Of course, as it predates the movie and his creation as a character, there is a disappointing lack of a Mr. Sinister that looks like Kevin Bacon and dresses like a pimp. Seriously, with all the movie synergy Marvel does, why did they never make Mr. Sinister look more like Kevin Bacon?

Ahem, where was I? Right, the comic. I don't know precisely where in the early X-Men years this is set. It's definitely after Amazing Spider-Man #6, as issue 2 involves Xavier and the team going to check on his old buddy Curt Conners in Florida and the Lizard had already fought Spider-Man once by that point.

Parker doesn't spend a lot of time on the teens dealing with typical X-Men stuff. Magneto doesn't show up, the Juggernaut only does in some weird mental landscape created by Xavier's brain. Instead, they fight the Lizard, Iceman gets kidnapped by people who worship Ymir, so Thor shows up. Dr. Strange pops up as a follow-up to some adventure involving him, Jean, Scott and the Juggernaut. Warren and the Scarlet Witch have a tenuous romance as best they can given Wanda's overbearing brother. The last issue is a team-up with Gorilla Man, which Parker referenced in X-Men vs. Atlas.

All the stories are done-in-one, which is nice, and beyond trying to show their progression in control of their powers and ability to function without Xavier, Parker tries to broaden their personalities beyond what they got back in the '60s. Iceman gets played as the goofy kid most of the time, but Warren's actually the one who struggles the most to pay attention in class, as he wants to get outside a fly a lot. Jean's powers are maybe the most abstract, and the ones increasing the fastest, so her self-confidence and assertiveness tend to fluctuate a bit based on how things are going. Basic stuff, but it makes them feel like more well-rounded characters.

The Cruz/Olazaba/Staples art team handles all 8 issues. Cruz can handle the action sequences just fine, but he gets a lot of opportunity to show personality through how characters move or react to things. Very expressive style, works well for the more light-hearted elements. Staples tends to use sort of broad, brighter colors. Keeps things from looking too murky or grim all the time. This is before things went entirely to hell in these kids' lives. Save that for the moments when it's actually needed.

Saturday Splash Page #5

 

"Uninvited Guests," in X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas #2, by Jeff Parker (writer), Carlo Pagulayan and Carlos Rodriguez (pencilers), Gabriel Hardman and Chris Samnee (artists), Jason Paz and Terry Pallot (inkers), Wilfredo Quintana and Veronica Gandini (colorists), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

Take less time to discuss this 2-issue mini-series than it did to write all those names. Consider this as a companion piece to Avengers vs. Atlas (discussed in Sunday Splash Page #59). The other mini-series Marvel tried to use to get a little more fanbase engagement with Agents of Atlas before the second attempt at an ongoing. Atlas only lasted five issues, shorter even than the original mini-series, so we can safely say that didn't work.

This is set during the stretch when the X-Men had formed their own little island community. No, not Krakoa. No, not Genosha. The island off the coast of San Francisco made from leftover bits of Asteroid M. Man, that thing just rained down over the entire planet, didn't it? Way to mass pollute Magneto, you dick.

Atlas steals Cerebro, sorry Cerebra, because Bob the Uranian wants to use it to boost his telepathy to find their missing teammate Venus. Because they figure the X-Men won't agree to let them borrow it. Because Atlas was posing as a criminal empire with ties to Norman Osborn, or just because they're jerks? Either/or. Turns out Cerebra doesn't mesh well with Bob's headband that allows telepathic transmission, and the Atlas team and the (surviving) Original 5 X-Men get sucked into some sort of shared feedback loop thing, playing off the story Parker did in X-Men First Class where the kids meet Gorilla Man while looking for Xavier. 

Parker also takes the opportunity to continue the grudge match between Wolverine and M-11 he established in the first Agents of Atlas ongoing. The one dating back to Logan blowing the robot up during a mission involving mind-controlling insects in Cuba in the 1950s, then renewed during a fight against the New Avengers.

The fight gets halted by Namor, of all people, since he's allied with both groups. He literally shouts, 'Cease this battle at once! Namor Commands!' and it works. Everyone just stops and looks around awkwardly while Emma Frost notes Namor still has the loudest voice. Anyway, the groups set their differences aside, Bob locates Venus, who has actually been abducted by agents of Aphrodite, who is displeased about Venus borrowing her likeness without paying usage rights. That leads into the mini-event Assault on New Olympus, which was mostly an Incredible Hercules storyline, but I'm pretty sure the Agents of Atlas were involved.

The art's not quite as much a mess as the credits would suggest. Samnee draws the sections in the shared telepathic space. Hardman draws the part at the end involving Venus at the very end. Rodriguez takes over for Pagulayan after Samnee's part, which is a little distracting because his art is close to Pagulayan's, but just different enough you notice the shift.

Sunday Splash Page #185

 

"Walked in Thru the Out Door," in Exiles (vol. 2) #3, by Jeff Parker (writer), Salva Espin (artist, left side), Casey Jones (artist, right side), Anthony Washington (colorist), Jeff Loveness (letterer)

The first volume of Exiles ended at #100, about five issues after I dropped the book. Marvel, being Marvel, immediately relaunched it as New Exiles, still with Claremont as the writer and a shiny new #1 on the cover.

It ended after 19 issues in early 2009. Undaunted, and having learned nothing, Marvel released Exiles two months later, now with Jeff Parker as writer, and a shiny new #1 on the cover.

It ended after 6 issues in fall of 2009. Same month as Agents of Atlas, actually. Not a good month for books written by Jeff Parker, or my pull list. Parker took the approach of seemingly pulling in an entirely new team of Exiles, and Morph was in the role of Timebroker now, handing out missions and explaining the rules. There was a Blink on the team, but she appeared not to know anything more than the others.

The book only had enough time for two missions. The first was for the Exiles to help Wolverine overthrow Magneto, currently ruling a Genosha that is a haven for mutants, but under repeated attacks from the rest of the world. The second, which started seemingly before the first was complete, was to help a world dominated by machine intelligences. I thought I remembered they needed something from the second mission to complete the first, but reading over my old reviews that was just what I thought was gonna happen. Instead, they completed the first mission by taking advantage of Cyclops being a lousy boyfriend. Which is better, frankly. Anything that shits on Scott Summers is A-OK by me.

Parker clearly had a lot of things he planned to tease out over time. Sadly, he didn't get the chance and had to spend most of the sixth issue trying to explain what was going on. It was an exposition heavy issue and not the most engaging, but I appreciate he didn't want to leave us hanging.

After that, Marvel let the Exiles concept lie until Saladin Ahmed and Javier Rodriguez pulled it back out in 2018. Unless you count all of Jonathan Hickman's multiverse Illuminati crap in his Avengers run. But considering the "geniuses" repeatedly failed to actually save any realities, they were the shittiest group of Exiles ever. 

Anyway, the 2018 run lasted 12 issues, which puts Ahmed 4th on the list of most Exiles issues written (behind Bedard, Winick, and Claremont, but ahead of Chuck Austen, Parker, and Calafiore.) I think Marvel may have trained their audience to care too much about "important" comics. A book that mostly dances around the fringes, barely ever interacting with the big guns, would be hard-pressed to get that kind of weight.

Full disclosure, I don't still have any of this series in my collection, and I was gonna just skip it. But I remembered that in Random Back Issues #5 I promised to post that double-page splash when I got to this point. So there you go. You can (as always with the double-page splashes) click on it for a somewhat larger version.

Random back Issue #5 - Exiles #3

No matter the universe, everyone can unite via their enjoyment of Havok getting beaten up. Especially because Panther doesn't even look like he hit him particularly hard.

This isn't from the Judd Winick-written Exiles that ran for 100 issues, but the 2009 attempted reboot with Jeff Parker as the writer. Morph has stepped into the role of the Timebroker (or the little bugs that used the Crystal Palace) and Blink is wearing the Tallus again, but pretending she's as new to all this as the rest of the team.

For their first mission, the team was sent to an Earth where Magneto runs Genosha, with the former X-Men and the various villainous mutants united under his banner. The Exiles are supposed to help Wolverine overthrow Magneto, except by the time they arrive, Sabretooth and a bunch of X-Men are parading Logan's corpse through the main plaza.

The team tries to infiltrate a celebration party, taking advantage of the fact two of their team members are Magneto's kids in their respective universes, but all the telepaths around made that a non-starter. Most of this issue is the team escaping confinement and trying to get Magneto's helmet off so the telepaths can see what dark secret he's hiding. No, not that he's a Kid Rock fan.

If this had been written on the Internet, I'm pretty sure Mags would be arranging Moira's death so he could have Charles all to himself. Or they'd just be polyamorous, which might have solved all the problems. I kind of love the idea of Magneto being petty enough to let Charles die at the hands of giant murderbots because he wants Moira.

It's enough to get the X-Men cheesed at Magneto, but the Tallus says calamity hasn't been averted, even as it opens a door to another reality and the Exiles bolt, over Blink's protests. There's a nice double-page splash I will absolutely use for Sunday Splash Page whenever I make it this far - rough guess, fall of 2021 - where Salva Espin draws the half of them leaving, and Casey Jones, who draws the next story, draws the half of them arriving in the next universe. Where they'll have to face a artificial intelligence trio of Ultron, Vision, and Machine Man, plus the incomparable might of Security Camera Lizard!

I picked that image because of the lizard, but now I'm fixated on why Forge thinks Magneto doesn't like the desert. Because there's nothing made out of metal? I'd imagine there are plenty of rocks with metallic elements in them all over the place. I guess wearing a bucket on your head might be unpleasant under the noon sun. . .

[Longbox #5, 14th comic. Exiles (vol. 2) #3, by Jeff Parker (writer), Salva Espin and Casey Jones (artists), Anthony Washington (colorist), Simon Bowland (letterer)]

Sunday Splash Page #59

"It's An Internet Comment Section Come To Life," Avengers vs. Atlas #4, by Jeff Parker (writer), Gabriel Hardman (artist), Elizabeth Breitweiser (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer)

In between the end of Agents of Atlas and Atlas, Marvel released two mini-series starring the team to try and drum up a little more interest in them. One two-issue mini with the X-Men (which we won't get to for years at this rate), and the other with the Avengers.

It starts with what were the current day Avengers at the moment, but through time-travel shenanigans, ends up with the earliest Avengers. Kang is involved, but is not the actual architect of the problem. Or not the sole architect at least.

It's not essential by any means, but it is a fun little story. Parker knows how to write fight scenes, to play up characters' personalities. Iron Man and M-11 have a beam struggle going, and when Stark (in his earliest red-and-gold armor) wonders why M-11's power isn't declining, Gorilla Man shouts out that it's because M-11's insides are full of more machinery instead of boozy millionaire.

There's also a bit where Marvel Boy transmitted something important he learned to Hank Pym telepathically, and Tony does this slump-shouldered, sad complaint that Bob could have sent it to him, because he was a scientist, he'd have understood it. Plenty of good dunking on Stark in this.

Hardman's art is expressive and clean, it makes me think a bit of Russ Heath (his work from the Our Army at War comics from my dad's collection). The motion and energy is there, fights flow smoothly. His style works for robots, gorillas, and characters in bright costumes, and what more do you need?

Sunday Splash Page #4

"Killer Robots Compensate, Too" in Agents of Atlas #10, by Jeff Parker (writer), Gabriel Hardman and Paul Rivoche (artists), Elizabeth Dismang (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer).

It took three years after the initial mini-series before the Agents got themselves an ongoing. Jeff Parker still writing, working with a few different artists, mostly Carlos Pagulayan and Gabriel Hardman.

Set after Secret Invasion, when Norman Osborn became Boss of All Superheroes, Parker had the characters run with the Atlas Organization's rep as a worldwide criminal enterprise to try and get close to the bad guys and disrupt them from within, while inevitably coming into conflict with other heroes. From there, Parker could branch out, have Atlas involved with all sorts of skullduggery, run them up against heroes who bought their reputation, and mine the varied histories of the characters and their adventures from the '50s.

Unfortunately, the book got axed after just 11 issues. They tried again in early 2010, with Atlas, adding 3-D Man (formerly Triathlon) to the roster, but that got canceled after just 5 issues. Outside a one-shot during Secret Wars, I haven't seen the team since, although Gorilla Man's gotten some use in various Deadpool comics.

Sunday Splash Page #3

"Irate Living Robot", in Agents of Atlas (vol. 1) #5, by Jeff Parker (writer), Leonard Kirk (penciler), Kris Justice and Terry Pallot (inkers), Michelle Madsen (colorist), Dave Lanphear (letterer)

The mini-series taking a group of heroes from Marvel's '50s comics, previously united in a single What If?, brought back and expanded on by Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk. The mini-series turned into another couple of mini-series a couple years later, and then a couple of attempts at ongoings that died quickly.

Agents of Atlas is the first book I remember buying strictly on the basis of what people on the Internet were saying about it. No one at the store was talking about, but I'd had the blog for a few months, and by the time the hardcover collection came in, I'd seen several glowing reviews. So I bought it on a whim.

Parker and Kirk weave the character's histories together, and incorporate the scattered appearances they'd had in the last 30+ years. Parker knows how to build character moments, humor, and stuff that's just cool or fun. Kirk's artwork knows how to sell all those, giving characters otherworldly or terrifying looks when necessary, or showing them as people who've all been alone until they found this family again.

31 Days of Scans - Most Cracktastic Moment

I’m not even sure what “cracktastic” means, exactly. Judging by the posts people went with on Scans-Daily, it leaned towards the Silver Age bizarre stuff. Just strange, silly things, I think. I probably had a few similar things I could have picked, but I went with the first thing that came to mind.

Agents of Atlas #11, from 2009. This was the final issue of Jeff Parker’s first attempt at an ongoing for his revived band of ‘50s era heroes, not to be confused with the original mini-series he’d done with Leonard Kirk a few years previously. At this point, Jimmy Woo and his bunch are under attack from the Jade Claw, the daughter of Woo’s old foe, Master Plan, and Jimmy’s old flame. Now she runs the other half of what was Atlas, the Great Wall, and she’s been kicking their asses for the last 3 issues. She has an advanced warbot of her own, one able to defeat M-11, despite the fact M-11 has been upgraded with Uranian tech (courtesy of the former Marvel Boy). Both sides are preparing for the final battle, but Gorilla Man thinks M-11 needs some help, so he turns to the creator of the Menacer series of robots, who has a possible solution.

Replicated personalities of history’s greatest warriors, and Ken knows just the one he wants. But who could be called “The Greatest”, if not warriors such as Shentzu and Alexander the Great?

M-11 has been infused with the fighting spirit (and smack talk skill) of Muhammed Ali! Which makes M-21 Joe Frazier. Or maybe George Foreman. It sort of looks like a grilling machine. But for a time, M-11 still can’t gain the advantage, until Bob destroys the satellite he’d detected earlier feeding power to M-21. And then Bob drops a little bombshell: The chip never worked on M-11, the robot is just jerking Ken around for kicks.

I think a robot pretending to be Ali to play a joke on a gorilla that used to be a man, while fighting another robot (which apparently has no sense of humor), is at least a little strange. I’m not showing you the finishing blow, because either you bought the series, so you already saw it. Or you didn’t buy the series, in which case it’s your fault it got canceled after 11 issues.

All panels from Agents of Atlas #11, written by Jeff Parker, colors by Elizabeth Dismang with Sotomayor, lettering by Tom Orzechowski. The first image was drawn by Gabriel Hardman, the other two by Dan Panosian.

There's More To Jimmy Woo's Past Than Atlas

The Gorilla Man back-up story in Avengers vs. Atlas #4 caught me off guard initially, mostly because of the tone. Ken Hale (aka Gorilla Man) always seems to be having so much fun with Atlas' operations that I forget his origin could have been a horror story, or at least a Twilight Zone episode*. Gain eternal life (though someone could kill you), but spend it as a gorilla. There are worse things to be, but Ken does have to contend with all the people that are like the man he used to be: obsessed with living forever. Plus, he probably gets attacked by people pursuing what they'd deem "oddities". From outside the Marvel universe, a talking gorilla might not seem so strange, but people in the Marvel Universe don't seem to really get how much strange stuff is out there, so a Gorilla Man might be a shock to them. Throw in a few wannabe big game hunters and that's a full dance card of people who don't have Ken's best interests at heart to contend with.

Still, the first time I read it, I thought about how I would have more readily pictured Gorilla Man in a story like the one featuring Jimmy Woo in Avengers vs. Atlas #2 (where Jimmy goes to an evil restaurant to retrieve an important package which turns out to be really great dumplings). It seemed like the sort of thing Gorilla Man might enjoy, with the opportunity to beat up evil chefs and mutated octopi.

Then I thought about how Jimmy could work in a story similar to Ken's. He couldn't have people coming after him trying to gain immortality through his death (not literal immortality, anyway), but this is Jimmy Woo from the 1950s, from the last impression Marvel Boy had of him before the team originally split up. In between then and when he was nearly destroyed trying to enter Master Plan's lair decades later, he was a member of FBI and SHIELD. There have to be any number of people he stymied over that time who haven't forgotten, or forgiven. That their old nemesis has regained his youth, and taken control of a vast criminal organization would likely only gall them further. Throw in the fact his reaction to their appearance would probably be along the lines of "Who are you?", and they'd be boiling.

I don't know who Jimmy Woo might have dealt with in his career, besides Master Plan and Godzilla (I think), so a writer could take it as carte blanche. Revive old HYDRA or AIM villains (maybe it could play off this new SHIELD book, or Secret Warriors), or bring in hyper-intelligent cousins of the big green lizard, or make someone up entirely. Then point them at Jimmy Woo and Atlas, and see what happens.

* Somehow when I was a kid, I came into possession of a little paperback that collected several stories from a horror title called Creepy. The twist for one of the stories was a man kills a werewolf terrorizing the area, only to become the werewolf as the result. Same deal as with Ken and the gorilla curse.

I Need To Work Through This In Writing

Or typing. Six of one, half dozen of the other. Reading through Avengers vs Atlas #4, I keep coming back to the point when Giant Man connects with the chronovirus. Not because I'm still confused by the temporal stuff, but because of something Tony Stark says.

Since it's a mindscape, Hank can assume the identity he feels best in, and so he regresses back to his Ant-Man form, complete with the cybernetic helmet, and he flies off through wherever he is on top of an ant. As he does so, Stark - who, along with the rest of the Avengers and Atlas, are linked into Hank's mind so they see what he does - comments that he thinks Hank's 'always felt more at home as Ant-Man'.

I suppose it caught my attention because I subscribe to the, let's call it Englehartian view that Hank's never really been suited for those sorts of costumed heroics. In that theory, Pym's never really been true to who he is when he throws on a costume and runs around punching people, zapping them with bio-blasts, or changing his size. So the fanboy part of me felt he should have traipsed about as Hank Pym.

Obviously, the fanboy part of me ignored these Avengers are from a time period 20+ years (our time) before Hank went the "scientist adventurer" route, complete with flight suit with dozens of pockets to carry gadgets in. The idea he could go on an adventure like this simply as himself, no codename or costumed identity, would probably never enter '60s Pym's mind. In the '80s, he had to come within seconds of blowing his brains out, and be walked through his history by Firebird to figure it out, so an earlier Hank wouldn't have the experiences to lead him to such a thought.

Setting that aside, visualizing himself as Ant-Man still makes a lot of sense. I still think Hank isn't well-suited for being a hero who punches things, which would seem to be the primary reason to become Giant-Man, rather than remaining Ant-Man. I think it's telling he found Pym Particles, shrank himself, was nearly killed by ants, and his solution was a helmet so he could communicate with insects. He didn't develop a suit of powered armor to blast the insects with, he instead came up with a way to talk with them, to convince them not to attack, and even to help him. It says something about Hank Pym as a character, such as that his solutions to problems won't involve application of brute force, but something more diplomatic, shall we say. Ant-Man is the identity that follows that works with that more readily*.

It would make me wonder if Pym wasn't having regrets about changing identities. One of my high school teachers said that when it came to multiple choice questions where we weren't sure, our first instinct was usually our best one. I guess the reasoning went, that instinct is informed by whatever little bit of useful knowledge we recall, and if we take the time to second guess, we get that info twisted around until we've confused ourselves.

I never took the opportunity to check my tests and see how often changing my answer worked out, but maybe this would be Parker's way of saying Pym should have stuck with his first choice. Giant-Man was a decision made out of insecurity, where he didn't think he could be useful on a team with Hulk (just for a minute), Thor and Iron Man. Pym decided to go the opposite direction from how he started, but did the team really need another strongman? That's something Parker did in this mini-series I enjoyed, play up Hank's brains. He doesn't have a lot of success at the physical stuff, but he's the one best able to comprehend all the weird time happenings. The other Pym was also the one who tried using Kang's machinery to keep his team of Avengers from being wiped out of existence. It's a nice reminder of where Pym's strengths lie.

* Not that he can't come up with clever solutions to problems as Giant-Man, but imagine when he's gone to the trouble of growing to 12 feet tall, it's easier to convince himself he ought to simply hit the problem. Otherwise, what was the point of growing to that size?

Who Can Tell With His Issues?

In Avengers vs Atlas #2, Venus halts 4/5ths of the Avengers in their tracks with a little song, as she is wont to do. We see that Thor and Dr. Blake have different ideas of who they'd like to spend the night with, that Tony Stark can't be happy with just one lady (big surprise there), and that Steve Rogers perhaps had a sweetheart while he was in France.

The one member of the team affected whose desires we don't get a glance at is Hank Pym. Safe money would be on the Wasp. Then again, there's his first wife, Marie Trovaya, from before he even discovered Pym Particles. Since her death spurred him to fight against evil, he might think of her.

I was thinking, though, about how Hank Pym always seems to struggle with self-doubt. It wasn't presented as much of an issue at the time this Hank Pym comes from, certainly not compared to in later years, but it's probably still there. So perhaps Hank wouldn't see anyone in particular. He'd worry no one loved him, and see nobody. Or his mind would create someone, probably an amalgamation of every person he'd loved, because that would just be perfect. Maybe he'd simply picture Venus, since she's singing so nicely to him. Those aren't very likely, at least not for this Pym*, but they were possibilities I thought of, since we've seen Venus' song had unexpected effects on people before.

* The Hank Pym booted from the Avengers for misconduct, or the one who came within a second of blowing his brains out would be more likely candidates.