Last month, or a little further down this page: Equinox, the Thermo-Dynamic Man, has just blown up Yellowjacket. In between issues, the cops, including Jean DeWolff, have shown up and put up barricades, but Equinox is still gloating. Injured and unable to shrink yet, Wasp hops the barricade and stings Equinox, but he shrugs it off.
Margay Sorenson, Equinox's mom, had been working on a device to neutralize his powers, and tries it; and since we're on the fourth page it fails. Spidey, Margay, and Wasp decide to head to the Baxter Building to use its lab. The FF isn't home, but Wasp's Avenger's ID gets them in while Margay runs through Equinox's origin. Meanwhile, Equinox is tearing into the cops.
My copy of this is a reprint, Marvel Tales #194, and it has the next two pages obviously out of order: Equinox blows a transformer and blacks out midtown Manhattan (I have no idea if that's how that should work, but play along) which resets the FF's computers, setting off the defensive systems. (Remember when comics could have a page out of order and it wasn't a big deal? Granted, this was a reprint title, but still.) Spidey and Margay get into a lab, but Wasp is locked out.
That empty screw hole? Reed Richards totally fired someone for that.
As defensive lasers start shooting at Jan, she notices she's reacting faster than the computers can shoot her, which even Jan knows shouldn't work. (That's not a slight on the Wasp, it's just rare for a comic character to admit something defies suspension of disbelief.) Then, at Wasp-size, she tears a grate off an air duct and flies down to reset the security system, wondering about her power surge. Meanwhile, Spidey and Margay have worked out a harness to stop Equinox's powers, except now they have to figure out how to get it on him.
Luckily for them, Equinox blows another hole through a wall, so they don't have to go looking for him. Spidey webs up his hands, but still can't go punch-for-punch with Equinox, and has to resort to smashing up Reed Richard's lab--and setting up the next issue, which I don't have, and I guessed wrong on the next villain, too...Hopefully, Reed sent the repair bill to the Avengers, along with a sternly worded memo about lab practices.
Equinox has Spidey "pinned...in an ice straight-jacket!" At the darkest moment, Yellowjacket returns, then Wasp. YJ tells the startled Jan to blast Equinox, and this time the sting throws him across a room. Hank cryptically wishes Jan a happy birthday, and then (relatively casually, it seems) slaps the harness on Equinox, stopping his changes and knocking him out. (Equinox didn't have a lot of other appearances, but may not have ever been cured. Oddly, Wikipedia has his i.d. as "Michael Steel," while he's Terry in this one.)
Yellowjacket explains that when the gas truck blew up, he shrank to insect size, and rode the shockwaves out. Blwah? I guess the next time you have a hornet's nest, don't dynamite it: you'll just scatter the bees, they'll be back. Hank also explains that for Jan's birthday...oh, hell, I'll let him explain part of it:
Hank secretly gave his wife a 'serum' to increase her powers. I hate to say it, but that's a Dr. Phil episode waiting to happen. And I'm not at all sure how the Wasp could "harness" the awesome power of shrinking (that sounds like she should be cleaning my countertops, somehow) and get more powerful stings, without using so much energy she'd get stuck at Wasp-size. Plus, if Jan's strong enough to tear off a grate, she's probably strong enough to punch a normal person's head off now, which maybe isn't an ability you want to surprise someone with.
Still: love these issues, and for me Hank and Jan still spring to mind as a couple. I just hope if I'm ever 'killed' in an explosion, I can pull such a great entrance out of my hat. All panels from Marvel Team-Up #60, "A Matter of Love...and Death!" Written by Chris Claremont, art by John Byrne, inks by Dave Hunt. Back when the world was new...
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