Random Happenstance

I thought this was the last comic I hadn't moved yet, then noticed another freaking longbox over there. Maybe I should've looked through it first...From 1987, West Coast Avengers #16, "The Dive" Written by Steve Englehart, pencils by Al Milgrom, inks by Joe Sinnott.

With Tigra and Hellcat on the cover, I thought this would be more about them, since the latter was wearing the former's old costume. That could be simpler: we've seen an old issue of the Cat where Greer Nelson wore that before she became Tigra. Then, Patsy Walker took up the costume and the name Hellcat in Avengers #144.

Against expectations and the cover, though; most of this one was about Hank Pym. There's a page-and-a-half flashback of Hank's fall from grace that really derails the issue; after Hellcat and Tigra defeat Tiger Shark: he had been one of the villains in Egghead's Masters of Evil that tried to break him. T.S. makes a snippy comment at Hank when he's being taken away by the cops, and Hank protests too strongly that he's not owned, you are! And while the West Coast Avengers are proud and impressed at how Hank has turned his life around, there are hints that maybe he's not doing as well as he fronted. Tigra had previously told him she loved him, but after reconciling her cat and human halves she was backpedaling on that a bit: Hank takes the 'nice' label badly, but forces himself to keep it together by remembering another Avenger who lost it: Quicksilver.

Tiger Shark had angrily let on that his supposed 'partner' Whirlwind was in the area, after some MacGuffin or another. Hank had fought Whirlwind many times before, and knew he could coach Tigra and Hellcat to beat him. Facing his old foe, Whirlwind is not impressed: he feels he has his own unique worth, which is more than he can say for Hank, since there were maybe four other people using his size-changing gimmick at the time. (Or had used it; and I don't think I counted the Wasp in that total, even!) Pym tries to take a swipe at Whirlwind, and ends up falling off a building: Hellcat saves him and Tigra catches Whirlwind, and Hank seems to shrug off his insults. Still, as Tigra gets him so they can leave San Francisco, Hank seems to imply he's thinking about suicide. Which he would attempt the next issue, which wouldn't get him on the cover, which went to Cactus, Gila, and Butte!

Son of Satan Daimon Hellstrom appears here as well, but just as Patsy's husband. And to be on the receiving end of Hank's recap.