Random Happenstance

Kurt Busiek's run on Avengers is one of my favorite runs ever, but in a bit of heresy, I prefer the post-George Perez issues, starting with Alan Davis on #38, as events built up to the best Kang story out there. This annual is set in the early part of that, but I'm not sure Kang is even mentioned here, too much else going on! From 2001, Avengers 2001, "The Third Man" Written by Kurt Busiek, pencils by Ivan Reis, inks by Scott Hanna.

Yellowjacket is rushed to Avengers Mansion by Wasp and Triathlon, a medical emergency: he had not only lost consciousness, but appeared to be becoming translucent. Photon arrives to get the exposition, and before passing out again, Yellowjacket implores Jan to get the "fake one," Goliath, who Yellowjacket had been holding prisoner in his shrunken "Hornet's Hideout" on the Avengers' front lawn! (Jan wonders if the Hideout has been there all those years--it looks a bit like a frisbee or toy stuck in a tree--but I re-read Avengers #59, and it wasn't there in its first appearance, anyway.) Jan finds the captured Goliath, suffering the same ailment. Dr. Jane Foster had been called in, but was at a loss for this one; so Triathlon floats an idea: he belonged to a Scientology-like group called the Triune Understanding, and healing spiritual rifts was a big part of their line--er, faith--and while the Avengers weren't sure they could trust the Triune's head, Jonathan Tremont, Wasp is out of other options.

At the Triune's compound, Tremont is able to get Yellowjacket and Goliath to confront each other, on a mental plain. Despite ostensibly being the same guy, they couldn't be more different: YJ was brash and impulsive, Goliath more reserved and careful. Both consider the other a fake, a mistake, a waste...they could go on, and do, as they try to smash each other. Monitoring them, Tremont explains the Triune way, that things work in threes: there should be a third part, that's not there. Jan thinks it's her, and has herself sent in to sort things out. But, when Goliath is really over-protective of her, she realizes the problem: he had been scared of hurting her again, so suppressed his emotional side; until Yellowjacket got free after a fight with Kulan Gath. While they're both willing to let Jan make the call, she knows they're going to have to work it out themselves.

Meanwhile, after a visit with Triathlon, where he doesn't want to talk about the Triune for fear of being accused of "recruiting," Photon is surprised to be met by Firestar and Justice, who had gone undercover as Triune members. (Firestar had been pissed at the group for stirring up anti-mutant sentiment, in a smear campaign against the Avengers.) They had found the Triune's secret spaceship: part of their faith involved combatting a threat from space, and the ship appeared to be legit. It was also psychically-powered, and Firestar worried it would kill everyone there if launched...Photon talks to Triathlon again, pointing out she used to be the rookie too, but he would get there.

Yellowjacket and Goliath are forced to confront what they like and don't like about themselves/each other, when they are finally visited by "the third man," an integrated, happy Hank Pym. The three of them come together, and Hank awakes, feeling better than he had in some time. Jan is grateful to Triathlon for the help, and the Avengers get ready to get back into the fight...with Firestar and Justice, still embedded, waiting. That plotline would be wrapped up before too long, though. If memory serves, Hank still stayed Yellowjacket after this (it's not only the best costume, it's more multipurpose) but he was also probably just stable until the next writer...

Also this issue: "House Cleaning" Written by Kurt Busiek, pencils by Ian Churchill, inks by Norm Rapmund. Jarvis answers some continuity glitches queries from the Avengers' security liason. One question involves Wasp's inhuman form from Avengers #394, and the answer is pretty much "Franklin Richards put back the toys the way he thought they should be," which included fixing Hawkeye's hearing? I don't know if that stuck, though, or if he re-injured it.