This isn't why I never answer the phone, although I act like it is...

I know I always say I try to avoid buying issues I already have, and yet here we are. This one's still a favorite, though: from 1989, Power of the Atom #11, "Mightier Than the Sword!" Written by Roger Stern, pencils by Graham Nolan, inks by K.S. Wilson.

In the second Sword of the Atom special, when it looked like he was going to leave society forever, Ray Palmer gave his old size-changing belt to Paul Hoben; which was pretty charitable, considering Paul had had an affair with Ray's wife Jean Loring and broke up their marriage. I'm not 100% sure the belt was safe for extended use, come to think of it: never mind how dangerous shrinking would be to an untrained lawyer. Still, this issue Paul gets some use out of that thing, as he was worried the returned Ray was trying to get Jean back--he wasn't, although it had looked that way to both Paul and Ray's long-time assistant Enrica, who was crushing on him. Jean isn't thrilled to find her new hubby up to the crap that drove her away from her first one, while Paul thinks he has to confront Ray, "give him a taste of his own medicine." Which involves breaking and entering, assault and battery, vandalism, and attempted homicide!

Ray had finally gone to bed after examining the discarded Humbug body from the previous issue, then is awakened by a phone call, and a tiny-but-mighty punch in the jaw: Paul uses the belt, to travel through the phone lines, then attack Ray. Ray tries to take the high road, and lets Paul smash stuff in his lab until he starts hacking up the Humbug body, thinking it "some obscene new costume." Meanwhile, Jean tries to reconcile with Paul, but instead finds the phone off the hook, and realizes what he had done. Still in her nightgown and bathrobe, she takes off towards Ray's lab, but gets stopped by the cops, who don't buy her story. The fight continues to escalate: Ray had more control over mass and strength than he used to or that Paul could, so Paul needs an edge, and starts trying to kill him with some desk scissors. This turns into a tiny swordfight, as the scissors are broken and each gets a blade: Ray keeps holding back, telling Paul he was pushing his luck, until Ray has a flashback to his time in the jungle, kill-or-be-killed Sword days. He rallies and disarms Paul, but manages to refrain from killing him.

Jean is waiting at the police station, when Ray and Paul arrive; although Ray doesn't appear to be pressing charges. He does ask Jean to keep Paul home from now on, which might be less than he deserves but also still felt like rubbing his nose in it. Next month was guest-writer William Messner-Loebs and featured Paul again, but that subplot would be mostly wrapped up in a couple issues. Ray giving away his belt seems almost absurdly negligent--what if Paul sold it, or went full-on super-villain? In fact, later issues of this title hinged on the CIA trying to get tiny spies for themselves; why hadn't they gone after the belt? Much of Ray's history had been in a best-seller at that point, so it could've been findable. Or, did Ray give Paul the belt, almost knowing it would destroy him one way or another? Like giving him rope...I suppose the continuity may or may not have reset multiple times before then, but Paul would be out of the picture by the time Identity Crisis came around. I'm assuming he wasn't sucked into the Microverse or eaten by a spider or something, but couldn't tell you for sure. (I got mad at Identity Crisis on Twitter like a week ago; but I want to say the next issue of the series would be the last time Jean Loring would be seen for a really long time, and she was fine there.)