Avengers #93
This Beachhead Earth
Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor have arrived to Avengers Mansion to find it deserted. That’s when the Vision suddenly bursts in and pleads for help before collapsing on the floor. The three senior Avengers are unsure how to help the android. That’s when Hank Pym arrives in his old Ant-Man costume. He decided to show up like this since the summons went out to the original Avengers.[1] The others believe that if anyone can save the Vision it’ll be Hank Pym, since he created the robot Ultron who went on to create the Vision.
With his three ants named after Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Ant-Man enters the Vision’s body through the android’s mouth. Once they are inside, they are attacked by tentacles that are part of the Vision’s immune system. When one of his ants is killed, Ant-Man frees himself and sends the other two away. Using his jet pack, Ant-Man travels deep into the Vision’s chest cavity. Talking to himself to keep his sanity, Pym fights through the various internal defenses until he can use an access tube to get to the Vision’s brain. There he reconnects some wires and makes his escape before the Vision’s immune system kills him.[2]
With the Vision reactivated, Ant-Man decides to take off, leaving the android to explain what happened to the other Avengers. Captain America and the others are shocked when the Vision claims that they disbanded the team due to the fact that the Vision, Goliath, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were railroaded when they were before H. Warren Craddock’s Alien Affairs Commission.[3] However, this explains why Iron Man received a resignation letter from their butler, Edwin Jarvis. After they were ordered to leave, the Vision and the others went to the farm where Captain Marvel went into hiding. While Goliath went ahead of the others, the Vision attempted to look around with the Scarlet Witch. Disgusted by the obvious romance blooming between his sister and the android, Quicksilver took issue with this prompting the Vision to go off alone.[4]
It was while flying over the farm that the Vision was struck by an energy blast. Landing by a trio of cows, the Vision is joined by the twins who also didn’t see who took a shot at the Vision. Suddenly, the three cows transformed into Mister Fantastic, the Thing, and Human Torch of the Fantastic Four. Immobilized from the attack, the only thing the Vision could do was become intangible and fly his inert body back to Avengers Mansion to seek help. With the Vision’s story complete, the three senior Avengers agree to go and get some help but wonder who the mystery attackers are.
Back at the farm, Captain Marvel is being held prisoner by a team of Skrulls that have been hiding out on Earth. Before they detail their plans, they focus on the security monitors that are showing that Goliath is still lurking around the property. He is joined by Rick Jones who came after seeing a vision of Mar-Vell walking into a trap. The duo is attacked by the three entities who appear to be the male members of the Fantastic Four. However, the pair know that they aren’t being attacked by the real Fantastic Four. The impostor posing as Reed Richards decides to drop all pretenses and reveals that not only are they Skrulls, but they are three of the Skrulls that the Fantastic Four hypnotized into thinking they were cows after an earlier invasion attempt.[5] They were finally freed from their hypnotic conditioning by a hyper-beam transmitted from a Skrull satellite. However, before this Skrull can reveal their full plan, Captain America and the others arrive.
Back inside the Skrull hideout, Captain Marvel and the woman he thinks is Carol Danvers are restrained as the other Skrull go out to face the Avengers. Wriggling his shackled arm, Mar-Vell activates his uni-beam and bounces a blast off a reflective surface, shutting down the electric restraints. He then frees Carol and explains that even though he is an exile from his own people he must contact the Kree and warn them that the Skrulls are trying to take over Earth. To do this, Mar-Vell begins building an Omni-Wave Projector to contact his people. As the Avengers battle the Fantastic Four impostors, Mar-Vell realizes that he is being manipulated when Carol calls him by his real name — something he never told her. He destroys the Omni-Wave Projector prompting the Supre-Skrull to drop his Carol Danvers disguise and attack the Kree. Using knock-out gas, the Super-Skrull decides to launch his ship so he can carry out the next phase of his plan.
Watching the ship blast off, Goliath tries to stop it but his growth formula runs out and he shrinks back to normal size, forcing him to let go of the escape ship. He is saved by Thor, but the rescue hurts Clint Barton’s pride as he was not expecting to lose his powers so suddenly. As the Avengers try to figure out their next move, Rick notes that the Avengers have not been this downtrodden before and thinks that this time their captured comrades may not come back alive.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Goliath, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, the Vision), Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, Rick Jones, Skrull Cows, Super-Skrull
Continuity Notes
This story mentions all the various identities that Pym has had up to this point as well as some milestones:
His first costumed identity was Ant-Man from Tales to Astonish #35. He was in this identity when he helped found the Avengers in Avengers #1.
He later changed his name to Giant-Man after he developed a growth formula in Tales to Astonish #49.
He changed his name again to Goliath starting in Avengers #28.
Most recently, he changed his name to Yellowjacket in Avengers #59.
Also mentioned here is how Pym resigned from the Avengers in issue #91.
It is also stated that Pym created the robot Ultron (Avengers #58) who then created the Vision. (Avengers #57-58)
Ant-Man states here that some of the Vision’s insides remind him of the 1927 film Metropolis. This usually would be a topical reference, but this is actually alluding to the fact that the Vision’s body was created from the android Human Torch of the 1940s, as will be revealed in Avengers #134-135.
The three men who disbanded the Avengers and Craddock are actually Skrulls as detailed in Avengers #97.
Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are referred to as mutants in this story. However, they are not. As revealed in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5, they were actually experimented upon by the High Evolutionary as infants. To cover up his work he made it so future genetic tests had the Maximoff twins register as mutants.
The infamous Skrull cow situation happened way back in Fantastic Four #2.
Topical References
Dated pop-culture references: Raquel Welch, EC Comics, Clark Gable, Al Feldstein, Salvador Dali, Nash Rambler