Avengers (vol. 3) #76
Full House
At school, Cassie Lang — daughter of Ant-Man — catches some boys torturing ants with a magnifying glass. She scolds them for being so cruel and warns them that if they kill harmless ants they’ll be eaten alive while they sleep out of revenge. While they aren’t sure if they can believe this, the two boys are significantly grossed out and run off after calling Cassie a weirdo.
As Cassie celebrates her minor victory, she is approached by a man who asks for help find her daughter, a girl named Jessica Cooley. Cassie tries to tell him she’s not supposed to talk to strangers, but he tells her that he needs to find Jessica right away because her mother was hurt in a car accident. Sympathetic to the man, Cassie agrees to help.
Meanwhile, at the Avengers Embassy, Jack of Hearts is counting down the final seconds before he can finally be free of his Zero Room once more. Upstairs the other Avengers are meeting to decide his future on the team. Gathered together are Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch, Vision, Black Panther, Falcon, She-Hulk, and Ant-Man. Since it has been learned that Jack and She-Hulk’s unstable powers are caused by their proximity to one another, they need to decide which of them has to leave the Avengers.[1]
For Hawkeye, this is pretty straight forward: Since Jack of Hearts is the one who needs to be in isolation for half the day or else he’ll explode, he should be the one off the team. She-Hulk however, thinks they need to discuss their options further. Captain America, however, feels that the safest thing to do in the short term is separating Jen and Jack. Black Panther and Iron Man both agree that the decision should be up to Jennifer since she is the on affected. Tony also suggests that they don’t just toss Jack out into the cold, offering the resources of Stark Labs to try and find a solution to this problem. Cap also shoots down the idea of Jack returning to space, since his powers have evolved in a way where that wouldn’t help his situation.[2] The Vision thinks that Jack should be present, while Wanda wants him to remain on the team as he has more than proven himself. Ant-Man aggress with Hawkeye, recounting how Jack admitted that he couldn’t think of a reason why he wanted to be an Avenger to start with.[3] Falcon isn’t convinced that Jack doesn’t have a reason, pointing out that he may have kept his to himself.
That’s when Jack interrupts the discussion. He had been listening in and now is convinced that the deck has been stacked against him. Captain America assures Jack that leaving the team will only be temporary until a solution is found, and he’ll retain his membership. Jack is grateful and apologizes to She-Hulk for what has happened. Jennifer says it’s not his fault, but Ant-Man warns Jack to keep his distance from her. Annoyed at being poked at by Lang, Jack warns Scott to watch his as well. With the discussion over, Jack decides to enjoy his minimal freedom before he has to go back to the Zero Room and be shipped off the property.[4] As he leaves, Captain America tells Ant-Man to make peace with Jack while there is still time. However, when Ant-Man gets to the roof his attempts at making peace with Jack are interrupted when he gets a panicked phone call from his ex-wife about Cassie. As Ant-Man shrinks down and flies off on the back of a flying ant, Jack tries to figure out what’s going on. With only 23 minutes of time left, Jack decides to follow after his teammate.
The trail leads Jack of Hearts to a boarded up building surrounded by police. Outside, he meets Peggy Burke, Scott’s ex and her new husband office Blake Burke. They tell Jack how Cassie was kidnapped by a man named Charles Cooley. Cooley is wanted on a number of charges but the one that has them the most worried is the fact that Charles killed his daughter, Jessica.
Inside, Cooley is holding Cassie hostage in one of the rooms. Due to her resemblance to Jessica Cooley, Charles has begun to mistake her for his daughter. He explains that he must “protect” and keep her “innocent” or else “Jessica” will become like her mother. Cassie is scared out of her mind until she sees the room is starting to flood with ants. She becomes delighted that she doesn’t have to stay here any longer because her real father is here. Ant-Man suddenly shoots up to his regular size, knocking Charles to the ground with a single punch. However, when Scott goes to check on his daughter, Cooley gets back up and shoots Lang in the shoulder.
While this has stopped Ant-Man in his tracks, it doesn’t prevent him from ordering his ants to start swarming Charles. The insect bites makes Cooley drop his gun and furious that this strange abducted and threatened his daughter, Scott threatens to shoot Charles in the head. Before Lang can pull the trigger, Jack of Hearts comes bursting in through the wall and blasts Cooley out of harms way. Jack then convinces Scott not to cross the line and kill Cooley, for his daughters sake. Lang realizes that Jack is right and drops the gun and runs to his daughters aid. when Cooley picks the weapon back up and tries to shoot Scott again, Jack uses his powers to vaporize not only the weapon but Charles Cooley’s hand. With his time about up, Jack grabs Cooley by the collar and vows to make him pay for killing his daughter.
When Scott asks Jack what he plans on doing, he tells Lang that he’s an Avenger, so he’s avenging. With that, Jack rockets into the air with Cooley and heads into space. As his timer begins to run out, Jack tells his father to hold on as they’ll be reunited soon enough.[5] Moments later, Jack of Hearts’ body hits critical mass killing himself and Cooley in a massive explosion that can be seen from the sky. When Cassie asks who her savior was, Scott tells her that he was an Avenger.
The blast shot Jack of Hearts’ body out near Saturn. His lifeless body floats in the void of space with a smile on its face before it crumbles to dust.[6]
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Black Panther, Falcon, She-Hulk, Jack of Hearts, Ant-Man), Cassie Lang, Peggy Rae Burke, Blake Burke
Continuity Notes
Jack and She-Hulk’s powers have been reacting explosively due to the fact that Jack has been unknowingly absorbing the gamma radiation in She-Hulk’s body. As a result…
Jack of Heart’s powers have been growing out of control since Avengers (vol. 3) #58 as explained in issue #61. Since then, he has had to spend many hours of the day in the Zero Room to drain his excess powers or else he will reach critical mass and explode.
In issue #67 it was revealed that this was due to the fact that Jack had been unknowingly absorbing She-Hulk’s gamma radiation. This started affecting her ability to maintain her She-Hulk. This resulted in Jennifer transforming into a savage form of her alter ego whenever she got frightened. See Avengers (vol. 3) #72-75.
Jack spent an extended period of time in outer space starting in Jack of Hearts #4 until he returned to Earth long term following the events of Maximum Security #1-3 and Avengers (vol. 3) #36.
Jack and Ant-Man have had a mutual dislike for one another that started from the moment they met in Avengers (vol. 3) #58. Jack admitted that he didn’t know why he was an Avenger in issue #73.
The issue of She-Hulk and Jack of Hearts’ powers going haywire when they’re together seemingly gets solved in She-Hulk (vol. 4). However, time of this writing (February, 2023) this storyline has yet to be resolved and so the final outcome is unknown at this time.
Jack’s father, Phillip Hart, was murdered by the Corporation who wanted to obtain his Zero Fluid, one of the catalysts that gave Jack his powers. See Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #23.
Jack’s death here is short lived as he will be briefly resurrected as a zombie by the Scarlet Witch to blow up Avengers Embassy in Avengers #500.
Topical References
Ant-Man is depicted as having a cell phone with analogue buttons, an antenna for reception, and no screen. These types of cell phones are now obsolete and this depiction should be considered topical.
