Mighty/Fantastic, Part 2: You Can’t Get There From Here

With his other-dimensional lab at risk of destruction, the Wasp (Hank Pym), had asked Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four) to give him access to a device that will restabilize it. When Reed refused it quickly turned into a dick measuring contest to find out who is the smarter man.[1] Now Hank and his Mighty Avengers — Hercules, Jocasta, Stature (Cassie Lang), Vision (Jonas), and Amadeus Cho — are planning a raid of the Baxter Building to get the needed device.

Part of this plan involves Hercules and Vision to use image inducers to disguise themselves as the Red Hulk and Red Ghost respectively. When hearing that there is another doorway to New York, Cassie gets upset nobody told her and accuses her teammates of thinking she was going to bail on them for the Young Avengers. This causes Jocasta to pull her aside. After reminding the teen that her personality is based on the original Wasp (Janet Van Dyne, someone Cassie looks up to) she tells the girl to stop acting like a brat.[2]

Jocasta then goes to check on Hank, who is now working on getting his latest invention — Salvation Two — up and running. She admits that she has feelings for him and the two kiss. This moment is caught by the Avengers long time butler, Edwin Jarvis who is shocked by what he sees.

Meanwhile, at the Baxter Building, the Invisible Woman (Sue Richards) is asking her husband to hurry up because they agreed to take their children — Franklin and Valeria — out on a picnic. However, Reed needs some time to properly secure the Dimensional Wave Inducer in the event Pym tries to steal it. That’s when the alarm goes off and warns them that the building has been breached by Skrulls. Annoyed that the aliens are attacking them again so soon,[3] Sue ushers her children to the Pogo Plane so they can get to safety while Reed deals with the problem. As the plane takes off, Reed fires the Fantastic Four signal flare into the sky to summon the other members of his team. He then races to his lab to get his repurposed Doombots up and running. When he gets there he discovers that they are all malfunctioning. Taking a closer look, Reed discovers that there are thousands of ants gumming up their mechanisms and realizes that this is all the work of Hank Pym!

Elsewhere, oblivious to what’s going on at home, the Human Torch (Johnny Storm) is doing a guest appearance on a modeling reality TV show. After finishing a shot, he is told about the signal from the Baxter Building. However, before Johnny can go he is ambushed by the Vision disguised as the Red Ghost. Sure enough, the Torch falls for this impersonation lock stock and barrel. At the same time, Hercules ambushes the Thing on Yancy Street disguised as the Red Hulk.[4]

Back at the Baxter Building, Reed Richards is swarmed with ants until he rapidly inflates his body to throw them off. Realizing that Pym has come for the inducer he races off to where he stashed it. Little does he know that one of the “ants” he flung off his body was actually the Wasp in disguise thanks to yet another image inducer. He then radios Cassie to warn her Richards is coming but can’t reach her. He then asks Amadeus to tell him where she went. Using his Ant-Man helmet, Cho scans the area and reports that she isn’t there.

This is because Cassie has stowed away aboard the Pogo Plane to talk to the Invisible Woman. She tells Sue that she felt guilty about Hank’s plans because of the happy times she spent with the Richards back when her late father was a member of the Fantastic Four.[5]

At that moment, the Wasp has followed Mister Fantastic into another room which appears to be a normal office. On the desk, Reed has the Dimensional Wave Inducer and invites Hank to take it. When Pym tries to reach for it he discovers that Reed and the desk move the proportionate distance away no matter how fast he runs. Reed explains this is his latest invention, the Zeno Room. Based on the Dichotomy Paradox of philosopher Zeno of Elea, it will always maintain the same distance for all eternity no matter what Hank tries to do to grab the inducer. After explaining how it all works, Richards is confident that he has bested Hank and this contest is now over.

Meanwhile, the Vision lures the Human Torch to where the Thing and Hercules are fighting. By this point, the two have realized that something is up but can’t quite place it. Since they are getting close to the truth, both the Vision and Herc reveal their true identities. Realizing they’ve been duped, Johnny races back to the Baxter Building to help Reed while Ben continues his brawl with Hercules.

At that moment, Hank is conferring with Amadeus Cho on ways to circumvent the Zeno Room. With more and more doors closing off, there is very little time left to save Hank’s lab. Pym suddenly comes to a solution. Since sound seems to travel with no ill effect he uses his Toolbot to snatch the inducer away with a sonic extractor beam. As Reed tries to stop Hank from escaping with it, they accidentally switch the device on. That’s when Sue and the children return and seeing the state of the place, Valeria begins working on dispelling the ants gumming up security. In doing so, she is able to sever Cho’s connection to them through his Ant-Man helmet.[6] Their ability to communicate with Hank is also cut off. Jarvis decides to take this opportunity to express his disapproval of Jocasta kissing Hank. Reminding her of how she was created by Ultron — one of Pym’s creations — he views their romantic moment as incestual.[7] Jocasta takes offense to this because based on her perspective, kissing Hank is akin to kissing God.

When Johnny finally arrives at the Baxter Building, everyone enters the Zeno Room to see what’s going on. They discover that the inducer has been activated and both Hank and Reed are trapped in what appears to be a massive black cube. In reality (or all of them, if you will), both scientists find themselves at the dimensional crossroads of everywhere and every time. Since this is a bad spot to be in, the two call a truce so they can work together on getting out of this predicament. Based on their combined work, they end up being transported to a white void instead of their home dimension. This is because Hank wanted to take Reed to here to see what he needs the dimensional wave inducer for. Seeing Hank’s creation with his own eyes, Reed concedes and agrees to give it to him.[8]

By the time they return to the Baxter Building the fight is over and everyone is waiting to hear who won out in the battle of the minds. Reed and Hank explain that they have come to an agreement and Hank is leaving with the image inducer. With hostilities between the two groups now over, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four part on happy terms, however not without Hercules and the Thing smack talking about who will win the next time they fight, as is tradition.

The team gets back to Hank’s lab with moments to spare as only one door — one to Zurich — is left. Quickly installing the dimensional wave inducer, Salvation Two is ready to be activated as soon as Jocasta transfers her programming into it. Jocasta does so without question even though the others can’t trust this won’t destroy her. Jocasta has faith and she is rewarded when Salvation Two boots up. She then tells the group that she is now part of the entire mainframe. However, everyone isn’t entirely clear on what she and Hank just accomplished. Rather than telling them, Hank says that it is better to just show them and invites them to step into the next room with him….

Recurring Characters

Mighty Avengers (Wasp, Hercules, Jocasta, Stature, Vision, Amadeus Cho), Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Edwin Jarvis, Franklin Richards, Valeria Richards, HERBIE, Doombots

Continuity Notes

1. Pym’s lab exists in a pocket dimension with access to anywhere on Earth. It became destabilized in Mighty Avengers #24 when Jocasta had to suddenly deactivate a doorway to avoid a HAMMER raid. Hank went to Reed last issue.

2. Jocasta was created by Ultron using a copy of Janet’s mind, as seen in Avengers #162. Janet is referred to here in the past tense because everyone believes that she died in Secret Invasion #8. In reality, she was actually shunted to the Microverse where she will remain until she is rescued in Avengers (vol. 4) #31-34.

3. This story happens shortly after the events of Secret Invasion #1-8 where the Skrulls attempted to invade the Earth. Part of the plot involved dumping the upper floors of the Baxter Building into the Negative Zone as seen in Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1-3.

4. Here, the Thing says that the Red Hulk hit harder the last time they met. However, at the time of this story the Thing hadn’t actually fought the Red Hulk yet. He won’t do so until Hulk (vol. 2) #19, which happens after this story. This is likely an error on the part of writer Dan Slott. Still, one could assume that he is merely talking about Hulks in general instead of this one specifically.

5. Ant-Man was a member of the Fantastic Four during a period where Reed Richards was believed to be dead (in Fantastic Four #381). His tenure was from Fantastic Four #384-408 when Reed was discovered alive and well. At the time of this story, Cassie believes her father was killed by the Scarlet Witch in Avengers #500. In reality, he was brought forward in time by her future self as we will see in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #5.

6. Here, Amadeus says that Valeria is two years old. She was born in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #54 (published in 2002). Based on the Sliding Timescale, little under a year (in universe) has passed since Valeria was born. One could assume that Amadeus is being hyperbolic than literal or maybe he doesn’t actually know how old she is. He doesn’t have the advantage of observing the fiction from the outside like you and me, so cut him some slack.

7. Hank did indeed create Ultron, as we saw in Avengers #58.

8. As we’ll see next issue, Hank’s creation is the Infinite Mansion, an other dimensional space that also pays homage to the Avengers illustrious history.

Topical References

• When Valeria kills Amadeus’ connection to the ants she sends a message that reads “Epic Fail!” and he exclaims that he got “pwned” by a 2 year old. These are two slang terms that were quite common in the late 2000s when this story was published. Both originate from internet and gaming culture. “Epic fail” meant when someone fails at something in a spectacular fashion, while pwned is a misspelling of the word “owned”, which derives when someone is defeated by another player in a multiplayer game. It is a typographical error based on the fact that the letter o and letter p are next to each other on a standard keyboard and someone who is typing quickly can accidentally type the letter p instead of o quite easily if they are not careful. These are dated terms for youths the same age as Amadeus and Valeria and as such their use here should be considered topical.