West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #36
Return of Ant-Man
Returning to Hungary to find Hank Pym’s first wife, the West Coast Avengers break into the prison they have just recently escaped from.[1] As they fight their way through the guards, Hank is happy that the whole team has his back — even his ex-wife the Wasp — particularly after how badly he has screwed up his life.[2] However, not everyone is having rosy thought. Hawkeye and Mockingbird have hit a rough patch in their marriage after the truth came out surrounding the death of the Phantom Rider in a previous mission. Clint was horrified to learn that his wife let a man die and Bobbi is furious he didn’t take her side. The two no teeter on the brink of divorce.[3]
When they round the corner they bump into Quicksilver and the latest inductee into Hungary’s new super-human program, the Voice, yet another one of Hank Pym’s old foes.[4][5] The Voice recounts how he got his ability to control people with his voice after breathing in ionized atoms from a faulty microphone. Using this power for crime, he was stopped by Hank back when he was Ant-Man, when the diminutive hero infected him with laryngitis. This totally ruined his voice and even after he got out of prison, the Voice could not get work and became homeless. He was then approached by Madame X and recruited into the People’s Defense Force where he underwent surgery to repair his damaged vocal chords and made them more powerful than ever before. Using a neck mounted speaker system to amplify his power, the Voice orders the Avengers to hunt Hank Pym to the death inside the People Defense Force’s training facility. When Quicksilver tries to balk at this suggestion, the Voice subtly influences him into complying with his desires as well.
Hank is giving a five minute head start and he quickly begins using his miniaturized gadgets to to prepare for his teammates arrival. Five minutes later, the Avengers are sent in after him. However, the fact that they are being controlled by the Voice has little affect on the animosity between Hawkeye and Mockingbird. However, one Avenger was not affected at all — Moon Knight — whose body has been protected by the spirit of the moon god Khonshu.[6] Taking control of Moon Knight’s body to protect his champion, Kohnshu decides to play along until the right opportunity presents itself to help Hank Pym.
Hank’s first attacker turns out to be Hawkeye, who knows enough about Pym’s inventions that he can quickly come of with a defense. Overpowering Hank, Clint tries to choke him to death but cannot bring himself to commit murder even under orders from the Voice. Hank knocks Hawkeye out, and realizes that the Voice can’t force someone to do something they are morally against and decides to figure out how to exploit this weakness with the others.
Next he is double teamed by the Vision and the Scarlet Witch. While the Vision grabs him in a bear hug, Hank uses his ability to change the size of objects around him to enlarge his camera drone so it topples onto Wanda. Sure enough, the Vision’s love for his wife overrides the Voice’s commands and he lets Hank go to tend to Wanda, allowing Pym to escape. Soon after, Hank is ambushed by Tigra, but he is able to escape her when Moon Knight steps in and sends her down the wrong tunnel.
In the opposite tunnel, Hank is caught in a strangle hold by Mockingbird, who has no compunctions with killing someone due to her SHIELD training. Realizing he’s not going to get out of this conflict so easily, hank is forced to shrink one of Bobbi’s wrist bands. This sudden contraction breaks her arm and causes so much pain she crumples to the ground. Hank apologizes but says he had little choice and presses onward.
That’s when he sees a trail of ants all heading toward a nearby security door. They are acting in a similar fashion to when Hank used to use his cybernetic helmet as Ant-Man and crashes through the door to see what is influencing the insects. On the other side, Hank finds a woman in a chair was a massive brain hooked into a machine. He can hardly believe that this is his first wife, Maria.[7] Seeing that she has been kept sedated, Hank cuts off the drug supply and wakes Maria up. She confirms her identity to him by communicating through a nearby computer terminal. There, she recounts how she was kidnapped by her father’s political enemies. She also reveals that on the day that her father’s American lab was blown up by spies, he committed suicide rather than be captured and forced into returning to Europe, effectively dying a hero.
Maria then says that while she was in captivity Hungarian scientists used the intelligence enhancing ray that was used to create the Beasts of Berlin to increase her intelligence[8]. As a result, it caused her brain to grow in size, a process that Hank recognizes as not being so different from the process that created MODOK.[9] Maria next claims that her enhanced intelligence was used to help innovate various communist super-humans including the Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, and the Red Guardian.[10] She then asks Hank to end her torture and end her life, but he can’t bring himself to do this.
That’s when the Avengers come barging into the room still under orders to kill him. However, before they can swarm him Maria uses her vast mental powers to override the Voice’s commands, freeing his teammates from his control. She then uses her power to defeat the members of the People’s Defense Force. This renders the Voice incapable of speaking once again, and preventing Quicksilver from using his super-speed to escape. In the aftermath of the battle, Hank announces to everyone that he will be leaving the Avengers in order to focus his time on trying to cure Maria and restore her to normal.[11] Janet wishes Hank the best of luck, and the pair depart as friends, musing how their marriage was never valid to begin with.
As the Avengers depart, the Vision and Scarlet Witch are delighted to see a married couple find a future together once again. That’s when Mockingbird spoils the mood by announcing that she and Hawkeye are splitting up.
Recurring Characters
West Coast Avengers (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Hank Pym, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, Tigra, Moon Knight), Wasp, Quicksilver, The Voice, Maria Pym
Continuity Notes
The group first went to Hungary to investigate the possibility Maria Trovaya was still alive in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #33-34. They were briefly interrupted by an impromptu trip to Latveria last issue. Maria was believed to have been killed by her father’s political enemies back in Tales to Astonish #44.
And here we go into the litany of issues Hank Pym has had over the past decade of publications… I’ll be happy when I can stop repeating this footnote over and over … Hank Pym suffered a series of set back and losses, including a divorce, getting kicked out of the Avengers, being framed, retiring from heroics, losing his “son” Ultron, and being dumped by Tigra, Hank Pym was about ready to end it all in issue #17. See also Avengers #213, 217, 227-230, and West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #7 and 16. He was encouraged by La Espirita to find a new purpose in life. He decided to become a scientific adventurer in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #21. Also mentioned was how Hank recently beat Janet in a one-on-one battle. That was in West Coast Avengers Annual #2.
During a trip through time, Mockingbird was made the love slave of Lincoln Slade, the Phantom Rider of the 1800s. Getting free of his love potion, she let the Rider fall to his death. More recently, his spirit has come back from the grave and began terrorizing her. See West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #17-23 and 31. Clint learned the truth last issue as well, it didn’t go so well.
Quicksilver went mad after learning his wife, Crystal, was having an affair in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #10 and has devoted his time to trying to destroy those he believes betrayed him. It’s later revealed in X-Factor Annual #2 that his madness was amplified by Maximus the Mad.
The Voice was last seen in Tales to Astonish #42.
Khonshu recounts how he resurrected Marc Spector to be his avatar of vengeance. This was detailed back in Moon Knight #1.
The identity of this woman later gets thrown into question in Iron Man #298 when Omega Red identifies “Maria” as Olinka Barankova. Maria/Olinka later refuted this, saying that records can be falsified. Whatever the case, the truth has remained ambiguous as the most recent profile for MODAM in Captain America: America’s Avenger #1 still keep her true identity ambiguous despite what a certain crowd-sourced website claims.
The Beasts of Berlin were given enhanced intelligence back in Tales to Astonish #60
Except that MODOK wasn’t given enhanced intelligence by a ray, like Maria. In fact, per Captain America Annual #7, it was revealed that MODOK was created by exposing George Tarleton to the power of the Cosmic Cube, which transformed him into the big-brained lunatic that he is today. However, it is later revealed in Solo Avengers #14-16 that AIM had a hand in her creation in an effort to recreate a being like MODOK.
These claims are also questionable at best. Given that…
The Red Guardian identity pre-dates Maria’s capture and transformation. The earliest known Red Guardian — Aleksey Lebedev — was active during World War II, as first seen in Namor the Sub-Mariner Annual #1. The costume and weapons for the Red Guardian have not changed overly much in the decades since, so this claim is highly dubious.
She also claims to have created the Mark 4 Crimson Dynamo armor. First seen in X-Factor Annual #1. However, this is a modified version that was derivative of the suit created by Alex Nevsky dating back to Iron Man #21, which was inspired by the original armor created by Anton Vanko in Tales of Suspense #46. Moreover, since Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Master Edition #5, credit for the Mark IV has been given to the Gremlin.
Lastly, the original Titanium Man armor is displayed. This suit was first created back in Tales of Suspense #69. In that story, the armor was created by a team of Russian scientists to be their answer to Iron Man. It’s certainly possible that Maria’s claim could be true in this case, although there have been no substantial confirmation elsewhere.
Hanks attempts to restore Maria to normal are chronicled in the aforementioned Solo Avengers #14-16.
Topical References
This story uses the term “germs” to describe laryngitis. This is a dated medical term. Laryngitis is created a viral or bacterial infection or overstraining ones vocal chords. It is not an illness you can catch but a symptom of another medical problem. Modern readers could assume that Pym infected the Voice with a virus that caused laryngitis.
