GIANT-MAN #1 - #4

Note: AVENGERS #379 - 382 were published as "Double Features" with a GIANT-MAN limited series included as a "flipbook" within those issues. Here now is that GIANT-MAN saga...

"IT'S THEM AGAIN!!" | "THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING GIANT-MAN"
"ATTACK OF THE 50 FT JAN" | HANK THE GIANT KILLER"
Story by: George Pérez | Pencils by: Jeffrey Moore | Inks by : Tim Dzon
Colors by: Maryanne Lightle | Lettering by: Ellie deVille
Editor: Richard Ashford | Group Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Plot: (Issue 1) Ant-Man arrives in Arizona to battle a group of gigantic rampaging ants. One of them is an ant he knows, named Nash. When his control helmet proves useless against the ants, Ant-Man grows to become Giant-Man and is forced to kill Nash. Meanwhile, Hank Pym's ex-wife, Janet van Dyne, speaks with her therapist about what she's been doing since she and Hank both left the West Coast Avengers. However as she describes Hank crashing a party to celebrate her return to the fashion industry, Jan passes out. Meanwhile, at a laboratory in Nevada called Project B.I.G., Hank is informed by his lab partner, Bill Foster, that more renegade insects are on the loose in New Mexico. Giant-Man heads out to battle them. He calls off a squadron of Air Force jets and engages the ants hand-to-hand. Bill sees this on a video monitor and leaves the lab to go help his friend. After Bill leaves the lab, Jan's therapist, Doctor Rossin, calls for Hank to tell him about Jan's condition.

(Issue 2) As Bill prepares to depart Project B.I.G., he is ambushed. Meanwhile, Giant-Man fights the monster insects in New Mexico. Despite Pym's warnings, the Air Force jets remain in the area and one pilot is killed by a huge grasshopper. Giant-Man defeats all the insects and passes out. Elsewhere, Bill awakens, in his Goliath costume, miniaturized in a spider web. Nearby, a miniaturized Captain Atlas and Doctor Minerva, accompanied by some Shi'ar troops, search for him. But Goliath is rescued by Scott Lang -- Ant-Man -- and then a moment later, Atlas and Minvera escape. Goliath explains to Ant-Man that Project B.I.G. is a habitat created by Hank Pym and himself to study the effects of Pym Particles on enlarged insects. The duo exits the habitat, but Bill is unable to return himself to normal size. Meanwhile, Hank is incarcerated by the Air Force -- while in California, Jan's therapist tries again to reach Hank, to report that Jan has spontaneously started growing.

AVENGERS #380

"ERRAND OF MERCY"
Writer: Bob Harras | Penciler: Mike Deodato Jr.
Inker & Colorist: Tom Palmer | Letterer: Bill Oakley
Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Note: AVENGERS #379 - 382 were published as "Double Features" with a GIANT-MAN limited series included as a "flipbook" within those issues. I will cover the GIANT-MAN serial in one post after issue 382.

The Plot: Quicksilver and Crystal arrive at Wundagore Mountain in Transia, where Bova, the evolved cow who nursed Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch as children, is dying. Bova's friend, a human named Fydor, confides in Quicksilver that the cow-woman's creator, the high Evolutionary, has returned to his lab atop the mountain, and that he might be able to save Bova. Quicksilver and Crystal head up the mountain, where they find a shrine to Quicksilver's late mother, Magda. Present at the shrine is a young Acolyte, recently cast out of Avalon by Exodus. The boy reveals that the Acolytes never visit the shrine anymore, as the High Evolutionary has forbidden anyone to trespass on the mountain.

At that moment, two of the Evolutionary's brutish evolved creatures appear and attack, while the Acolyte boy teleports away. Crystal is taken out first, but Quicksilver holds his own until the High evolutionary appers and blasts him. Meanwhile, at the base of the mountain, Fydor lies to Bova, telling her that Quicksilver and Crystal went into the village. With a sinister smile, he tells her that everything is fine.

Continuity Notes: You'll note above that the series logo has changed. This has to be one of my least favorite Avengers logos. It's just so ugly and... pointy. You could put an eye out with that thing. Sadly, it will stick with the series until its final issue, #403.

Quicksilver collapses upon raching Wundagore, prompting Crystal to remind him that he still hasn't fully recovered from injuries sustained in AVENGERS #369 (when Exodus zapped him in the "Bloodties" finale).