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 #379

"THE LEGENDS AND THE LOST"
Writer: Bob Harras | Pencilers: Stewart Johnson & Tom Grindberg
Inkers: Tom Palmer & Rich Rankin | Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorists: Karl Bollers, John Kalisz, & Mike Marts 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: Deathcry and Alabar watch as a Kree ship arrives at the Isle of Crail. Admiral Galen Kor and two of his troops disembark, revealing to the Butcher that they brought his ship to Earth and freed him. Meanwhile, Black Widow, Thunderstrike, Hercules, and Crystal race toward Crail aboard a Quinjet. Deathcry and Alabar are found by Dylon Cir, one of Kor's men. Meanwhile, Kor and the Butcher speak with Vision, who is under the guard of the enthralled Swordsman and Magdalene. Alabar stops Deathcry from killing Cir, instead using the contents of a vial to ensnare Cir's will. Moments later, the Shi'ar duo is escorted by Cir to the Butcher's base, a pub in town. The Butcher is away with Kor, so the group enters the pub, knocks out Swordsman and Magdalene, and frees Vision.

The Butcher and Kor arrive and attack, but Alabar refuses to fight. He reveals that during the war between the Shi'ar and Mephistoids, he and his men were taken in by a Mephistoid abbey run by several females of the species. There, Alabar learned of the Mephisitoids' phermonal powers. He and his men killed all the women in the abbey and Alabar distilled their pheromones into a potion he used to control his men and win the war. The Butcher then kills Alabar, leading Deathrcy to grab Magdalene's weapon and kill the Butcher. Galen Kor and his people escape. Soon, the Avengers arrive and verify the town is back to normal, while Deathcry stands by herself under the full moon.