Thu Nov 24, 2016
While I am a huge fan of Kurt Busiek’s Astro City comic, I never really found myself getting into his run on Avengers (the second or third volume) while it happened. (I think at the time I was really into Bendis’ Daredevil and Morrison’s New X-Men instead, since they were more blatantly and fully pushing back against some of Marvel’s status quo.)
At any rate, in retrospect, this issue is fantastic, but not because it’s an Avengers comic. It’s fantastic because it very clearly and precisely sets up a parallel narrative for Ant-Man (Scott Lang) and Jack of Hearts (Jack Hart … yeah).
The cover features the two squaring off in a scene from the story’s climax: Ant-Man stands on the left, helmet off and in one hand, the other pointed at Jack of Hearts; Ant-Man grits his teeth tensely. Similarly, Jack of Hearts, who’s on the right, stares back angrily and grits his teeth too. The background is comprised of speed/motion lines that keep the focus on the two heroes’ faces.
Avengers issue 062
The story reflects Busiek’s best work: explorations of character that keep the best and most important dramatic points centered on the protagonist(s) of a given tale. In this case, Jack of Hearts struggles with the problems he faces–namely, that every day he has to spend so many hours in a cell with seven-foot-thick walls because he eventually discharges a daily burst of energy not unlike a nuclear bomb going off. During this story, Iron Man tells him that each day’s “cell time” will need to increase from 10 to 14 hours. As you might imagine, Jack doesn’t take this well … and it doesn’t help that it turns out his father, who died during an accident connected to Jack, had been trying to save him (Jack thought he’d been focused on work instead of family).
At the same time, Ant-Man is called to court to attend a custody hearing for his daughter Cassie (who would later become the hero Stature), because his ex-wife argues that his life is too dangerous to have his daughter around. The judge agrees, taking into consideration the Avengers’ nigh-constant efforts to deal with global emergencies.
Having lost his daughter, Ant-Man heads to the Avengers mansion to see about joining up with them officially (as he’d performed some “unofficial” or ad hoc teamup work with them before this point). Jack of Hearts shows up and is angry that Ant-Man is offered a spot on the team freely, since he felt he’d had to struggle to join. The two butt heads but Iron Man and the Wasp manage to defuse the situation. Each of the combatants heads to his room (or cell) and is left alone with his thoughts, having nothing else really to build a life around.
This is a pretty brutal story, but I mean that in a good way. I’ve always thought Jack of Hearts was a lame character, but he’s given some significant depth here–I mean, it’s not like the character ever had any say about possessing such a lame origin–and it’s juxtaposed very interestingly against Ant-Man’s problems. The tragedy, of course, is that Ant-Man and Jack of Hearts could very easily find friendship and solace in one another, but they’re so caught up in their individual drama that they can’t–or won’t–acknowledge the other’s issues.
I recognize this is also the kind of story that can’t be told all the time in a flagship series like Avengers, especially now in an era following the runaway success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and it’s at least in part because of the lack of such a franchise connection that allows this kind of story to flourish regularly in Astro City) … but I really am glad I picked this up back when it was released. Even if it did take me over a decade to really find solid enjoyment in it. What can I say? I should have paid better attention back in the early 2000s.