This is "Provide Some Answers," which is a feature where long unresolved plot points are eventually resolved.

Today, we look at how Steve Englehart paid off an unresolved plot from his Beast feature in Amazing Adventures.

As I discussed just yesterday, the Beast feature in Amazing Adventures was Steve Englehart's first regular assignment at Marvel Comics. He soon went on to much bigger and brighter things at Marvel, but he never forgot where he got his start, so he made sure to bring the Beast eventually to the pages of the Avengers after Englehart had been writing that book for a few years. Soon after, he then decided to pay off an unresolved plot from that same series.

One of the coolest bits in the Beast feature was that Englehart brought in Patsy Walker as a supporting character. She had been Marvel's answer to Archie Andrews for many years and now Englehart was working her into the Marvel Universe by having her all grown up and married to her old beau, Buzz Baxter, who was now in the military and was assigned to Hank McCoy's science division as the head of security. Buzz was very distrustful of ol' Hank (which was fair enough, as Hank was secretly mutated into a big furry beast and was hiding it from everyone).

Okay, so in Amazing Adventures #15, the Beast is injured badly and collapses into Patsy's apartment...

So we cut to the Beast in action and he mentions a mysterious talk between Patsy and himself...

At the end of the issue, Patsy covers for Hank in front of Buzz (you have to love Buzz's reaction to Warren's good looks. "I could believe THIS guy could get ladies. He's GORGEOUS!") and we learn that it is due to that mysterious talk that they had...

The problem is that the Beast feature ended after the next issue (technically it went to Amazing Adventures #17, but that was mostly just a reprint issue), so Patsy and Hank's deal was just not discussed again.

That is, until Beast joined the Avengers and Patsy showed up telling him he had better pay off the debt he owed her.

He agreed to let her come along on a mission. Sadly, the mission ended with the Avengers captured.

In Avengers #144, when Patsy and the Avengers were cornered and up against some tough bad guys, Captain America was forced to let Patsy use a super-suit to help them fight their way out of the mess. We learn that getting a super-suit and becoming a superhero had been Patsy's request of Hank all along!

That's one of the oddest superhero origin stories around!

Okay, that's it for this installment! If anyone else has a suggestion for a plot that was resolved after a number of years, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!