This is "From a Different Point of View," a feature where I discuss a comic book series with another writer. In this case, it is Eileen Gonzalez who will be going over the history of the Avengers with me, story by story!

When last we checked in with our heroes, we had just met Yellowjacket for the first time in Avengers #59, "The Name is...Yellowjacket!" by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and George Klein. Yellowjacket stopped some fur thieves and was a total jerk about it, which got him the attention of J. Jonah Jameson, who was quickly pro-Yellowjacket.

This takes us to Yellowjacket's bizarre introduction to the Avengers!

I opened by noting, "The first clue we should have had that Yellowjacket was someone we know is that he knew the go-to move to become an Avenger. Tie up Jarvis." "Eileen commiserated with the sad sack Avengers butler, "Poor Jarvis. He was having such a good time polishing things, too. And then Yellowjacket introduces himself as pompously as possible. It's kind of hilarious." I agreed, "He's practically grabbing his crotch!" Eileen noted, "I get that they're probably trying to contrast him with his secret identity as much as possible, but still. Also, I guess he's chewing gum, too? I hope that's what that is." I replied, "Yellowjacket is into chaw now." Eileen quipped, "To cement his bad boy image, as opposed to genteel Jarvis, who is out here smoking a pipe as is proper. So why did Jan faint because of the 'strain of Hank's recent work' exactly? Hank was working really hard and this exhausted Jan somehow? I guess picking on someone and continuing to try to force him to marry you is hard work."

I wondered, "I almost wonder if Thomas felt that was too much. You know, one of those instances where the writer has to try to explain away the art. So Thomas might have though, 'Ooph, that's a bit much to have her pass out just due to Yellowjacket's comments,' and so he threw in, 'Oh, and the stress of Hank's recent work!' It doesn't make sense, of course, but it's better than a superhero just fainting over some guy claiming he killed her boyfriend." Eileen replied, "Hm, true. Maybe this is a first, though rather weak, attempt to improve Jan's character a bit."

Yellowjacket then tells the story of how he killed Goliath. Eileen noted, "This flashback with the Yellowjacket vs. Goliath fight seems weird once we find out who Yellowjacket is. Like, wow, he really put a lot of effort into detailing every single aspect of this fight that never happened." I agreed, "Right? He is DISTURBED. It's honestly kind of fascinating, when you think about it. How later writers were just, like, 'Yeah, he sort of snapped there for a bit, but it's all good now.' This is downright DISTURBING." Eileen opined, "He should either take up creative writing or see a psychologist." I continued, "Joe Casey did a miniseries where he tried to explain away how disturbing this all was and it was a good effort, but it really didn't work. I'll get into that a bit next issue, as that's where Casey really put a lot of effort into trying to explain it away. Because, obviously, we both know next issue is BONKERS. But yeah, the flashback to the fight even includes THOUGHT BALLOONS for Goliath!! And, of course, a classic John Buscema ordinary citizen." Eileen noticed, "Yellowjacket is even inventing one-liners for the civilians!!"

I concurred, "But that, in and of itself, makes no sense, as Yellowjacket is inventing WITNESSES to this thing! That, though, makes me wonder. Perhaps Buscema didn't know what the twist was? I did a Comic Book Legends Revealed recently about how Ed Hannigan left out a bit from an early issue of Legends of the Dark Knight. And then that bit turned out to be a clue as to the murderer's identity later in the storyline. Because Denny O'Neil didn't tell him that the guy in the beginning was going to be the murderer later on." Eileen replied, "Ohhhh that would make sense. Either Thomas didn't tell Buscema about part two, or they just weren't thinking through how disturbing this would look in hindsight."

Eileen then wondered, "My big question with all this is why the Avengers didn't immediately go running to Hank's house to try to rescue him and/or confirm his death. Wouldn't that be the obvious course of action?" I agreed, "Right? He specifically notes that he doesn't know if Hank is dead!" Eileen added, "This issue is a mess." I continued, "And the Goliath/Yellowjacket fight is FOUR PAGES! That's an eternity. Filled up with this over-the-top, ridiculous fight."

Yellowjacket then kicks the Avengers' collective ass and kidnaps Wasp to his hidden headquarters in a tiny treehouse. Eileen had a question about his headquarters, "I'm sorry, I hate to keep asking questions, but WHERE did Yellowjacket get that treehouse? Also, WHY did he get that treehouse? It's ugly." I agreed, "So ugly. However, it DOES match some of Hank's past labs, design-wise."

I continued, "Then we get the creepiest scene of the book. I will let you rant on this scene now." Eileen began her rant, "I hardly even know what to say, to be honest. Again, I know they're trying to contrast Yellowjacket with the more mild-mannered Goliath, but we've already done that. There is no need for this scene at all! Yellowjacket comes off as an even bigger creep than before, and Wasp's reaction makes everything worse. But hey, he feels bad afterwards, so I guess that makes it okay. Rant over. Thanks for that."

I then wondered, "And what does he mean by 'I've got other ways of knowing what you're really thinking'? Is that just a basic 'no means yes' bit? Or is it even more disturbing? Like, we don't see where his hand is, right?" Eileen responded, "Or she's kissing back because she's figured out who it is on a subconscious level. Oh, ew, I didn't even notice the lack of hands. Ack." I continued, "That certainly supports a disturbing reading of that sequence, right? I would assume that was not the intent, of course. But it's still weird language.'I have ways of knowing what you REALLY feel." Eileen theorized, "I have a feeling this whole issue wasn't intended to be as horrible as it ended up. I don't think Thomas (and Buscema, depending on how much he was involved) realized how upsetting this all looked."

The Avengers then get their rematch and kick Yellowjacket's ass. I pointed out, "I like that the others looked more competent in their rematch. Panther looked like he was about to cripple Yellowjacket. And I like the bit about how Hawkeye would have just killed him." Eileen added, "Yeah, they're not playing around here. Too bad Jan stops them. For the WORST reason ever. Sheesh."

I continued, "Sigh. Yeah. That ending. It reminds me as sort of sad reflection of #54's ending. Where Thomas had the climax be one shocking thing. But it was really hiding the REAL twist. And he's doing that here, too. But it's a bad cliffhanger hiding an even worse twist. Hmmm...well, I mean, I guess the twist IS technically better than the cliffhanger. But they're both bad. Really great Jan drawing by Buscema, though." Eileen agreed, "Yeah, I was actually just staring at it. It's such a great picture. I'll just ignore the speech bubble and the blurb text there." I opined, "It's a nice romance comic throwback pose, right?" Eileen agreed, "It does look like that! I still can't believe this series fell so hard in quality after the Vision issues. I should sue them for whiplash."

I followed up on that, "Visually, it's on par with the Vision issues. But yeah, story-wise and, perhaps, more importantly, tonally? All over the place. I think Thomas just wanted to mix things up. It was less longterm planning. And more just thinking of cool ideas in the moment. Yellowjacket, in a vacuum, is not a bad idea. The execution, though...yikes." Eileen noted, "I seem to remember they did a better job with this in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but the show got cancelled before they could really explore the concept." I continued, Well, we'll see how much more this goes off the rails when we look at the next issue. I always love a good wedding....and this is not a good wedding."

Okay, folks, if you have any questions for me or Eileen, you can drop us a line at brianc@cbr.com (yes, it's technically just my e-mail address, but I'll obviously pass it along to Eileen, as well).