This feature is basically a counterpart to our Left Unresolved feature. That feature is for plotlines that were, well, left unresolved. In this one, though, we spotlight examples of long unresolved stories that WERE ultimately resolved by later writers. The only rule is that at least four years have to pass between the plot point being introduced and it being resolved.

Today, we look at the resolution to an odd story where an honorary Avenger was kidnapped without anyone seeming to care all that much...

In the lead-up to The Crossing, a new version of the old Iron Man foe, Madame Masque, showed up...



A couple of issues later, she is revealed to be Bethany Cabe, Iron Man's former girlfriend and a highly trained security expert (which would make perfect sense given her skill set as Masque, so the whole thing DID make sense), but, as commenter Michael F. notes, they later reveal that that was a trick and she has the ability to change her appearances and she is NOT actually Bethany (too bad - Bethany would be cool as a superhero)!





Anyhow, Masque eventually hooks up with the Avengers and helps them stop the now evil Iron Man (see this "Remember to Forget" for more info on evil Tony).



Once that storyline ends, she sticks around and has a bit of a flirtatious relationship with Hawkeye, which Black Widow does NOT approve of...









So Black Widow is super suspicious of Masque. Meanwhile, a mysterious robot attacks the Avengers. He can turn intangible. He does pretty well, even taking out Thor. Black Widow and Hawkeye see this, and Black Widow somehow presumes this means Masque is behind it all...



Masque see the robot at the end of the issue...



This leads to Avengers #399, the last issue Terry Kavanagh wrote for the series.

So the robot (whose name is Benedict) attacks the Avengers and causes some problems, leading to the climax of the issue...







And that's it. Mark Waid takes over the next issue for a time before Onslaught took the Avengers out of the Marvel Universe for a little more than a year. And no one wanted to explain what the heck happened to Masque or why Black Widow didn't seem to give a crap.

Then Kurt Busiek relaunched the Avengers with George Perez. And eventually, four years after Masque was kidnapped, Busiek resolved the story. Read on to see how he did it!

In Avengers #31, the Grim Reaper takes a seemingly new Madame Masque hostage, but things go haywire...





This, naturally, leads to the Avengers wondering if ANY of the Madame Masques out there (including one who had died recently in Busiek's Iron Man run) were the REAL Madam Masque. Black Widow finally tells the rest of the Avengers about Masque's kidnapping...









So yep, Madame Masque had bio-duplicates of herself running around out there. And the Benedict robot was sent by her to retrieve them. One of them, Masque, even had the ability to change her face, which is why she looked like Bethany Cabe...



In the end, during a pitched battle against Madame Masque's father, Count Nefaria, the bio-duplicate sacrifices herself, inspiring Madame Masque to stand up to her father...







That was some impressive plot resolvin' there by Busiek!

If you have a suggestion for another long-resolved plotline, drop me a lne at bcronin@comicbookresources.com