Mighty Avengers #17

Issue Details

Synopsis

Several months before the present day, Hank Pym and Dum Dum Dugan - both secretly Skrulls - meet at a diner in Oregon. Pym tells Dugan he needs to see Queen Veranke to warn her that because they have underestimated the humans, the upcoming invasion is doomed to fail. Dugan tries to calm Pym down, reminding the Skrull agent of his true name - Criti Noll - and that Hank Pym is an unstable, overconfident man whose brain, which Criti Noll is sharing, can’t be trusted. When Criti Noll again insists on seeing Veranke, Dugan escorts him out of the diner, where a fleet of S.H.I.E.L.D. tanks and helicopters are arriving. A massive explosion suddenly destroys the diner.  Criti Noll manages to survive the ambush by becoming Giant-Man and takes out several combat vehicles before shrinking to ant size and trying to escape through the woods. Dugan and the Skrull S.H.I.E.L.D. agents he called in manage to track the tiny Criti Noll using infrared, but the Pym-Skrull again becomes Giant-Man and tosses Dugan aside. Criti Noll continues to fight the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in their Super Skrull forms, begging them to listen to him. However, before he can plead his case, Dugan-Skrull shoots him in the head and kills him.   As the lifeless Criti Noll reverts to his true form, Dugan and the other Skrulls debate how many Pyms they will cycle through and whether the value Pym’s status brings to their cause is worth the trouble. Later and elsewhere, a clone of Criti Noll undergoes the infiltration ritual to become Hank Pym. Queen Veranke tells him he will need to improvise, as he is not the first Pym impostor.   Later at Camp Hammond, Pym/Criti Noll and Tigra are sharing an intimate moment when a S.H.I.E.L.D. battalion bursts through the door and tells Pym that his ex-wife needs to see him immediately.