The AVENGERS
(or at least Henry Pym) in:
"The Face of the Enemy...?"
Plot for 9 pages
9-23-98
by Van Allen Plexico
Thanks to Bobby Politte for plot assist!

[Note: I wrote the dialogue here for pacing purposes only, with the intention of altering it as necessary as I scripted over David's great art. --Van]

ONE
Splash page of KANG in a dramatic pose, reaching out grandly towards the reader. In the foreground, DR. HENRY PYM recoils in surprise, staggering back from some sort of computer controls.
"You will suffer for this indignation, Pym! So speaks Kang the Conqueror!"
Closer inspection will reveal, however, that this is not in fact KANG.  This figure is entirely GREEN, and parts of it--particularly the legs and lower torso--do not resemble Kang at all. It is instead the SUPER-ADAPTOID, held within a sort of stasis tube or chamber, suspended within Pym's lab in Avengers Mansion. A bundle of cables runs from the back of its head into the ceiling.
(I visualize something like a big version of the medical tube Luke Skywalker occupied in Empire Strikes Back--equipment on top and bottom, where it touches the floor and ceiling, but smooth and transparent between the floor and ceiling, allowing full visibility. Of course, if something would work even better than this, then by all means, go with it.
As to why Kang:  unless I'm mistaken, he's been revealed to have a connection to PYM's previous problems, no?)

TWO
PYM instinctively increases his size and takes up a defensive stance, but he knows that KANG / ADAPTOID cannot hurt him (or so he thinks!) because the villain is contained within the stasis tube/chamber. Pym jabs a finger back at the ADAPTOID. "Settle down! If not for me, you'd still be a deactivated blob of green protoplasm."
PYM looks over his equipment even as "KANG" glares down at him imperiously, arms crossed.
"Ah, I see what's happened. I tied you into the Mansion's computers, in order to more efficiently run my diagnostic routines--"
As PYM studies the readouts, KANG changes form; morphs into WHIRLWIND. "--and apparently you've tapped into the databases on our most dangerous enemies."

THREE
This page should be comprised of about six panels, each the same size, each from the same POV. In the background, the ADAPTOID changes shape, from one villain to the next, each with some connection to PYM, but none of them ULTRON--yet! First comes WHIRLWIND again, changing into perhaps the PORCUPINE, from #167, next. In the foreground of each panel, Pym walks back and forth, studying various gadgets and instruments, mostly oblivious to what is happening in the background. In the third panel, the ADAPTOID has become a physically powerful villain (perhaps ORKA, from #149?) and rears back to smash at the chamber with his fist--then, in the fourth panel, he's changed into EGGHEAD, and starts to strike at the tube, only (in the fifth panel) to look at his own now-weak hand / body and react somewhat comically in surprise. A little visual joke there, before the situation turns more serious. In the last panel, the form of Egghead starts to blur again, to flow into some new form.
Across each panel, PYM slowly speaks the following: "Fortunately-- stuck inside that tube-- you're only accessing-- personality and appearance records-- not actual super-powers-- and can't really do..."

FOUR
"--any REAL damage."
PYM has returned his attention to the consoles before him, but even as he mutters this, in the background (but now from a different POV), EGGHEAD has been replaced by a really menacing-looking, leering ULTRON! (though still green!). PYM is totally oblivious--doesn't see what's happened. Before saying anything, ULTRON looks around at the interior of the tube, as if sensing its weak spots. He raises his arms and seems to be probing the seams, exploring the connections and wires. All the while, PYM has his back turned, completely absorbed in his work.
"So you might believe, human--" ULTRON cackles finally, and PYM, recognizing the voice, whirls, eyes wide.
"--but, powers or not, no mere mechanical contrivance can contain ULTRON!"
ULTRON somehow causes the tube to unlock and either slide down or dissolve in the center, allowing him to step out dramatically and begin to advance on PYM. The cables still run from the back of his (green!) head back into the ceiling.

FIVE
PYM again takes up a defensive stance, clearly disconcerted by the appearance (if not the reality) of his greatest enemy, his greatest failure. But he stands his ground.
"Back into the chamber! You're NOT Ultron! You're the Super-Adaptoid. And your form has become unstable--if you don't let me complete my repairs, you'll--"
"DECEITFUL HUMAN!"  ULTRON screeches in reply. "I know your ways, father! Always you have sought to control me, to mislead me. But Ultron will not be controlled!"
PYM gets in his face. He's talking as if this were really Ultron. " I've beaten you too many times--you hold no fear for me any longer." And he turns his back on ULTRON, who seems somewhat stunned by this.

SIX
ULTRON begins to shift and blur, even as PYM ignores him. From a different POV, we only "hear" the next voice: "You speak of fear? Imagine the fear that your very soul will be taken-- reclaimed by its rightful owner!" PYM whirls--and faces a green JOCASTA, in her original form from #162. "All because of YOU!"
"No--I--I couldn't help that Ultron--"
But JOCASTA prosecutes him relentlessly, confronting him physically. "Ultron may have created my metallic form--but YOU put the soul, the lifeforce, into it."
"NO! I--"
JOCASTA blurs again, becomes JAN as the WASP. "MY soul, Hank! How could you do such a thing?"

SEVEN

PYM has become emotional. "Stop this! You don't know what you're talking about! You aren't Jan! You're just a robot--accessing old Avengers files--trying to hurt me--"
The ADAPTOID now escalates the tension to the breaking point, by changing into JAN in civilian clothes *with the black eye* and berating PYM.
"You know all about hurting someone, don't you, Hank? Whether by your words--or lack thereof--or by simple brute force--"
It's really starting to get to him now. PYM recoils physically, perhaps putting a hand over his eyes and looking away, or something to that effect.
"BE QUIET!"

EIGHT
The ADAPTOID changes into PYM as the YELLOWJACKET, and questions, "Are you really so different now? Or is that capacity still there, lurking within you?"
Finally the ADAPTOID becomes PYM himself, precisely the way the current PYM looks. They are mirror images of one another (except of course that one's green.)
"Just how well do you really know yourself, Henry Pym?"
Pym looks straight ahead (at the reader), his eyes narrow, his mouth a grim line. He is fed up. He's no longer angry-- he's at the point of either total insane fury, utterly controlled, or else complete peace and confidence that the robot is wrong. (We just don't know which it is!)
Calmly, he reaches down and presses a button (or flips a switch)--

NINE
--And deactivates the ADAPTOID, who falls lifelessly to the floor, reverting back to his original form.
PYM stands over the deactivated robot, unmoving, looking down, still wrestling with his emotions on the inside.
In the final scene, we PULL BACK to see PYM sitting there, perhaps with one leg crossed over/propped on the other, in his lab coat, hand on chin, deep in thought.
The caption of PYM's thoughts will read something to the effect of,  "None of that was true. He's just the Super-Adaptoid--he has no real knowledge of what's going on inside my head. He's an old, old foe--just trying to mess with me; trying to do whatever damage he could do."
"He was wrong about me."
"He was wrong."
"Wasn't he...?"

END