Speaking of Stalkers...

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

I had a little mental debate whether to post this or not, because God, I hate the art of the second issue something fierce. But after doing that Marvel Adventures post with Stalker!Josten flinging a Quinjet at Jan's head, it might be an interesting contrast to see how Stalker!Cannon does things.

Scans from Marvel Feature #6, and Avengers vol 3, #71.

A little backstory: David "Whirlwind" Cannon is an old-school Avengers villain, who primarily focuses his attacks on Hank and Jan. This isn't particularly noteworthy, except, IIRC, he became the first character to ever hit Jan.

Where he becomes relevant to this post is in the later Marvel Features. Taking on the identity of Charles Matthews, he becomes Jan's chauffeur with the intent of stealing her money, which later expands to the desire to steal Jan herself. Meanwhile, a tangle with a villain has left Hank stuck at tiny size, and he finally makes his way home to find Jan unconscious and about to be killed by a falling skylight. Opening a reinforced umbrella to protect her and taking cover himself, he gets to be an observer to a scene he doesn't like much.





After getting Jan's attention to prove he isn't dead, Hank enlists her as his hands to come up with an antidote, but they keep getting interrupted.









Later, Jan insists on testing the first antidote attempt herself, only for it to prove a massive failure and leave her trapped at tiny size as well. As they're attempting to figure out what to do next, guess who should show up again?



Unable to find Jan, he assumes she's not in the house and sets the lab on fire with the intent to kill Hank. Both escape, but are assumed to be dead by everyone except Bill Foster. Meanwhile, Jan's lawyer and "Charles" are conspiring to split her fortune, as she has no heirs, but the plot is foiled when Jan and Hank turn out not to be dead. "Charles" is later fired for embezzling, but no one finds out that he's actually Whirlwind until well into Hank's mental breakdown as Yellowjacket.

He has a few more combat encounters with the Avengers, but nothing particularly pertaining to his infatuation with Jan, until Geoff Johns takes up the story in the Vegas issue (yes, that one). Hank and Jan have decided to take their first vacation in ever, for talking over old wounds and... other things. Meanwhile, Cannon is in Vegas as well, and it appears time hasn't been kind to his sanity when it comes to Jan.





Unaware that Cannon's in the city, Hank and Jan are enjoying themselves, when Hank makes an attempt at proposal. Jan tries to let him down gently, and they begin working out more of their issues. Everything's shiny, right?

Not really.



He hits Hank with a gut shot to knock him out (which is pretty much what the art is doing to me by this point, augh, augh, augh), and Jan goes after him.







The voice offpanel would be Hank, having woken up and gone giant-sized (and WTF? Jan apparently just materialized her uniform underneath that tiny tube dress, but Hank somehow doesn't have his at all?). He provides a pretty good distraction by scaring the hell out of Cannon until Jan wakes up and knocks him out. Then, as Cannon's arrested, Hank and Jan decide that while maybe getting married again would be a really bad idea, they still like being a couple and maybe they can make it work.

And thus, we see the last of David Cannon's obsession. At last count, he was working for Osborn, but unless I just somehow blanked it out, he hasn't been seen since Jan was killed at the end of Secret Invasion.

So the running tally on Universes in which Jan's had some psycho after her:
616 = David Cannon
Marvel Adventures = Erik Josten
Ultimates = Pym himself.

Comments

[vitruvian23.insanejournal.com]

Is it just me, or does the second set of pages look like somebody thought Cannon had actual air/wind control powers, as opposed to making a whirlwind effect by spinning his body around? There's one panel where he's posed very statically, not even represented as whirling his hands about, and yet hitting Jan with an airburst.

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

If you mean the second page of the second set, that ain't Jan he's blasting, just a call girl dressed as her. But otherwise, you're right. He should have been moving or something, instead of just standing there with his arms raised.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

It's never just you... I was thinking that too.

[halloweenjack.insanejournal.com]

This is an excellent comparison of old-school Marvel vs. the new creepiness. The first excerpt has a thrilling cat-and-mouse sequence; the second, WHORES WHORES WHORES and Johns lifting the face-licking scene from Terminator 2.

[kitty_tc_69.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, except with his hand on her knee like that I didn't think her face was where he was going to lick her.

Really, an editor should have said that the scumbag shouldn't have been allowed to survive this crime. Killing a woman, stalking, sexual assault, etc... someone should have put him in the ground for this. I hate to go old school Comics Code here, but there really are some crimes that shouldn't be depicted without a corresponding bad end being shown for the perpetrators.

[halloweenjack.insanejournal.com]

Every now and then, I do wish that Scourge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scourge_of_the_Underworld) would make a return appearance.

[cricharddavies.insanejournal.com]

... your solution to the problem of gratuitous violence is more gratuitous violence, this time employed by a group of murderers in the service of the Red Skull?

[halloweenjack.insanejournal.com]

Well, when you put it that way...

[kitty_tc_69.insanejournal.com]

Scourge was fucking awesome. Justice is served!

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

I could've sworn Whirlwind was killed between this story and Secret Invasion. I remember it involved glue or something.

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

He did nearly die of suffocation after accidentally being covered by a shot from the Trapster, but he recovered. This was before he ended up working for Osborn.

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON. Paste Pot Pete glued him up while he was whirling and... I think his feet stuck and his shoulders kept spinning, or something? The art wasn't remotely helpful, but I remember a line about his spine being turned into a pretzel, which is usually lethal in my understanding.

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

You're right about the incident (why did I think it was suffocation?).

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

I thought the original Whirlwind was dead to. And I'm pretty sure Busiek killed a Whirlwind during the Kang War.

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

Me again. I did some checking, and from what I could find, his last appearance was in Thunderbolts: Reason In Madness, which came out in May of last year. He and a few other second-stringers do some talking with Venom, but Venom's decided he likes being on the Thunderbolts for "possibilities" and warns Osborn of the impending attack. The two of them pretty much curb stomp the guys, and then Osborn gives them the standard "work for me or die", and Cannon somewhat grudgingly accepts the former.

[jkcarrier.insanejournal.com]

That Marvel Feature series was my first exposure to Ant-Man, and I still think it's some of the best handling of the character ever. Hank is totally badass in it.

[thokstar.insanejournal.com]

Am I the only one thoroughly disappointed by the lack of "You will be the one escaping!" from Whirlwind?

(As usual, I prove that almost all of my exposure to the Avengers is the arcade game.)

[starwolf_oakley.insanejournal.com]

Before Johns WHORES WHORES WHORES story, I thought an interesting story would be Whirlwind deciding the only way the Wasp would ever love him is if he became a good guy.

[lieut_kettch.insanejournal.com]

GIANT NAKED HANK! Would be a pretty frightening sight for someone normal sized. Think of the Mother of all Turkey Slaps.

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

::does the "But it makes no sense!" flail:: I can't remember if this came before or after the Ultimatesverse bit that had Giant Naked Hank, but at least Ultimates made a half-assed attempt to explain why the hell he had no costume, but Jan did.