The Avengers #217

Name: The Avengers #217
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Mar 1982 · Marvel · 0.60 USD; 0.20 GBP

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“Double-Cross!”

★ 1st appearance — Fabian Stankowicz

About this Issue

Avengers #217 is the issue where Janet Van Dyne — one of the team's founding members but long treated as a peripheral figure — steps out of Hank Pym's shadow and nominates herself Chairwoman of the Avengers, with Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor unanimously supporting her. That moment set the stage for a five-year leadership tenure (through issue #278) that redefined the Wasp as a cornerstone of the Marvel Universe. The issue also closes the chapter on Hank Pym's Yellowjacket identity: framed by Egghead for stealing the nation's adamantium reserves and unable to prove his innocence, Pym is arrested, and this marks his final appearance under that alias for well over a decade. As a capstone to Jim Shooter's psychologically driven downfall arc, the issue shows just how much early-1980s Marvel was willing to let real consequences — divorce, disgrace, arrest — reshape its most established characters.

In "Double-Cross!", Janet Van Dyne returns to the Avengers with a bold request to lead the team, reigniting old tensions as Hank Pym, disgraced and seeking redemption, reluctantly allies with a dangerous foe—Egghead, a criminal wielding mind-control powers. Written by Jim Shooter and Bob Hall, with art by Bob Hall and inks by Dan Green, this 1982 issue blends personal stakes with high-stakes espionage, all wrapped in a cover by Bob Hall and Dan Green.

writer Jim Shooter · writer, artist Bob Hall · inker Dan Green · inker Frank Giacoia · inker Vince Colletta · inker Steve Mitchell · inker Al Milgrom · colorist Christy Scheele · letterer Joe Rosen · cover Bob Hall, Dan Green

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $4

CGC 9.8 · 42 in census $145

CGC 9.6 · 21 in census $60*

CGC 9.4 · 10 in census $41

CGC 9.2 · 7 in census $26*

CGC 9.0 · 4 in census $21

CGC 8.5 · 5 in census $20*

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CGC 8.0 · 6 in census $20*

CGC 7.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 7.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 6.5 none in existence

CGC 6.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 5.5 none in existence

CGC 5.0 · 1 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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Raw / ungraded $3.4 Raw / ungraded $7 Raw / ungraded $9.81 Raw / ungraded $9.9 Newsstand $9.99 Raw / ungraded $9.99 Raw / ungraded $10.42 Raw / ungraded $10.97 Raw / ungraded $12 Newsstand $12.99 Raw / ungraded $31.59

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VF+ $2.95 VERY FINE $2.99 FN/VF · Newsstand $3 FN+ $3.99 VG+ · Newsstand $4 Direct $4.98 NM $4.99 VF $5

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History

Writer Jim Shooter, who was simultaneously serving as Marvel's Editor-in-Chief, scripted the issue as the payoff to a multi-part arc he had built after going back and rereading every prior appearance of both Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne before embarking on the storyline. Penciller Bob Hall and primary inker Dan Green handled the art, with Christie Scheele on colors and Joe Rosen on letters — the same core creative team that had carried the arc through the court-martial issues preceding it. The issue carries a March 1982 cover date and was released in late 1981.

Trivia · 8 facts

Title of the main story: 'Double-Cross!' — written by Jim Shooter, pencilled by Bob Hall, inked by Dan Green (with additional inking by Vince Colletta, Steve Mitchell, Al Milgrom, and Frank Giacoia), colored by Christie Scheele, lettered by Joe Rosen.
First appearance of Fabian Stankiewicz, the Mechano-Marauder: an attention-seeking amateur inventor in powered armor who is dispatched so casually by Iron Man that the other Avengers barely pause to watch.
Janet Van Dyne is elected Chairwoman of the Avengers in this issue, nominated by herself and approved without dissent by Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor — beginning a leadership run that would last continuously until Avengers #278 (1987).
This is Hank Pym's final appearance as Yellowjacket for well over a decade; Egghead blackmails him into stealing the national stockpile of adamantium resin from a Strategic Air Command base in Nebraska, and after the Avengers intercept him, he is arrested and jailed on charges of treason.
Egghead — who had been presumed dead since Defenders Vol. 1 #43 — returns here as the architect of Pym's frame-up, using a cybernetic arm he implants on his own niece, Trish Starr, as the mechanism of blackmail.
The Wasp is shown having just finalized a divorce from Hank Pym (obtained in the Dominican Republic) before rejoining the team and asserting her leadership bid.
The issue has been reprinted in multiple formats: Avengers: The Trial of Yellowjacket (2012), Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers Vol. 21 (2021), and Avengers Epic Collection #12 — Court-Martial (2025), as well as earlier international editions including a Dutch Juniorpress special (1984) and an Italian Star Comics edition (1990).
Fabian Stankiewicz would go on to a recurring role in Avengers continuity — most notably crashing the Late Night with David Letterman taping in Avengers #239 — and eventually reformed to serve on the Avengers' support crew under Captain America's sponsorship.