When the titanic threat known as Terminus rampaged through Tokyo, Ace and One-Eyed Jacquie, better known as Blackjack, flew undauntedly in its way. The giant that at one time gave pause to the mighty Avengers was fooled into submission when Jacquie threatened it with a bogus Ultimate Nullifier. Never far from his partner's side, even when she was transformed into a reptilian biped, Ace, also devolved, had to fight the menace of King Simian; who intended to devolve the entire planet. An expertly aimed exploding shell destroyed his machinery, and the evil monkey-man was imprisoned at the zoo. Soon after, aliens landed on Earth and opened a Utopia Centre, inviting all inside. They appeared to be friendly, but Blackjack wasn't taking any chances and destroyed the institution despite the aliens explanation they only wanted to put an end to disease, war and famine. Blackjack told them real advancement needed to be achieved through hardship and discontent.
When the undersea monster Titan vented his anger on surface dwellers, Blackjack was dispatched to deal with the problem. This time, however, they received aid from Henry Pym and his group of Avengers. Once the battle was won, Blackjack offered to deputize Pym's team in order for them to escape persecution from then director of super-human affairs, Norman Osborn. As Pym discredited his team time-after-time for various reasons, Ace and Jacquie went to the Infinite Avengers Mansion to revoke his Avengers' status but discovered Ultron usurped control of the mansion, leaving them trapped inside with Pym and Jocasta. Within Pym's lab, Ace spotted a door potentially leading to freedom, and not heeding Pym's warning, Ace blasted it off its hinges. It turned out the lab wasn't on Earth but in a dimension called Underspace. The odds stacked against them, Ace tricked Ultron, with the help of Pym's ants equipped with holographic projectors, into believing Pym summoned many of Earth's mightiest heroes to oppose him, forcing Ultron to retreat.
