Tales to Astonish is full of short stories of all kinds of science fiction and fantasy. But no character in this comic was more popular than Henry (Hank) Pym, also known as Ant-Man. He was the leading story in Tales to Astonish virtually since his first appearance. And, not only that, even in the world of Marvel 616, Ant-Man is popular at this time.

This issue starts out with Ant-Man quietly trying to make his way home in a crowd. He gets trapped under a telegram and when the delivery boy who picks it up realizes Ant-Man is there, the crowd goes wild. People ask for Hank’s autograph and try to interview him for their magazines. Unlike heroes such as the Fantastic Four or Spider-Man who have a more complicated relationship with the public, Henry Pym is celebrated almost everywhere he goes. Eventually this will change, but for now, he, along with Tony Stark is one of the most popular heroes in the public eye.

The issue still does not place Ant-Man in New York, it refers to where he is living as Center City. Yet, from the backgrounds and the fact that most of the other heroes in 616 have already been placed in New York, it’s a safe assumption that this is really where Ant-Man is active.

After Hank makes his escape, we see where the telegram goes. It heads to an older gentleman named Elias Weems. His grandson is coming to visit him and as Weems is a scientist he’s excited to show his grandson where he works and all the science he does. But Weems is confronted with a horrible problem. Ageism. He’s 65 and apparently the company Weems works for has decided anyone that age or older is not capable of good ideas anymore so he’s fired. It would be nice if this was an issue we didn’t have to face anymore in the real world but there you have it.

As any smart scientist who is 65 years or older would do, Weems decides to make a ray which will accelerate the age of any living thing and get his revenge. He tests his ray on a sapling and it grows into a tree. Then he heads to the zoo to test it on larger animals. And it just so happens Henry Pym is there looking at elephants and thinking about being able to control them with his cybernetic helmet.

As Henry is lost in thought, the baby elephant grows up right before his eyes in a matter of moments. Weems then reverses the ray to make the elephant younger again. In his final experiment, Weems makes a woman turn older then turns her back to her rightful age. Why Weems didn’t just use his ray to make himself younger, I can’t tell ya.

Weems then dubs himself the Master of Time and writes a letter to the police telling them to give him rulership over the city or he’ll age everyone. Thankfully there are ants around the place to relay this message to our hero.

Ant-Man hops into his catapult and shoots himself towards an alley where a bunch of ants are ready to catch him. Hank then runs around town talking to scientists and discovers there was a scientist recently fired for being too old. Ant-Man rushes over to Weems’ house where he’s mad because the police didn’t answer his threat in the newspapers.

Before Ant-Man can do much, Weems uses his ray to make Henry older. Ant-Man asks why Weems didn’t just age him to death. Weems just wanted to slow Henry down but didn’t actually wish any harm upon him. The Master of Time is smart enough to know to take Ant-Man’s helmet so he can’t call the ants. But he doesn’t realize Pym can change back to normal size. Weems leaves the room and Hank sizes up and grabs his helmet, although he is still elderly.

Meanwhile, Weems goes to city hall to try and seek his vengeance. He is able to age up a few folks but he doesn’t know Ant-Man is in the crowd and can once again control ants. Before Weems gets too far, his grandson shows up and recognizes him. Weems realizes his grandson is now aging so he tries to reverse the ray but he drops it. Ant-Man gets his ants together to go and attack Weems but as he sees the ray drop, Henry commands the ants to catch the ray gun instead. Henry reverses the controls on the gun and de-ages everyone, including himself, as fast as he can.

Weems is arrested but in court, Ant-Man sticks up for him, saying Weems did everything because he was afraid of losing his grandson’s affection. Weems’ old employer also wises up and realizes this old guy was able to invent a pretty nifty ray so he hires Weems once more.

For once the story ends pretty happily and no one goes to prison. No one was really hurt and I guess we all learned not to discriminate against 65 year olds? Glad that got solved. But anyway, this was a kind of silly story but nice to see it end without the usual bad guy in jail but still a threat later kind of thing.

One of the more interesting things about this issue is this is one of the last stories where Ant-Man doesn’t have a partner. His whole dynamic is about to change, and not necessarily for the better.

Next time we’ll be checking in with the man in the armored suit as we read about Tony Stark in Tales of Suspense #41!