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Marvel 616 Review – Tales to Astonish #45

Photo Credit: Marvel, Writers: Stan Lee, Ernie Hart, Artist: Don Heck

Now that Henry Pym, aka Ant-Man has found a partner in his effort to fight crime, he’s got an advantage. For the most part, ol’ Hank has been able to defeat villains with very little trouble, mostly due to his ant allies. But, there is one person who came pretty darn close to defeating Ant-Man. We last saw Egghead “wanted by the police and hunted by the underworld as he holes up in a dingy bowery flophouse…” in Tales to Astonish #38. Ant-Man has since had a few adventures and met Janet Van Dyne who has now become The Wasp.

Will this duo be able to stop the nefarious plans of one of the smarter criminals in Marvel 616? Let’s find out.

While the cover of this issue, created by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers is great, I think in this issue they missed out by not putting the amazing teaser panel from the first page drawn by Don Heck on the cover. It’s got an ant-eater and Egghead looming over Ant-Man and the Wasp and it better illustrates the dire position our heroes are in. And it makes you wonder why no other villain has tried this yet.

Just look at that! I’ve never seen a more menacing ant-eater in my life.

The issue then goes on to give us some narration about how Ant-Man defeated Egghead in the past and Egghead is looking to wipe out that defeat.

We are then treated to a long recap of what happened before. This is extremely common in early Marvel 616 for a number of reasons. First, since comics were only ever sold as single issues at the time, if a new reader picked one up they might be lost if they had not read a previous issue. But it was also a way to save time and money for Marvel. There was no need to create new art when you could simply reuse existing art. Sometimes new captions or narrations are added but a lot of it is simply the same panels over and over again.

Rather than summarize this section for you here, I’ll just refer you to my review of the issue where these events took place, Tales to Astonish #38. If you don’t want to read that to refresh your memory, suffice it to say, Egghead assumed the ants were the unwilling slaves of Ant-Man when, in fact, they are his willing partners and friends. Egghead was too narcissistic to realize people (and ants) can work together.

When we finally catch up to the present, two thugs happen to be in the same brewery flophouse (I still love the way that is phrased here) where Eggman is staying. These two thugs are named Twister and Ape. And much to Eggman’s delight they are talking about how they were lucky to get away from Ant-Man and The Wasp.

Egghead is smart enough to spark up an alliance with the two men. First, he asks for them to tell him all about The Wasp. For the recap of that, we only get a single panel where Twister says, “…And that’s the whole story! Ant-Man and The Wasp are partners now!” To be fair, this did happen quite recently so it’s probably still fresh in most readers minds so less of a recap was needed. Twister remembers hearing about Egghead nearly defeating Ant-Man so he and Ape agree to the alliance.

Egghead decides to take on a new identity and he says, “Every man has his achilles heel! We will strike at Ant-Man through his… The Wasp!” Yes, Ant-Man’s The Wasp. Well spoken Egghead!

Egghead who has been thoroughly defeated and was living in a “brewery flophouse” then gets a bunch of scientific equipment from… somewhere I guess? Outside of Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four, the issue of money doesn’t come up a lot in early 616. Especially not for villains.

Egghead makes a machine that can intercept and scramble the signals from the ants to Ant-Man.

Next, he creates a disguise and establishes himself as Professor Carl Striker, Zoologist. He puts on brilliant lectures about insects, well attended by the public. I would think it would be easier to just go on faking you are a zoologist and making some money that way than going up against a super hero duo, but Egghead really wants that revenge.

And wouldn’t you know it? In attendance at the lecture are Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne. The zoologist seems kind of familiar to Henry Pym but he can’t quite place the guy.

And we get a fun panel telling any new readers who these two are.

Egghead’s next move is to lecture at the city zoo and build a fascinating exhibit about wasps. He figures Ant-Man and The Wasp won’t be able to resist showing up. But, as in all good villain team ups, signs of friction begin. Ape and Twister have been running around helping Egghead but not gotten much in return.

Egghead promises the crooks that once Ant-Man and The Wasp are out of the way, he’ll be able to cook up a bunch of perfect crimes that will make them all rich.

Construction on the exhibit begins and Egghead makes sure everything is as precisely detailed as it would be if a real zoologist did it. And we hear in the background a news item about a famous diamond which is about to be cut into a pendant for a priceless necklace.

Egghead plans to use this diamond as bait to capture The Wasp. As the zoo exhibit is being set up, a zoo attendant questions why the wasp exhibit is going into the reptile enclosure but Twister just snaps at the guy. Ape mentions the only thing he’s scared of is snakes.

As the professor Striker, Egghead has somehow obtained blueprints of the place where the diamond is going to be cut. Twister is supposed to take a “dewelding gun” which can cut the alarm wires while Ape is to bring along the insect message interceptor.

Sure enough, the crooks get inside and send out the scrambled insect messages. Hank Pym figures out there is something wrong with the messages and he immediately calls up Janet.

The messages suddenly clear up and Ant-Man is informed by the ants there is a robbery at the diamond cutter’s. Ant-Man uses his catapult and The Wasp flies over to the address. But, it’s too late, the diamond is missing. Henry can’t find any clues to the culprit but he figures they are smart and will strike again.

Twister and Ape want to fence the diamond but Egghead is only using it for bait. The tension between the three increase but they ultimately decide to go along with Egghead’s plan. They rig the reptile enclosure into an elaborate trap which can send electrical current through every crack an ant can crawl through.

Ape wants to know why they don’t just step on Ant-Man and Egghead just replies, “He’s not that easy to step on, my friend!” I know Egghead is smart, but I think Ape kind of has a point here.

They set up the display so The Wasp will notice the diamond and enter into a trap they have created. Janet sees the diamonds in an oversized replica of a wasp’s nest and has a moment where she thinks through what to do. And, she pines for Henry in the process.

That night, Janet returns as The Wasp. She goes into the nest, without realizing bad guys are watching her. And inside the nest is some sort of strange maze. Egghead has made special shoes which won’t allow ants to crawl up on the crooks. He also tells Ape to put the iguana in the aquarium. Egghead figures The Wasp will have to contact Ant-Man.

Sure enough, that’s exactly what happens. Henry is annoyed because he told her not to do any jobs alone but of course, he’s really worried some harm may come to her.

The crooks wear magnifying goggles so they can see Ant-Man and trap him into the aquarium with the iguana. Egghead did allow Ant-Man a fighting chance because he left a pin there. Ant-Man uses that to defeat the iguana off panel. I feel bad for the iguana though, it didn’t do anything wrong.

Ant-Man uses springs in his shoes to jump out of the glass case. Meanwhile, Janet has figured out where Hank fell through into the cage. She’s able to fly to that opening to escape. The two are reunited but now is when we finally get the ant-eater.

Egghead tells Ant-Man there is no escape and tells him about the electric wire which will, “electrocute any insect or insect-sized creature that attempts to pass over it!” Diabolical.

But Ant-Man has a tiny lasso he created from “strands of steel-strong synthetic fiber.” He loops that around the ant-eater’s snout and tosses the ant-eater into the crooks. Again, I feel bad for the animal here. The Wasp disables the electrical wire.

Egghead tells his fellow criminals to use their water pistols filled with liquid gas to stop the heroes. But, The Wasp has recovered the pin Ant-Man used to defeat the iguana. She sticks Egghead who drops his gun and realizes she has found her sting, “The one thing, as The Wasp, that I had lacked!” She makes the other crooks drop their weapons as well.

Ape is trapped in his worst nightmare, surrounded by snakes. Egghead has somehow fled the scene before Hank or Janet noticed.

Hank lectures Janet saying, “As for you, young lady, don’t you ever try anything like that again! We’re a team— and we’ll work as a team! Understand?!” And Janet just wishes Hank could realize how in love with him she is.

And once again, Egghead gets away but from the last panel we know, he is still a threat and will be back. Thus ends the issue.

Tales to Astonish is still, at this point, an anthology series. But with Ant-Man consistently taking over half of the pages, having repeat villains, and a partner who is beginning to be established as a love interest, it feels like there is not much point to the other stories. It will still be some time before Ant-Man is let loose from these pages but it will happen eventually.

While I think there are plenty of egg shaped holes in Egghead’s plan, he did come up with something much more elaborate than any other villain in this series has. And he’s not done yet. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Next up on the reading list, put on your best armor because we’ll be catching up with Tony Stark aka Iron Man himself in the pages of Tales of Suspense #43!

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Marvel 616 Review – Tales to Astonish #44

Tales to Astonish 44, Photo Credit: Marvel Writers: Stan Lee, Ernie Hart, Artist: Jack Kirby

Up to this point in the Marvel 616 comics we’ve had plenty of stories staring Henry Pym, aka Ant-Man. For the most part these have been short stories featuring our hero taking on crime of one kind or another. Quite often he has faced off against communists. We know he is a brilliant scientist who does secretive work for the government but it would be false to say we’ve ever gotten a full understanding of his motivations. There haven’t been any stories which really dive into his background, he’s just kind of there.

This all starts to change when Henry Pym gets his partner in peril in Tales to Astonish 44. This is both his first full length story and introduces The Wasp to the 616 universe.

Technically Tales to Astonish is an anthology series and in this issue there is a backup story after the main story of Ant-Man but as far as I can tell it does not relate to the rest of the 616 continuity. But this is still the most amount of pages dedicated to Ant-Man we have seen in a single issue. And, truth be told, at this point it was Ant-Man who was selling the magazine.

The issue starts with a teaser page that looks a lot like the cover but basically acknowledges that we haven’t really had a back story for Hank Pym up to this point and promises us one here.

The story itself starts with Ant-Man coming back from some heroic mission to his lab where he tells his ants to return to nature and lets them know he will call them again when needed. Pym releases his growth gas and goes back to human size.

Ant-Man takes a break and laments how he must always be alone and can’t reveal his secret identity to anyone. And he mentions someone named Maria for the first time.

It turns out, Maria, was Henry’s wife. We see in flashback panels that Henry and Maria went to Hungary for their honeymoon where Maria and her father had once been political prisoners. Hank has some valid concerns about going there but Maria says they won’t know her since she is now Mrs. Pym rather than Maria Trovaya.

For a brief moment in time the two have a good time together and Hank wishes he could always be on vacation with Maria. She replies that he is becoming a lazy husband and tells him her father always used to say. “go to the ants, thou dullard!” I think that’s supposed to just be a way of saying don’t be lazy but it lays the groundwork for Henry’s future fascination with ants.

The bliss cannot last long as Maria is kidnapped at gunpoint. Although Hank tries to stop the men, he gets pistol whipped and goes to the American embassy. While he is there, the embassy receives a call. Maria’s body was found with a note which said, “This is what happens to those who attempt to escape from behind the iron curtain!”

Now all this communist hunting Ant-Man has done in previous issues makes a heck of a lot more sense. The dude is looking to even the score. But as if that were not bad enough, as they attacked Maria in Hungary, back in the states they also blew up the lab where Maria’s father worked.

Hank storms out of there furious and vowing revenge. But within a few days he ends up in jail,”on the verge of a mental and physical breakdown!”

Henry Pym was unable to track down and find the killers but the American embassy has arranged for him to be set free and sent back to America.

Not knowing what else to do, Hank thinks about the past and about his wife. And then he remembers what she said. The funny part of this is that he actually misquotes her from a few panels before as he quotes her as, “Go to the ants, thou sluggard!”

Henry then works tirelessly to invent his reducing gas, perfect his cybernetic helmet and become Ant-Man. It has a Batman feel to it as Henry is basically vowing to wipe out crime because someone he cared about was a victim of it. The difference though is that Henry takes a decidedly scientific approach to it.

Back in the present, Ant-Man decides doing this himself is not going to be enough. What he wants is a partner who can carry on his mission in the case of his death. But he doesn’t know anyone he can trust with his secret identity and who would have the attitude to take on the task.

Just in case he ever does meet this person, Dr. Pym studies wasps and realizes he can shrink a human and give them wasp-like wings and antennae.

At that very moment, fate steps in as his doorbell rings. A Dr. Vernon Van Dyne has come to see the famous Pym. Dr. Van Dyne is also a scientist and he has brought his daughter Janet with him. Hank lets them in and is struck by how much Janet looks like his dead wife. Although, he admits she is not much more than a child at this point. Janet, for her part thinks Henry is handsome but figures he’s a bore since he is a bookish scientist.

Interestingly, what Dr. Van Dyne wants sounds more like something that would be worked on by Dr. Bruce Banner. he is working on a gamma-ray beam to pierce space and detect signals from other planets. Henry admits he has heard of Van Dyne’s work but says his specialty is in molecular cell transition and cell specialization. Van Dyne wants the beam strengthened but leaves Dr. Pym alone.

Despite the lack of help, Dr. Van Dyne is able to get his beam to work. This turns out to be his demise. Some vast, shapeless, darkness comes at him and starts to take form. This alien thing comes into the lab and Van Dyne asks what it is.

It tells him, “I am from the planet Kosmos deep in space! We of Kosmos are a fluid form of life! I escaped down the path of your ray to this, your planet!”

Dr. Van Dyne keys in on the word escaped and the creature admits it is a criminal who nearly enslaved his whole society. And he figures if he failed there, maybe he can succeed here on Earth.

The alien commands the good doctor to look into its eyes. Van Dyne tries to resist but is unable to. The creature smashes the lab and Janet returns to find an awful mist and her father dead. Not knowing what else to do, Janet calls Henry Pym because she knows her father trusted the man.

At first Henry Pym doesn’t believe Janet and thinks she is just a, “bored society playgirl” who is trying to get her kicks by making up stories. But in short order, ants confirm the situation through Pym’s cybernetic helmet.

He goes into action as Ant-Man and shows up at Dr. Van Dyne’s lab where Janet is understandably upset. Ant-Man tells her he is there to help. She thought he was a myth, which is odd, since there have been literal newspaper stories about him in the past but we’ll let that slide for now. Janet explains the situation and Hank figures out right away it had to be some kind of alien force to have done the type of damage to the lab he sees.

And in what seems to be the first instance of an Avenger wanting to avenge something, Janet Van Dyne knows what she wants to do. She wants to avenge her father.

Hank tells Janet to call the F.B.I. and ask for Lee Kearns and tell him what happened. He then instructs her to go to the lab of Henry Pym. Janet agrees.

Oddly, the ants that accompanied Ant-Man have left him alone. He catches up to them and asks why they left. They tell him that whatever was in there secrets formic acid like the ants do but it is alien and they are afraid. Henry has them take him back to his lab and spread out to look for the monster and go to the F.B.I. headquarters to see what they find out there.

Hank grows back to human size and meets Janet at the door. He asks if Janet really would do anything to avenge her father’s death and risk anything for justice. She says not only that but she wishes she could help track down all criminals.

For the first time ever, Dr. Henry Pym reveals to someone else that he is Ant-Man and tells Janet he needs a partner. It’s quite a fateful moment in the history of the 616 because here we have the foundations for what will one day become The Avengers. We’ve been introduced to Thor, Iron-Man, Ant-Man, The Hulk, and now The Wasp. It will still take some time but these are all founding members of the super group and Janet Van Dyne should not be underestimated here.

Janet agrees to become Hank’s partner and The Wasp. Moments later, Dr. Pym has injected Janet with wasp cells, shrunken her down, given her an outfit which seems to perfectly fit her, and allowed her to grow wings and antennae which is only possible for her to have while she is small.

Meanwhile, Kosmos seems to be tearing up the city. He smashes the Van Dyne lab, destroys the docks and causes a general commotion.

Hank gets word of this from his ants and tells Janet to change into her new costume. We get confirmation for the first time that Ant-Man actually lives in New York as he sees Kosmos head towards the George Washington bridge and clearing out Manhattan.

Ant-Man gives some quick instructions to Janet on how to use the reducing and enlarging gas and how she can communicate with the insect world through her antennae. They launch themselves into the air with Ant-Man’s miniature cannon and immediately Janet is hooked on adventuring.

Not only that, she tells Hank, in case they are killed, that she is falling in love with him. For his part, Hank gives a pretty hard no here, although with his background we all know he can love someone. He says, “No! You mustn’t say that, Janet! You’re only a child! Let’s get this straight… I chose you as my partner simply because I thought you had a reason, as I have to fight for mankind! I never want to love again! I– I couldn’t bear it if I had to lose a loved one– twice!”

This basically sets up the relationship dynamic we’ll see with these two for years to come. It will come to be much worse than this sort of thing but we’ll review that when we get there.

Hank’s rebuke only makes Janet more determined to make him fall in love with her. And Hank realizes if he is not careful, he will fall in love with her.

Ant-Man then introduces his ants to The Wasp and the ants tell Henry they can’t confront Kosmos.

The military comes to try to stop Kosmos but they retreat in fear. Janet decides to tackle the problem head on herself. Janet seems to be drawn to the creature but Hank saves her. He realizes he can defeat this thing through science and the pair go back to the lab. Hank whips up the antidote to formic acid, realizing the creature is mostly made of formic acid. They become Ant-Man and The Wasp once more but this time they have the ants carry shotguns filled with pellets full of the antidote.

They make it up to a rooftop and fire the shotgun at the creature and luckily for humanity this does stop Kosmos. Janet cheers and puts her arm around Hank who tells her, “Er.. we— we’d better get back to the lab! And from now on you must not display such emotion! It– it isn’t proper!”

Janet seems to just be happy she made him blush. Back at the lab Henry calls Lee Kearns at the F.B.I. and tells him everything is okay. Kearns says he wants to meet Ant-Man because they share the same goals and Ant-Man can’t keep going it alone. Looking at Janet, Hank replies, “I’m not going it alone, Kearns… not anymore… not ever again!”

In her mind, Janet vows to always be beside Hank and make him love her but until that day she will be his partner as The Wasp. The issue ends here but we know we have a lot more in store for these two.

This is absolutely a landmark issue for 616. It introduces a backstory for Henry Pym, finally gives him some motivation for what he has been doing, and provides a love interest and important character in her own right. No matter the problematic nature of the relationship between these two, this is the most fleshed out, well rounded, and best Ant-Man story so far. It also starts to feel like the pieces are coming together to tell a much larger story, although at the time readers would not have known this.

This issue also finally puts Ant-Man in the same city as The Fantastic Four and Spider-Man so our heroes are beginning to gather.

Next up on the reading list we’ll be checking in with another character who has it out for communists as we read about Iron Man in the pages of Tales of Suspense #42!

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Marvel 616 Review – Tales to Astonish #43

Tales to Astonish Issue 43 Artwork by Don Heck, Written by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber

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!

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Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Hello internet people and insects, it’s Slick Dungeon here, and I’m back to review another movie. This time I watched the weird world of the quantum realm in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. If reading film spoilers makes you feel like you have ants in your pants, go watch the movie and come back here to read the review because there will be spoilers ahead. Just a side note I don’t usually review Marvel films on this blog but this year I am trying to do a review of everything I see in theaters and since I saw this in theaters, I wanted to review it here.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the third film in the Ant-Man franchise, the first film of the fifth phase of the MCU, and I don’t know, like the millionth film in the MCU. Spoilers follow so, once again, you have been warned. This film starts with a flashback to when Janet Van Dyne (Michell Pfeiffer) was trapped in the quantum realm. This is a universe that exists below the surface of our own, on a sub-atomic scale. I would wonder how people can breathe there but let’s just ignore that for now. In the quantum realm, Janet meets a stranger named Kang (Jonathan Majors). If you’ve seen Loki on Disney+ you know exactly who this is, and that he is dangerous.

The movie then shifts to present day and injects a good dose of comedy with Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) going through his day, being recognized as Spider-Man, posing for selfies with dogs, and doing book signings of his book. We get the idea Scott realizes things get weird in his life and he’s sort of okay with that fact. He saved the world, and he’s back with his daughter. Things are going well, but… he gets a call that his daughter is in jail for shrinking a cop car during a political protest. Scott meets up with Cassie (Kathryn Newton), Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lily) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). It turns out Cassie has been working on a project which can send signals into the quantum realm and broadcast them back. Janet tries to shut the whole thing down as soon as she learns about it but the whole little family of ant/insect heroes ends up getting sucked into the quantum realm.

In the quantum realm things get weird pretty fast. There are bizarre creatures, sentient buildings, human looking people who are not human, and… Bill Murray. There’s also the introduction of one of the weirdest characters in Marvel comics history to the MCU, that of M.O.D.O.K. Just in case anyone hasn’t seen the movie I don’t want to give the reveal of who this is and how they became the ultimate killing machine but it’s probably weirder than you would have guessed and it’s not the best interpretation of the character from the comics but it works well enough.

The movie goes on with Scott trying to get everyone home and Janet trying to prevent Kang from threatening Earth. It’s standard superhero action with a bizarre background of characters more at home in Guardians of the Galaxy than in any previous Ant-Man movie. You won’t find the film stretching its muscles too far or doing anything truly innovative but there are some stand out reasons to watch the movie.

First of all, it is a little refreshing to break out of the last phase of movies with the set up of a major villain who can be seen in multiple Marvel projects. Second, it’s got a good amount of fun action to it, and the weirdness of the movie makes it feel more fun than it might have otherwise. Finally, every second Jonathan Majors appears on screen is compelling. His talents shine here and while it might seem silly to have him in an Ant-Man movie, it really works in the quantum realm. It’s not the best MCU movie by any stretch of the imagination but what it did do was get me excited for what might come next, and it has been a while since a Marvel movie has done that.

If you’re a die hard MCU lover, of course you will enjoy this. If you’re a casual fan who has seen most of the movies you’ll probably like it well enough. If you haven’t watched a good chunk of the MCU, this will seem like an insane mess of a movie. If the latter is you, go back to the early movies and let the crazy stuff build up over time.

Microscopically yours,

Slick Dungeon

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Marvel 616 Review – Tales to Astonish #42

Tales to Astonish Issue 42 Photo Credit: Marvel Writer: Stan Lee, Art: Don Heck

There are a number of heroes in Marvel 616 who are not well liked by the public. The Hulk is almost universally hated, Spider-Man has a decidedly split opinion even in his own neighborhood, and even the Fantastic Four have on occasion been the subject of public ire. Not so for Henry Pym, aka The Ant-Man. Later in his career there will definitely be things he is hated for doing but in this story, it’s important to remember the public either likes Ant-Man or is indifferent to him. To have a crowd turn on this hero would be unusual.

Yet that is exactly what a man named Jason Cragg does. Jason Cragg has a special power. He is introduced to us as he steps on a soap box and begins to speak, proclaiming, “I, Jason Cragg speak truth! Truth!” The crowd instantly trusts him. As Cragg does this, Pym just happens to be passing by as Ant-Man and seems completely unaffected. He’s wearing his cybernetic helmet and figures that must be somehow blocking whatever this voice is doing to the crowd. Cragg stirs up the crowd and tells them they should drive Ant-Man from the city.

We then get a flashback to a few weeks prior. You see, Jason Cragg was a radio announcer who was not good at his job. After delivering an ad one of the executives at the station says, “He sounds as convincing as a wet sponge.”

All super villains have to have origin stories. Some are amazing and super interesting and mind blowing. This… this is not one of those. At a nearby atomic experimental laboratory there was an accident where radiation levels were getting too high. Some of the particles seeped out before the scientist regained control and those radioactive particles apparently… went into the microphone Jason Cragg was speaking into at the time. Yep, supervillain via radioactive microphone. Why the particles went to that particular spot on the planet is in no way explained so, yeah radioactive mic is about all the backstory we get here.

Cragg finishes giving his ad over the air and suddenly everyone is buying the dog food he is advertising. My favorite line from this issue is a result of this ad, “We don’t even have a dog, but we can eat it ourselves!” That’s how persuasive Jason Cragg has suddenly become.

Cragg realizes his voice is what is causing this to happen and quits his job and just uses his voice to get free stuff like train tickets and steak dinners. That is until he happens upon Ant-Man in the middle of defeating some thugs. The police and public all praise Ant-Man and Cragg decides he has to test his mettle against Ant-Man. He figures if he can defeat Ant-Man he can defeat anyone. And with Ant-Man gone Cragg can basically rule the city.

Cragg goes on to tell such bold faced lies about Ant-Man as, “He pretends to be your friend, but he secretly despises you, as he does all who are normal-sized!” The crowd falls prey to these falsities and start to turn against Hank Pym.

Meanwhile, Ant-Man is getting an award from the police at their headquarters. Cragg interrupts and tells the police to arrest Ant-Man. They can’t resist and do try to capture our hero. Ant-Man uses a rubber band to launch himself away and avoids capture.

Cragg convinces the whole town to start looking for Ant-Man. Somebody gets the idea to use magnets so they can latch onto Ant-Man’s metal helmet. He has to remove the helmet, thus becoming susceptible to Cragg’s voice, in order to remain free.

Using his radioactive voice, Cragg demands Ant-Man reveals himself. Pym resists but ultimately is compelled to obey. Cragg wants to rid the world of Ant-Man but he’s no master villain. He literally has Ant-Man in the palm of his hand but instead of trying to smush him or anything like that, Cragg tells Pym to walk off the pier and make no attempt to swim or save himself from drowning.

Don’t worry too much though, this is an Ant-Man story and Cragg forgot one thing. Ants. Yeah, ants save Hank, even without a cybernetic command. They’ve gotten to know him and tend to show up whenever he is around so they get him out of the water pretty quick. Ant-Man escapes but Cragg vows to have one last battle with him.

Pym heads home where we get another diagram of his little elevator setup which allows him to get back into his lab even when he is small. Pym waits and watches until he hears Cragg is going to be a guest speaker on a television show. Pym decides that’s the place to confront Cragg.

We see Hank shrink down to ant size again and mention yet again his clothes are made of unstable molecules. He then uses his ants to infiltrate a building and grab a bottle of what Pym refers to as germs.

After that he heads over to the TV studio as Henry Pym. At some point he changes back to Ant-Man, although we don’t see it this time, so he can get his hands on a prop gun. As Cragg goes on the stage, Ant-Man climbs up his leg. Henry gets into Cragg’s ear and tells him to do exactly what he says. Pym reveals a gun pointed at Cragg, held by the ants. Pym basically tells Cragg to come clean and let the city know Ant-Man is on the level. Cragg doesn’t seem to care because he figures he can just contradict himself later. He clears Ant-Man’s name and Hank tells Cragg the gun was never loaded.

Cragg gets right back on the mic and tries to turn the crowd against Ant-Man but his voice isn’t working right anymore. See, Hank Pym arrived early and put microbes that cause laryngitis on the microphone. The crowd immediately turns on Cragg and drums him right out of town.

We end the issue with Henry Pym reflecting on the fact Cragg had a great power that could have been used for good.

So, to sum up the story here, a guy who was near a microphone got a super powered voice and tried to turn a city against its hero only to be defeated by a different microphone with laryngitis on it. Man, I love comics.

There’s not a lot significant in terms of the 616 universe that happens here. It’s mostly a silly story but it’s fun in its own way. It mostly just reaffirms Ant-Man as one of the good guys. It seems like Cragg was set up to be a repeat villain but I’m not sure if we do ever see him again. If so, I wonder if there will be any changes as to how he gets his power back.

Up next on the reading list we will be checking in on a brilliant inventor who has a suit of iron in the pages of Tales of Suspense #40!

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Marvel 616 Review – Tales to Astonish #41

Tales to Astonish Issue 41 Photo Credit: Marvel

By issue 41 Tales to Astonish has truly become Ant-Man’s book. He stars as the lead story in every issue although he still shares pages with one-off stories which have nothing to do with him. However, there are only so many stories one can come up with involving a guy who shrinks and controls insects.

This issue is by no means an inspired story. In fact, it’s kind of a lazy story, even by Ant-Man standards. Henry Pym is always fighting communists, street thugs, or aliens. This issue aliens are the enemy.

We start out with Henry Pym looking to visit a fellow scientist. Pym knows his friend Paul must be in because Pym was invited to see a new formula. When Pym knocks, there is no answer, so Henry figures Paul is in his lab and the most sensible thing to do is to change to Ant-Man to make sure his buddy is okay. After all, he could be ill.

We get yet another reminder that Henry Pym wears clothes made of unstable molecules so his clothes shrink with him. We also are reminded about the cybernetic helmet Pym has which allows him to control ants. Pym calls an ant and rides in through the keyhole. After a thorough search it becomes apparent Paul is not there. Henry figures something must have happened to him. He also sees on the news scientists are disappearing all over the place. Pym figures it’s likely to happen to him. But he also figures he can handle it as Ant-Man.

For a smart scientist who surely must work in a secure lab, Henry next makes about the dumbest mistake he possibly could, casually allowing a random window washer into his lab.

Henry Pym makes a mistake. Photo Credit Marvel, story by Stan Lee, Art by Don Heck

Well, to no one’s surprise this window washer is up to no good. He pours a chemical on Henry, thus paralyzing the scientist.

We next get to see a scene happening in another dimension of space and time. This is where all the missing scientists have gone because an alien warlord, named Kulla wants them to develop a weapon called an electro-death ray. Any scientist who speaks out or challenges Kulla ends up in the dungeons.

Back in our dimension the window washer puts a strange metal gadget on his and Pym’s head. This device transports them to Kulla’s dimension. The window washer is in on this scheme for the money and doesn’t care about the ethics of it all. The other scientists are concerned to see Pym also kidnapped and they have even more concern once Pym starts shouting, “Down with all tyrants! Down with Kulla!” He is immediately dragged to the dungeons.

This, of course, gives Pym the chance to change to Ant-Man and help everyone out. Henry does discover some alien insects on this world but his helmet doesn’t work right away because they seem to communicate on a different frequency than ants on Earth do. Lucky for our hero, he retains his full human strength so the bugs are no real problem.

It takes a moment but he gets the helmet adjusted so he can communicate with the insects. He then sneaks out of the dungeon. The other scientists have just completed the death ray and Ant-Man accidentally crosses an electronic beam signaling to Kulla there is an intruder.

Everyone in the room sees Ant-Man and the scientists are left to wonder how the hero arrived in this dimension. But, they’re quite happy to see him since he can likely save the day.

There’s a bit of hiding and a chase around the room until Kulla’s guards spot Ant-Man and douse him with the same chemical the window washer used. Ant-Man is not defeated because he has his helmet and he aims the electro-death ray right at Kulla with the help of the alien insects. The insects also open the door to the fortress Kulla was staying in and the regular people of the planet are overjoyed to see the warlord dead and his minions captured.

While all this is happening, Ant-Man dashes back to the dungeon so he can change back to Henry Pym and the scientists will be none the wiser about who is Ant-Man.

The window washer isn’t concerned with his own predicament because he figures the scientists aren’t police and he’s got no reason to worry. But, the people of this world decide to keep the window washer there until he truly reforms. With the use of the helmets the scientists get back to Earth and lament the fact Kulla could have put his scientific knowledge to use for good but did not. And then the scientists wonder once again where Ant-Man came from to help them.

Henry Pym answers, “Perhaps it doesn’t matter how the Ant-Man gets where he does! Just so we know that whenever he is needed… he’s always there!”

In all, it’s a fairly forgettable issue and about the only thing making this one memorable is that a brilliant scientist was easily tricked by a fake window washer.

Next up on the reading list, we’re finally going to catch up with the wall crawler himself once again in, Amazing Spider-Man #1!

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Marvel 616 Comic Book Review – Tales to Astonish #40

Tales to Astonish Issue 40 Photo Credit: Marvel

Tales to Astonish always features a few stories but with the consistent use of Ant-Man as the featured character on the cover, the book basically belongs to him. Hank Pym has gone on several adventures as a costumed super hero and so far things have worked out fairly well for him.

The police see him as someone they can rely on, he’s getting paid by the government to invent new products, and in general, the public likes him. When you are this set up for success there has to come a point where you fail. Of course, as one might imagine from reading the cover, Ant-man is not actually going to fail. After all, what hero does? In the end the good guys and gals will win out.

This particular story reads very much like an old episode of Scooby-Doo.

It starts with Hank in his lab creating a gas mask made of unstable molecules. Sharp readers of 616 comics know unstable molecules are used in all kinds of things for superheroes. The Fantastic Four have costumes made out of these molecules so they can wear clothes and still use their powers. It was a way of explaining why Sue Storm could be invisible without removing her clothing, why Reed can stretch and his clothes don’t rip and why Johnny Storm’s clothes don’t burn up the instant he flames on. It’s also why Hank can shrink to the size of an ant and his clothes still fit him. It seems Stan Lee hit on what he thought was a good scientific sounding (but not actually scientific) reason to explain all sorts of things.

Anyway, this gas mask Hank invents shrinks to the size of the wearer’s head which I guess is something the government is looking for.

Next we see some security guards who can’t seem to remember what just happened. Their armored truck is gone and it seems a villain known as The Hijacker has struck once again.

Howard Mitchell, who owns the Mitchell Armored Truck company is furious at his guards and wishes he could contact Hank as he says, “Only the Ant-Man would be clever enough to catch the Hijacker!” Of course, ants are everywhere and it is no surprise Hank Pym does pick up on this message. He has a watch which picks up signals from the ants telling him to don his cybernetic helmet to find out what is happening.

From the background of the panel we can see Hank has a very sophisticated computer system set up. There are tape reels and everything plus lots of switches so you know it’s modern technology. Hank narrows down what sector of the city the ants are signaling from and hops into his costume and launches himself from his catapult. I’m still not certain how the catapult could be so accurate as to get Hank around corners but we’ll just let that go for the moment. He lands on a pile of ants, after nearly missing them, and makes his way to Mitchell’s office.

Mitchell gives Ant-Man the rundown of what has been happening and asks for help. Henry first asks Mitchell to announce one of his trucks is going to make a huge shipment. Mitchell reluctantly agrees and then Henry asks Mitchell about his, “primitive art” asking if it is Inca in origin. Mitchell answers, “I spent some time with the Indians in the jungle! But that’s unimportant now!”

Occasionally, (well sometimes frequently actually) you run into some pretty bad stereotyping in old Marvel comics. We probably do need to look at these through the lens of the time they were written in but this still does not excuse much of what shows up on the page. From the art being called primitive and drawn very stereotypically to the ridiculous false mysticism which will later be mentioned in the issue, these things are hard to read. But, as far as this goes, this issue is one of the milder instances of harsh stereotyping and not nearly as problematic as some of the characters which will show up soon in the pages of Iron Man. That being said, for the plot of the story, knowing Mitchell has Inca statues and was in the jungle for a year is key to the end of the book.

As Hank leaves he tells Mitchell, “Don’t Worry! Whoever he is– however he operates– the Ant-Man will defeat him! I promise you!”

The next day the guards are loading up the truck and very relieved when Ant-Man shows up. Before the shipment can leave, however, Hank says he is in great pain, likely with appendicitis. The guards are upset but can’t blame the poor guy because it could happen to anyone, including Ant-Man.

Hank rides off on an ant but Mitchell decides to proceed with the delivery. Thus, Ant-Man leaving the scene is, “The first time the Ant-Man’s ever failed anyone!” according to one of the guards. Soon the armored truck comes upon a moving van stalled and in the way. The guards think about getting out to help but before they do the back of the van opens and a huge magnet is used to pull the armored vehicle into the moving van.

The Hijacker appears and lets out a gas grenade, knocking out all of the guards. But, surprise, Ant-Man was only faking his appendicitis and snuck onto the armored vehicle. He uses a catapult and a model airplane to do it and he’s sure to put his gas mask on.

There’s a bit of a chase where Hank ends up in the ignition of the car and then ends up on the engine block. Unfortunately for him, the Hijacker thinks to blast the horn as loud as he can, making Hank grab his ears. It takes a bit and an editors note explaining once again how Ant-Man still retains his human strength when small but Hank pulls out some engine wires to kill the horn.

With the help of some ants, Henry Pym is able to jump onto the Hijacker’s gas mask and tear it open. Once the Hijacker falls to the ground unconscious, Hank pulls the mask off to reveal… It’s Howard Mitchell. Hank suspected Howard as soon as he saw the “primitive art statues” and knew Mitchell had spent time in the jungles of Peru. Apparently, according to Hank Pym, “the Indians there have an ancient vapor, the inhaling of which causes a lapse of memory!”

This explains why Ant-Man had to fake appendicitis. He needed to convince Mitchell he wouldn’t interfere, therefore allowing Mitchell to commit the crime Hank suspects him of.

While this twist is not very original and it’s ridiculous in a lot of ways, this will not be the last time strange things are blamed on mysterious vapors coming from any number of jungles in the Marvel 616 continuity.

Mitchell was losing money at his company and thought he could make it back by stealing it from his own customers. As Tony Stark might say, “Not a great plan.”

This prompts the guards to realize Ant-Man has not actually failed and one of them says, “Mister, even when that guy fails, He wins! That’s the Ant-Man for you!”

Something to mention here is this attitude is completely different than the public has for most of the rest of the heroes in the 616. The Fantastic Four are sometimes beloved figures but they also have a contingent of serious detractors and the public turns on them frequently. The Hulk is almost never seen as a real hero, even though he does things which are notably heroic, often things similar to what Hank Pym does such as stopping communists from stealing secret plans. Spider-Man is anything but loved at his debut. Probably the only hero who is also popular at this point of the 616 universe would be Thor. The majority of people who have seen him in action do appreciate Thor but so far Ant-Man would be polling best with the public in the fictional version of the 616 universe.

Next up on the reading list we’ll be checking in with The Human Torch as he stars in Strange Tales #106!

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Marvel 616 Comic Book Review – Tales to Astonish #39

Tales to Astonish Issue 39 Photo Credit: Marvel

While The Fantastic Four, Thor, and even The Incredible Hulk chug along nicely with their stories in the early days of Marvel 616, Ant-Man has sort of struggled to gain footing in the pages of Tales to Astonish. His powers are pretty interesting and what he does with them can be intriguing but he hasn’t gained a real nemesis and his stories are fairly run of the mill superhero stuff. Which leads us to issue 39 of Tales to Astonish where things get rather strange. That’s saying something for a guy who has insect based powers but the issue here really demands a lot of suspension of disbelief.

As you can probably tell from the cover, the story involves an oversized beetle with an attitude problem. Right there it seems the issue will be different, which is not a bad thing, but the story, unfortunately, doesn’t really live up to its potential.

The issue begins with Henry Pym, as usual, monitoring the activities of the insect world. He can see there is something brewing, something “strange– and dangerous!” He does the logical thing and hops into the Ant-Man suit to go investigate. We see him launch out of his secret catapult and there is a handy note to the reader telling us “Although unnoticed by other eyes, the building which houses Henry Pym contains many secret devices for use by an ant-sized human!”

After being catapulted onto a pile of waiting ants Henry rides an ant into the sewer. He finds hundreds of insects gathered together. Out of all those insects he notices there is a beetle glowing strangely and all the other insects seem to be paying attention to it. Luckily for us, Pym’s helmet can pick up mental telepathy which the beetle is using to communicate with the insects.

We get the standard explanation of strange stuff in the early Marvel 616 stories. This beetle has been accidentally exposed to radiation due to “one of mankind’s atomic experiments…” Radiation and radioactivity are pretty much magic in these comics and can do anything the writers and artists want. To be fair, it was the time of the cold war and atomic exploration so there was a lot of fear around it. The reading audience at the time probably had an easier time believing this could happen than we do now. Turns out the radiation gave the beetle human level intelligence on top of the mental telepathy.

This beetle wants to organize the insect world to rise up and become masters of the world. After all, they number in the trillions. Henry realizes he needs to stop this. Before he can get to the Scarlet Beetle a bunch of body guard beetles knock Hank out cold. The Scarlet Beetle is smart enough to realize he should use the growth gas Ant-Man has to become bigger.

A little later Henry wakes up without his helmet or his vials that help him change size. The Scarlet Beetle takes the opportunity to go on the attack. He has termites cut down telephone poles, taking out human communication systems. Several groups of insects steal boxes of dynamite from the most unobservant military guard in existence. Meanwhile the Scarlet Beetle has some of the more deadly spiders bite key politicians to take down the government systems in place. The only insects not participating in the nefarious deeds are the ants, who are loyal to the Ant-Man.

For a beetle, this dude is shockingly organized and well planned. Honestly, he seems like he has it together more than The Wizard did when he first attacked Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch. Now that the Scarlet Beetle has had his minions wreak enough havoc he appears on the scene himself. He takes down television stations while his other insect pals go right for the police. The police are desperately hoping Ant-Man shows up at this point.

Luckily for humanity, the ants find Hank’s helmet and realize there is something wrong. They use their sense of smell to find Ant-Man and get him out of the ditch he is stuck in. Ant-Man comes up with a plan involving the ants. One of the text boxes reads, “After giving his ants their instructions, the tiny avenger goes into action…” This is sort of interesting considering Henry Pym will be one of the founding members of The Avengers soon.

Hank uses honey ants to slow the beetles, beats away grasshoppers with an ice-cream pop stick, and gets a group of ants to bring a bunch of DDT. For those who may not know, DDT was a type of insect repellant that was fairly commonly used in the 1960’s. In fact, it was used so much it turned out to be harmful to humans, and for the most part is no longer used. Back then it was everywhere though. The DDT does the job but the Scarlet Beetle remains. Hank’s plan is to go into a toy store. He hops in a toy car to outrun his enemy. Then he grabs a lance from a toy knight and chucks it right at the container of reducing gas the Scarlet Beetle is wearing. The beetle is reduced and Henry places him inside a balloon to take back to his lab.

Henry is able to counteract the radiation and remove the human intelligence the Scarlet Beetle has. There’s not really a thought of what an ethical dilemma this might be but since the bug is just a bug again Henry lets him out in his backyard.

The issue ends with the police wondering where the heck Ant-Man was in all this, never realizing it was Henry Pym who saved them.

I think this issue might have been intended to create a repeat villain for Hank. I’m not sure if that ever did happen but Ant-Man by this point does really deserve a true nemesis. It’s going to be a while before we get there so we can expect more odd and zany stories that don’t exactly age well from the pages of Tales to Astonish. This was definitely one of the less believable stories but it helped to keep Ant-Man popular enough that people were still reading the book.

Next up on the reading list we’ll see how the rematch between The Wizard and The Human Torch shapes up in Strange Tales #105!

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Marvel 616 Comic Book Review – Tales to Astonish #38

Tales to Astonish Issue 38 Photo Credit: Marvel

After several issues of Henry “Hank” Pym fighting generic communists and occasional street thugs we finally come to an issue where a real villain is introduced. Due to Ant-Man consistently crushing crime with his amazing abilities and legions of ants who can drop in at just the right moment the crooks in the city have decided to put a stop to him. They know they are no match for him on their own. Brute force has failed so it’s time to turn to brains over brawn.

In Washington D.C. a scientist known as “The Egghead” is in trouble with the government. He’s been selling secret information to the highest foreign bidder. His response to these accusations? “To a genius like me your insipid patriotic ramblings are laughable! I sneer at you all!” Okay, so the early Marvel 616 wasn’t great at subtlety but you know a villain when you see one. I should also mention Egghead fits his moniker not only because he is smart but because his head is drawn in the shape of an egg.

The government doesn’t actually have proof of Egghead’s crimes so they let him go. Criminals get wind of this and figure he’s the right guy to take down Ant-Man. They get twenty grand together and pay him half up front, half to be paid once the job is done. If you’re wondering how these criminals could so easily get twenty thousand dollars together when they say they’re having so much difficulty getting away with crime, welcome to the club.

Anyway, Egghead actually takes the time to study Ant-Man and his insect allies. He figures out pretty quickly Ant-Man must communicate with the ants through electronic signals. Egghead plans to turn these ants against our hero and trap Hank with flypaper. He invents a machine to communicate with them and appeals to the insects’ sense of greed and vanity.

The next phase of Egghead’s diabolical plan is to steal a valuable necklace, allowing the criminals to get away with the goods, and trap Ant-Man at the same time. Only, as soon as Ant-Man is caught, things start to go wrong for Egghead.

Ant-Man doesn’t stick to the fly paper at all. The tires of the getaway car have been flattened. And a gang of thugs is trapped in a huge sheet of flypaper by the ants. It turns out the ants are not greedy and vain. In fact, they see themselves as Henry’s friends and partners in the crime against war. Most of the thugs are taken away but Egghead takes his defeat pretty hard, although he gets away. He ends up “wanted by the police and hunted by the underworld as he holes up in a dingy bowery flophouse…” (By the way it’s this sort of description that makes these early issues so much fun to read. You just don’t see narration like that in comics anymore)

The people around him now seem to regard him as a worthless bum who keeps going on and on about ants. But this being a Marvel comic, we know we have not seen the last of Egghead. He’s definitely going to want to take his revenge and he does become a notable villain not just to Ant-Man but to a few other superheroes down the line.

This is sort of the first Ant-Man story where it feels like Henry is being brought into the larger world of superheroes. There have been a few hints and subtle, possible connections to people like Reed Richards and Bruce Banner but you’re not really a Marvel superhero until you get a repeat villain. Egghead will be the first one for Ant-Man but he certainly is not the last.

Next up on the reading list it’s time to pull out your best purple pants because we’re going back to the big, green guy himself with The Incredible Hulk #5!

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Marvel 616 Comic Book Review – Tales to Astonish #37

Tales to Astonish Issue 37 Photo Credit: Marvel

Tales to Astonish by the 37th issue was basically the Ant-Man book. He gets the longest features and he’s regularly spotlighted. The problem with that is there are only so many ways to make a guy who can reduce himself to the size of an ant heroic. Mostly, he has been fighting communists and trying to keep his formula a secret from anyone who might use it for ill (mostly meaning communists). But he’s also taken on a bit of street crime as well. So it is in issue 37 where we might think for just a moment Ant-Man was getting a unique villain by the name of The Protector.

The Protector has a unique costume, uses a disintegration ray to bully jewelry store owners into paying him protection money, and more or less has all the hallmarks for what could be a repeat villain or even a potential nemesis for Ant-Man. That’s not what happens here though. Henry Pym is getting his news from ants on the ground who are near police stations and when he hears about a disturbance at a jewelry store he rushes over there. Turns out there is a bully named The Protector who is shaking down jewelry store owners for cash. If they don’t pay, he wipes out the jewelry in the store. Never mind that if the store owners have no jewelry they can’t pay protection money. Either way, Henry “Hank” Pym is going to put a stop to this criminal.

Fun fact, did you know you could “rent a jewelry shop”? Neither did I but that’s what Pym does. When The Protector comes to shake Henry down, he has a plan and it involves ants. We’ve definitely seen this story before. The ants signal the police and of course The Protector is ultimately caught. Not only that but The Protector turns out to be the jewelry store owner who Hank first talks to. He made it look like he had been attacked by The Protector so no one would suspect him. Then he would act like he was disintegrating the jewels but in fact he was stealing them. It’s not a very inspired twist here but with thousands upon thousands of comic stories written in the 616 continuity they can’t all be winners.

In my opinion a much better scheme would have been to “rent a jewelry store” steal the jewels and then skip town. Considering how fast Hank was able to do that, it had to be less work than this whole disguise and fake out thing. Ant-Man will eventually get better and more interesting stories but for a while we’re going to be stuck with this kind of action for him.

We do at least get to see his catapult again although it was never clear how exactly he could fly for however long it takes for him to get all over the neighborhood just by being shot out of a tiny cannon.

Next up on the reading list we’ll be revisiting Johnny “The Human Torch” Storm in Strange Tales #103.