Tales to Astonish #42

 "We don't even have a dog, but we can eat it ourselves!"

For an Ant-Man tale, despite the odd bit of silliness... this one was actually ok. Ant-Man is still supposedly based in the very DC-style "Center City" though. Not New York, or at least a real city of some sort, as is usual with Marvel? I suppose that tradition hasn't quite solidified yet.

So Jason Cragg (who will reappear in a couple of decades as "The Voice") is an interesting villain, prefiguring the Purple Man with his power being that of a voice which must be obeyed. So we start with Cragg turning people against our diminutive protagonist before we briefly flash back to his origin which involves- you guessed it- radioactivity. And, naturally, Cragg just hates Ant-Man and wants to destroy him because... reasons.

It's fun to see Ant-Man on the run, not least because,  as superheroes go, Henry Pym is not exactly the most prepossessing and so he seems to suit the role of underdog. But for Cragg to order him to jump into the river, and make no attempt to swim or otherwise save himself... that's dark.

The ending is nicely done, though... infect him with laryngitis. And, highly conveniently, for some reason the chances are "a million to one" that his powers will return. All right then. Still, for Ant-Man, this was decently entertaining for a change.