Tales to Astonish #44

 "Go to the ants, thou sluggard!"

A new writer, a new beginning, a bit of a retcon.. and a new sidekick-cum-love interest- could Ant-Man finally be worth reading? Early signs are good. By early '60s comic book standards, in fact, very good.

 This new writer has a very different style. Henry Pym's friends are described, in splendidly sesquipedalian fashion, as his "hymenoptera colleagues" and his "hexapoda friends". They now can and routinely do talk. Although, happily, Ant-Man is still firing hmself from his miniature cannon and landing on a makeshift ant hill. Some things must never change.

And Henry Pym suddenly has a tragic backstory, giving this previously very bland character a bit of depth. He was once married to Maria Trovava, a refugee from communist Hungary with a not very Hungarian name, who was tragically kidnapped and murdered during the newlyweds' honeymoon in the perhaps not overly wise location of Hungary. Pym is now heartbroken, bitter, motivated to fight injustice and yearning to one day to find a partner... a wish which will, by an incredible coincidence, be fulfilled in this issue.

We meet Dr Vernon Van Dyne and his daughter Janet who is described, rather ickily in light of what's going to happen, as "not much more than a child", and there follows the most textbook superhero sidekick origin story imaginable. Janet's beloved father is brutally murdered by an evil, green, alien criminal! She's filled with grief and a deep desire to fight crime ("I wish I could track down all the criminals") and... Pym very suddenly reveals his secret identity to Janet, offers to give her powers (wings and antennae when shrunk), immediately does so, and... gives her an already existing superhero costume, which apparently fits perfectly. Well then. In no way is there any undue haste or dodginess surrounding this grieving teenage girl...!

Of course, Janet declares her love for him but, in typical Marvel fashion, Ant-Man is too damaged to face the prospect of love again, however blatantly he may subconsciously yearn for it. We end with the baddie beaten, and Pym gently chiding Janet for her emotional reaction... but she sees right through him. 

Ant-Man, up until now the weakest of the whole stable of superheroes, feels much more Marvel, with  angst and a potential love interest. Will this soft reboot do any good overall?