Tales to Astonish #45

"Wonder what this wire is for? Oh well, it doesn't matter."

So, you know how the Ant-Man stories seemed to be on an upswing, what with the new writer, the addition of the Wasp, and trying to make Henry Pym a bit less bland as a character? Well... said upswing may have run its course. This is turgid stuff.

Yes, Egghead is back- a villain whose only real traits are cleverness and arrogance, and he's suspiciously similar to the Wizard in both respects. He just, well... goes into a bit of a sulk after last time, but eventually decides on revenge, conveniently picking up a couple of very generic henchmen. And then proceeds to set a very generic trap, using the Wasp as bait, heavily relying on the assumption that Janet will go to his lecture on wasps, without Henry.

Oh, and Ant-Man and the Wasp literally have a race- his catapult (still a thing!) versus her wings. Yes, really. Also, the word "flickers" appears, never a wise word to use in a comic book. We end with the baddies using, and I can't believe I'm typing this, water pistols filled with "liquid gas". And, right at the end, Ant-Man scolds the Wasp, calling her "young lady", while her thought bubble reminds us that she's still supposed to be in love with him.

I think, by now, it's clear that these Ant-Man stories are not working, 

Tales of Suspense #42

 "By Lenin's beard! What a fairy tale!"

Yep, it's Russian communists. Again. Three stories in and no sign of any supporting cast for Iron Man, or recurring villains. Just generic aliens and communists. And... these stories really aren't any good.

The plot here is completely forgettable. A one-off communist functionary, the Red Barbarian, is an impatient tyrant who makes David Brent seem like an excellent boss, shooting his underlings dead at the slightest hint of failure. And an over-confident master of disguise, the Actor, is undone by his own arrogant hubris in his attempt to steal Tony Stark's latest invention. It's just rubbish. 

The direction of this title seems worrying. These early stories are surprisingly different to the Iron Man we'll come to know- Shellhead (a term not yet coined) is often referred to as a "knight in shining armour". Everything the armour seems to do is because of transistors. Iron Man works as an FBI agent.

I'll admit to one little moment of amusement as Iron Man disrupts communist spy ring via magnetic stuff performed by his "transistor-powered device but it doesn't affect his armour because... well, technobabble. But right now Iron Man is most certainly a bottom tier title. I hope it improves soon.

Tales to Astonish #43

 "Old-timers like yourself no longer fit the bill! Your ideas are unimaginative and out-dated!"

This issue is, like all the others, utterly bonkers... but there is, in fact, a rather touching little moral to it. Our "baddie" is a scientist who is fired for no reason other than being over sixty-five years of age, thus showing the poor workers' rights laws in whatever part of the United States this is (again, we're told it's "Center City", which feels very DC) in 1963. Naturally, he wants revenge.

Splendidly, this revenge takes the form of a ray that can age people... and, fortunately, reverse the process. The story doesn't address the obvious implications of this, though- can he permanently rejuvenate people and thus conquer aging for good? We simply don't go there.

This is a rather enjoyable little tale, beginning with the diminutive Ant-Man attracting an admiring crowd before his faithful ants alert him of the problem so he can get straight to action... via his normal method of, er, firing himself from a miniature cannon and landing on an impromptu ant hill. And that's literally only so he can confer with the police.

Our antagonist proceeds, his blackmail having been refused, to make Ant-Man an old man and then fire his ageing ray into the crowd... cue dialogue like "Oh no! I'm growing older!" as though you'd in some way know what was happening to you in the moment,

But all is redeemed by the ending, in which our antagonist is let off, a reformed character, and his erstwhile employer regrets his appalling ageism. This gives me a warm glow, so this is one Ant-Man tale that I'll actually praise.

Just this once... 

Tales to Astonish #41

 "I can hardly wait to turn them on those liberty-loving fools who attack my fortress.

Another Ant-Man story in Tales to Astonish. Oh dear. Let's just try and embrace the bonkersness and hang on for dear life. 

So, we begin with Henry Pym, who has now decided that all his clothes should be made of unstable molecules, an entirely practical thing to do on a scientist's salary, I'm sure. We follow him as he investigates a locked room mystery, a scientist friend of his having vanished. He then spends a few days investigating a spate of missing scientists while smoking his pipe as the reader ponders, as we often do with Ant-Man, the enormous number of editor's notes in this and every issue. 

The kidnapper is, of course, an alien scientist who needs to invent a death ray to deal with a rebellion and, naturally, turns to scientist from Earth, a planet explicitly said to be much less advanced in technology than his own.

And, yeah, hi-jinks ensue, and all that. It's Ant-Man. What can I say? All we can do is embrace the bonkersness and hope that there aren't too many of these left, 

Tales of Suspense #39

 "Have you never seen an Iron Man before?"

At last we get Iron Man- it really does feel as though it's been forever. Now we just need the X-Men, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, and the Silver Age debut of Captain America, and the main initial Marvel cast will be more or less assembled. 

It's basically the well-known origin story here, but interesting to read this story on its own terms as opposed to the origin of a well-established character. Tony Stark's face is not quite yet recognisable. And the character... it's a brave move to make Stark a glamorous playboy, a "millionaire bachelor", and an inventor of weaponry for the US government- hardly an underdog. But this, of course, is why he must be cursed with the shrapnel close to his heart, forcing him to wear an iron breastplate in order to stay alive. 

It's all very of its time, though- South Vietnam, in the years before the draft. The art is, at times, well, more than verging on racist caricature. And it feels at times as though every other word is "transistor". But this, as an origin, is simple yet solid, and it's already clear that this is an idea with potential.

There's a later short story about Vikings on a desert island, part of the Order only because of references to Odin, that is entertaining enough for what it is. But I'm curious to see the first steps of Iron Man as a character now we've established the origin... 

Tales to Astonish #32

 "No, my heartless intruder! It is you who have asked for it!

I've skipped a couple of Tales to Astonish stories in the Order as they were only tied to the Marvel Universe by one later story many decades later, past the mid-'90s beyond which I'm not sure I'll continue. This one... well, it's just about included, as the classically inspired monster featured will be seen again in a handful of '70s and '80s appearances.... and, incidentally, had one previous Golden Age appearance!

This is but a five page story, "The Girl in the Black Hood", one of several in the issue, including a one page text story, as was the format of Tales to Astonish at this point. It features a crook getting his comeuppance as he tries to rob an acclaimed photographer who, it turns out, has a solid reason for always hiding her face behind a black hood. Not be all spoilery but, well, her name is "May Dusa"...

This is short and sweet, but a nice little tale with a twist. It does its job and entertains. It's a solid short story. It reminds me of Tharg's Future Shock in 2000 AD. But, well, there's not much more to say, other than to note that it's unclear who scripted this.