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 to Astonish #40

 "Mister, even when that guy fails, he wins."

I'm writing this having just read and blogged Tales to Astonish #44. It seems I unwittingly skipped this one. Oops! Remedying that now, having just gone back and read it. 

Fortunately, it's just a ho-hum Ant-Man story with a one-off villain and that repeats some of his tropes. Very ordinary criminal giving himself a supervillain name and costume for some reason? Yep. Said supervillain turning out to have been the person who needed help in the first place? Yep. Blatant use of Chekhov's gun, with both the gas mask Pym is working on and the Inca statues being very relevant indeed to the plot? Yep.

This issue feels very perfunctory and phoned in, and is as skippable as they come. Ant-Man gets a bit of unnecessary harsh criticism when he develops his obviously feigned appendicitis, mind- if you happen to become ill, you haven't "failed"! And that gas mask looks scarily like a translucent plastic bag to me- don't try this at home, kids. 

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?

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 to Astonish #39

 "You impudent midget, I'll snuff out your life as I would a candle!"

There's only so many times that I can say that these Ant-Man stories are bonkers and... well, silly, but not that good. And, while there's some amusement in the concept of radioactivity (what else?) given a beetle superhuman intelligence, something from the monster stories for which Tales of Suspense had mostly been known, and rather reminiscent of certain B movies...

Well, this is just a bad comic. The beetle acts as a demagogue to other insects, except ants which remain conveniently loyal to Ant-Man. It enlarges itself in a way an insect simply couldn't do, given the air's current oxygen content. And the defeat of the beetle involves the use of... DDT? Wow. Still, it's October 1962, and Rachel Carson literally only published "Silent Spring" a couple of months ago. Still... wow.

I say this with a bit of a side eye at the Torch stories in Strange Tales, but these Ant-Man stories are very poor. Then again, I haven't really got any impression of what Marvel's competition was like in 1962. Perhaps this kind of quality is par for the course?

Tales to Astonish #38

 "The ants will not be able to resist the temptation I offered! For I have appealed to their greed, and their vanity!"

Yep, ants. Definitely known for their, er, greed and vanity... 

That said, if you accept the sheer bonkersness of it all- which we shall certainly get to- this is rather good. Moderately important villain Egghead is introduced, and he's a surprisingly decent character- his genius undermined by his careless arrogance. It's a nice touch that the story occurs from his point of view as he tries to set his trap for Ant-Man, with Henry Pym not even appearing until page five. 

I love how he's introduced- it's known, but can't be proved, that he's tried to sell atomic secrets to the highest bidder. I assume he could just deny it and keep his job, but nope, arrogance it is, so he's forced to use his apparent genius for criminal purposes.

And so Egghead learns, as Pym did before him, to communicate with the ants. And, er, yes, it's all electronic, but he communicates with them in rather nuanced and abstract concepts which, I assume, would require some kind of language. That's a stretch in itself. But, er, how come he, and indeed Pym, seems to speak fluent ant? Best not to ponder such things. Or indeed how ancient his car looks from the vantage point of 2026.

It's a rather neat and fitting resolution- Egghead defeats himself by his own arrogance, not realising that the ants are Pym's willing friends... although he does rather make them do things that are not great for their wellbeing. But, again, perhaps not dwelt on. By the standards of 1962, this medium hardly being seen as great art at the time (I know: Marvel will get better), this is one of the better Ant-Man offerings. 

Tales to Astonish #37

 "I'm caught inside a vacuum cleaner!"

And so we turn again to Tales to Astonish, and Ant-Man. What can we do other than to embrace the bonkersness? 

I know this happened last issue, but... well, Ant-Man hears of trouble via his ant agents, has himself transported to the scene of the crime by miniature catapult, with ants on top of a shop awning breaking his fall. Shall we just pause here and marvel at the sheer magnificent insanity of this?

Then we have the villain, the Protector. He is, essentially, just a bog standard protection racket, but nonetheless he has a supervillain costume and name, because of course he does. Oh, and a disintegrating ray, although to be fair the Scooby Doo ending makes clear that this is just an elaborate conjuring trick, so that's all perfectly sensible then.

Oh, and before Ant-Man can save the day he has to face the twin perils of a water pistol and a vacuum cleaner. That is not a sentence that I expected I'd be writing when I woke up this morning, to put it mildly.

Embrace the bonkersness. What more is there to say? Are all these Ant-Man stories going to be like this? 

Tales to Astonish #36

 "Welcome, yankee! I have been expecting you!"

Not a bad story from Larry "nepotism" Lieber here, with a nice twist at the end about the identity of our latest communist baddie, the rather unimaginatively named Comrade X. But crikey, this is bonkers. 

We fully explore the expansive and increasingly absurd ways that Henry Pym can get ants to do his bidding. He ends up trapped in a glass jar, not the most dignified of situations. And he ultimately saves the day by... untying the villain's shoelaces. I kid you not.

Not only is the plot bonkers, though, we get some extra background here, and it's utterly mad. Ant-Man always knows when he's needed, because the ants tell him... best not to think too hard about the details there. 

Even madder, though, is his lab, which is equipped with an "ant sized elevator" as well as a catapult(!) to transport him to his situation, with ants breaking his fall. Ok then...

Not sure what to say about such levels of bonkersness as this. What can I do other than just go along with it? 

Tales to Astonish #35

 "But they'll be stopped... by a mere rubber band and some thread, among other things!"

Right after Fantastic Four #6, in this story we get a second mention of unstable molecules- a possible first hint of a shared universe?

This, as with previous issues of Tales to Astonish, is one of several tales in what is an anthology book. Henry Pym is back, after an initial appearance that I suspect was intended both as a one off and not really as a superhero concept. This time, though, he has a costume, and a headset that lets him control ants(!) to the point of actually riding the things.

I won't say much about the actual threat- yep, it's communists- but, well, the newly coined Ant-Man is not exactly an alpha superhero, simply being able to shrink and control ants. Some of the consequences of this are well thought through, though, such as a character instinctively trying to rub him off his skin, feeling that unpleasant sensation we all do when we've an insect on our arm.

There isn't much to this, really, the character feels a bit generic, and I'm not sure how much mileage there is in the concept. Still, we'll see. And the cover is simply great.

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.

Tales to Astonish #27

 "I won't tell you yet! You would only laugh at me as you've done before! But when I've finished it, I'll show you! You shall know I'm a greater scientist than any of you!"

This is such a fascinating time capsule- entirely a product of Marvel pre-Fantastic Four with the slight detail that it happens to introduce Henry Pym. But it seems likely, from reading this, that it would never have been intended as anything more than a one-off tale, very much in the monster genre that Tales to Astonish and the other anthology comics had been doing.

It's interesting to see that this is just one of multiple tales in a comic that also includes text stories, and is a very short story of just a few pages. The cover and splash page, it must be said, are both excellent- I believe the former is Jack Kirby and the latter Steve Ditko? Ditko, I have to say, does a much more impressive job as penciller than Kirby has thus far, although I know Kirby's best work lies ahead.

Initial observations are that Hank Pym doesn't exactly come across as a hero here. Indeed, he seems to be a bit of a prat, much as he shows sense at the end, following his lucky escape. His deciding to destroy his shrinking serum seems to indicate no intention of a return.... but the loose thread of that one mysteriously friendly ant may suggest otherwise!

The less said about the science the better, although I may point the reader to look up J.B.S. Haldane's "On Being the Right Size". Still, this is a pleasingly amusing little tale. Still very early days though.