What do you think?
Rate this book
Essential Ant Man #1
Essential Astonishing Ant Man, Vol. 1
Before he became one of the Avengers, Dr. Henry Pym was a man with big ideas.
His contemporaries in the field of chemistry laughed when he first suggested his theories of spatial relations. They jeered at his beliefs that objects could be shrunk and later enlarged to their original size. They made Dr. Henry Pym feel very small indeed.
And so, without their support and the proper funding, Henry created a serum based on his theories and then proceeded to experiment with it upon himself.
And he shrunk to the size of an ant.
That's where the nightmare began, as well as the beginnings of a hero.
Collects: Tales to Astonish #27, 35-60
His contemporaries in the field of chemistry laughed when he first suggested his theories of spatial relations. They jeered at his beliefs that objects could be shrunk and later enlarged to their original size. They made Dr. Henry Pym feel very small indeed.
And so, without their support and the proper funding, Henry created a serum based on his theories and then proceeded to experiment with it upon himself.
And he shrunk to the size of an ant.
That's where the nightmare began, as well as the beginnings of a hero.
Collects: Tales to Astonish #27, 35-60
576 pages, Paperback
First published October 10, 1964
8 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
About the author
Stan Lee
7,560 books2,347 followersStan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 22, 2025
Ant-Man (AM) is one of the under appreciated SH in the Marvel pantheon. This collected work will take you back to the 60's as AM battles some of the strangest villains you will ever encounter in comicdom! Honestly believe (although I have no proof) that this is where Stan Lee put all the supervillains that would not make it in other comics - kind of like the Island of Misfit Toys!
January 18, 2014
This book collects stories of Ant Man/Giant Man and the Wasp from Tales to Astonish #27 and 35-69.
Henry Pym didn't start out to be a superhero. He was a scientist in a classic one-shot science fiction story in Tales to Astonish, a sci fi anthology comic. However, DC had began to roll out the Adventures of the Atom, so Marvel introduced its own shrinking superhero, Ant Man. The stories ranged from 12-18 pages when the book was at its height.
The art shows a wide range of styles, but most of it is good. Among the artists on this were Don Heck, Dick Ayears, and Jack Kirby.
While Stan Lee provided all but one of the plots for the first thirteen stories, other writers were responsible for the actual scripts and that difference shows. Until Stan Lee took full charge as writer in Tales of Astonish #49, much of Ant Man seemed like a bad DC book. The locale of Ant Man in those early days was indistinct. The character wasn't even given a reason to fight crime until Tales to Astonish #44 when we were learn that Pym's wife was killed years before by communists. But if that was the motivation, why was he content to be a research scientist until discovering the shrinking pills? The Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) was introduced in Issue #44 but again nothing much came of her until Lee took over.
With Lee actually writing this series, the strip became a lot more enjoyable. Pym eventually became the master of many sizes, able to grow to large heights as Giant Man. Initially, he could only reach 10 feet, then 12, then thirty-five, and finally into triple digit feet in height.
More than anything else, Lee developed the relationship between Henry Pym and the Janet Van Dyne. The relationship went from the pre-Lee writing days of, "Woman, stay away, I have science to do," to a very fun relationship, that's probably one of the better ones in the Silver Age in terms of realism and likability of the principles.
From Issues 49-58, the book also became home to a series of quick sci fi adventures told by the Wasp. These are funny Twilight Zonesque stories that really are a treat in this book.
Issue 59 featured a battle with the Hulk and then the Hulk became co-star of the book in Issue 60 which lead to the length of the Giant Man stories being shrunk to 13 pages, though I think the stories actually got better at this point.
Stan Lee left as writer after Issue #68 and Al Hartley wrote the last Tales to Astonish Ant Man/Wasp story in Issue #69 in which Pym used his shrinking power to save the day even though the previous issue explained he lost that power.
Overall, I liked the book. It had cold war intrigue and Pym may have fought communists more than any other silver age hero.
On the other hand, it had its flaws. Compared to other books, it's villains were generally weaker and less memorable than even Daredevil's early rogue's gallery, and certain less than DC's Atom. In addition, it certainly didn't have as imaginative of an exploration of what you could do with shrinking powers at the Atom. However, the book is par with the early runs of those series because of the early appearances of the Wasp. She's fun and occasionally frivolous but she really kept the stories interesting and made this a readable and fun collection.
Henry Pym didn't start out to be a superhero. He was a scientist in a classic one-shot science fiction story in Tales to Astonish, a sci fi anthology comic. However, DC had began to roll out the Adventures of the Atom, so Marvel introduced its own shrinking superhero, Ant Man. The stories ranged from 12-18 pages when the book was at its height.
The art shows a wide range of styles, but most of it is good. Among the artists on this were Don Heck, Dick Ayears, and Jack Kirby.
While Stan Lee provided all but one of the plots for the first thirteen stories, other writers were responsible for the actual scripts and that difference shows. Until Stan Lee took full charge as writer in Tales of Astonish #49, much of Ant Man seemed like a bad DC book. The locale of Ant Man in those early days was indistinct. The character wasn't even given a reason to fight crime until Tales to Astonish #44 when we were learn that Pym's wife was killed years before by communists. But if that was the motivation, why was he content to be a research scientist until discovering the shrinking pills? The Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) was introduced in Issue #44 but again nothing much came of her until Lee took over.
With Lee actually writing this series, the strip became a lot more enjoyable. Pym eventually became the master of many sizes, able to grow to large heights as Giant Man. Initially, he could only reach 10 feet, then 12, then thirty-five, and finally into triple digit feet in height.
More than anything else, Lee developed the relationship between Henry Pym and the Janet Van Dyne. The relationship went from the pre-Lee writing days of, "Woman, stay away, I have science to do," to a very fun relationship, that's probably one of the better ones in the Silver Age in terms of realism and likability of the principles.
From Issues 49-58, the book also became home to a series of quick sci fi adventures told by the Wasp. These are funny Twilight Zonesque stories that really are a treat in this book.
Issue 59 featured a battle with the Hulk and then the Hulk became co-star of the book in Issue 60 which lead to the length of the Giant Man stories being shrunk to 13 pages, though I think the stories actually got better at this point.
Stan Lee left as writer after Issue #68 and Al Hartley wrote the last Tales to Astonish Ant Man/Wasp story in Issue #69 in which Pym used his shrinking power to save the day even though the previous issue explained he lost that power.
Overall, I liked the book. It had cold war intrigue and Pym may have fought communists more than any other silver age hero.
On the other hand, it had its flaws. Compared to other books, it's villains were generally weaker and less memorable than even Daredevil's early rogue's gallery, and certain less than DC's Atom. In addition, it certainly didn't have as imaginative of an exploration of what you could do with shrinking powers at the Atom. However, the book is par with the early runs of those series because of the early appearances of the Wasp. She's fun and occasionally frivolous but she really kept the stories interesting and made this a readable and fun collection.
October 20, 2009
Okay while Stan Lee was on it, but it quickly runs out of steam after Ant-Man became Giant Man.
January 31, 2017
The only heroic feet worth mentioning is I finished this.
July 10, 2023
I get that Ant-Man is the star here, but why isn’t the Wasp given equal credit on the cover? Shouldn’t this have been called the Essential Ant-Man & the Wasp? Kind of insulting to diminish the Wasp’s presence especially when she features so prominently in many of these stories. Yeah, let’s give all the spotlight to the size-changing mad scientist who’s clearly not a very stable hero.
Tales to Astonish #27 - This story introduces Dr. Henry Pym, but not as Ant-Man, that comes in his next appearance. This is just an astonishing tale that is more reminiscent of the weird sci-fi films of the era, films of people getting trapped by weird pseudoscience phenomena (think The Fly, The Invisible Man or even The Incredible Shrinking Man. This amounts to one of the better stories in this collection.
Tales to Astonish #35-40 - The stories in these issues, introduce Henry Pym in his new secret identity as Ant-Man, battling threats such as communist agents, a protection racketeer, a mad scientist known as Egghead (who’ll be back to haunt Pym throughout his career), an irradiated beetle with dreams of conquest, and a hijacker. There are some similar themes throughout most of these stories that weaken them as a group, but they’re still fun and the art by Jack Kirby elevates these stories to hold the reader’s interest.
Tales to Astonish #41-43 - Don Heck takes over the art duties, and while he’s no Kirby, and his style does take a bit to get used to, he does provide a different perspective on the character. But the villains continue to be, if not increasingly, lame. An invader from another dimension who cannot even conquer his own people, a man who’s voice is immediately believed and whose every word is taken as indisputable truth (hmm, sounds like an angry orange ex-president and his insane followers), and then another mad scientist who is a master of aging (and no, none of these are Kang). These could all have been marvelous stories, but the art doesn’t quite work as well.
Tales to Astonish #44 - Kirby returns and he introduces Ant-Man’s new partner, the Wasp. But he also introduces some retroactive continuity with a previous wife for Pym, a new layer of motivation for becoming a crime fighter, and a new threat from space. Basically, Kirby just reinvented Ant-Man. What is so shocking though, is how easily Pym was ready to perform experimental surgery on Janet Van Dyne and accept this virtual stranger as a partner. This actually illustrates a fundamental flaw of Pym’s personality, and one that will get developed in greater detail over the years. Pym is a genuine mad scientist himself, and what he does to Van Dyne in this story, as well as how he’d experimented on himself previously, illustrates just how unbalanced he actually is.
Tales to Astonish #45-48 - Don Heck returns to the pencilling duties and Egghead shows up for his second attempt at defeating Ant-Man. Not a great story, rather typical of superhero stories of this era, but it does develop Egghead’s obsession with defeating Ant-Man. Then Heck delivers another alien invasion scenario, followed by another cheap thug with a gimmick and then a real honest supervillain: the Porcupine. Wait, seriously? Oh, no. Seriously, something has to change or this series and character is going to the dogs. Although, to be fair, this is also the start of Ant-Man and the Wasp co-founding the Avengers with Thor, Iron Man and the Hulk. So changes are definitely in the air.
Tales to Astonish #49-50 - Kirby returns (again)! And he brings some of those BIG changes for our little heroes (who recently helped found the Avengers), as Ant-Man becomes Giant-Man (or should that be giAnt-Man or giANT-Man). Unfortunately, this also further illustrates Pym’s inferiority complex, as he desperately needs to feel he’s in the same class of heroes as his fellow Avengers, meaning Thor, Iron Man and Hulk. The first antagonist is an invasion from another dimension and then we’re treated with the first appearance of the Human Top (who will eventually become Whirlwind, not to be confused with Whizzer/Speed Demon). Human Top also becomes the first villain to affectively defeat Giant-Man and the Wasp and come back and face them again. Oh wait, did I forget about Egghead? No, Egghead just escaped, he never defeated our size-changing dynamic duo.
Tales to Astonish #51-58 - These issues feature not only a tale of Giant-Man and the Wasp, but also a second tale that either features the Wasp spinning an astonishing tale or, as in the last couple of tales, involved in some solo antics of her own. Unfortunately, Kirby has left the series and the art duties here are from Heck and Dick Ayers for the most part, and this means the stories aren’t nearly as entertaining as the Kirby ones. Still fun, but they just don’t have the Kirby magic. We do get some returning villains like Porcupine, Human Top and Egghead, as well as some new opponents like the villainous Black Knight and the almost laughable El Toro and the Magician. There’s even a guest appearance by Spider-Man, and a brief one from Captain America, among these stories, so there’s still entertainment aplenty.
Tales to Astonish #59 - This story is particularly noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First off: the other Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man & Thor) make a brief appearance. But we also have the return of the Human Top and special guest star the Hulk, with supporting characters Betty Ross and General Thunderbolt Ross as well. This also acts as a teaser and appetizer for the next issue of Tales to Astonish and the new format, which would include a story about Giant-Man and the Wasp and another one featuring the Hulk. This issue also includes a bonus featurette of background information about the size-changing stars Giant-Man/Ant-Man and the wonderful Wasp.
Tales to Astonish #60-64 - If one wants an example of Stan Lee’s achievements as a writer without the contributions of Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko one can look at these Ant-Man/Giant-Man stories that were being produced simultaneously as the ground-breaking stories in the pages of Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man. These are absolutely terrible. These stories are, at their best, on par with the worst stories featuring the Human Torch from the pages of Strange Tales. But at their worst, these are almost unreadable. Further, the characterization of Hank Pym only supports the notion of a mad scientist that is truly only a lab accident away from being a threat to the world.
Tales to Astonish #65-69 - The New Giant-Man as redesigned by Bob Powell & Don Heck debuts! And it’s so underwhelming that this series ends after 5 issues. I fear this is just another example of Marvel (meaning Lee) being under the influence of Lee’s own propaganda/hype. He believed wholeheartedly in what he said, even when outright lying, that he’d end up forgetting how much he was fabricating and what was reality. There is a clear difference between the stories that Lee produced that were co-developed with the likes of Kirby and Ditko, than those with less (let’s just say) imaginative artists. These adventures with Ant-Man/Giant-Man and the Wasp are clearly inferior in almost all respects to other stories being produced by Marvel over the same period.
So that rounds off this collection of the Ant-Man/Giant-Man & Wasp tales from the pages of Tales to Astonish, and over all it does illustrate how poorly developed the Henry Pym character was, and how primed the character was for becoming as controversial as he would be in later years. The complete lack of conscience for conducting biological and genetic experiments of humans without truly knowing the outcome, the arrogance, the self-indulgence, the toxic masculinity, and the lack of self-esteem, it’s all here, hidden away underneath the surface, but just waiting for future writers to bring into focus.
Tales to Astonish #27 - This story introduces Dr. Henry Pym, but not as Ant-Man, that comes in his next appearance. This is just an astonishing tale that is more reminiscent of the weird sci-fi films of the era, films of people getting trapped by weird pseudoscience phenomena (think The Fly, The Invisible Man or even The Incredible Shrinking Man. This amounts to one of the better stories in this collection.
Tales to Astonish #35-40 - The stories in these issues, introduce Henry Pym in his new secret identity as Ant-Man, battling threats such as communist agents, a protection racketeer, a mad scientist known as Egghead (who’ll be back to haunt Pym throughout his career), an irradiated beetle with dreams of conquest, and a hijacker. There are some similar themes throughout most of these stories that weaken them as a group, but they’re still fun and the art by Jack Kirby elevates these stories to hold the reader’s interest.
Tales to Astonish #41-43 - Don Heck takes over the art duties, and while he’s no Kirby, and his style does take a bit to get used to, he does provide a different perspective on the character. But the villains continue to be, if not increasingly, lame. An invader from another dimension who cannot even conquer his own people, a man who’s voice is immediately believed and whose every word is taken as indisputable truth (hmm, sounds like an angry orange ex-president and his insane followers), and then another mad scientist who is a master of aging (and no, none of these are Kang). These could all have been marvelous stories, but the art doesn’t quite work as well.
Tales to Astonish #44 - Kirby returns and he introduces Ant-Man’s new partner, the Wasp. But he also introduces some retroactive continuity with a previous wife for Pym, a new layer of motivation for becoming a crime fighter, and a new threat from space. Basically, Kirby just reinvented Ant-Man. What is so shocking though, is how easily Pym was ready to perform experimental surgery on Janet Van Dyne and accept this virtual stranger as a partner. This actually illustrates a fundamental flaw of Pym’s personality, and one that will get developed in greater detail over the years. Pym is a genuine mad scientist himself, and what he does to Van Dyne in this story, as well as how he’d experimented on himself previously, illustrates just how unbalanced he actually is.
Tales to Astonish #45-48 - Don Heck returns to the pencilling duties and Egghead shows up for his second attempt at defeating Ant-Man. Not a great story, rather typical of superhero stories of this era, but it does develop Egghead’s obsession with defeating Ant-Man. Then Heck delivers another alien invasion scenario, followed by another cheap thug with a gimmick and then a real honest supervillain: the Porcupine. Wait, seriously? Oh, no. Seriously, something has to change or this series and character is going to the dogs. Although, to be fair, this is also the start of Ant-Man and the Wasp co-founding the Avengers with Thor, Iron Man and the Hulk. So changes are definitely in the air.
Tales to Astonish #49-50 - Kirby returns (again)! And he brings some of those BIG changes for our little heroes (who recently helped found the Avengers), as Ant-Man becomes Giant-Man (or should that be giAnt-Man or giANT-Man). Unfortunately, this also further illustrates Pym’s inferiority complex, as he desperately needs to feel he’s in the same class of heroes as his fellow Avengers, meaning Thor, Iron Man and Hulk. The first antagonist is an invasion from another dimension and then we’re treated with the first appearance of the Human Top (who will eventually become Whirlwind, not to be confused with Whizzer/Speed Demon). Human Top also becomes the first villain to affectively defeat Giant-Man and the Wasp and come back and face them again. Oh wait, did I forget about Egghead? No, Egghead just escaped, he never defeated our size-changing dynamic duo.
Tales to Astonish #51-58 - These issues feature not only a tale of Giant-Man and the Wasp, but also a second tale that either features the Wasp spinning an astonishing tale or, as in the last couple of tales, involved in some solo antics of her own. Unfortunately, Kirby has left the series and the art duties here are from Heck and Dick Ayers for the most part, and this means the stories aren’t nearly as entertaining as the Kirby ones. Still fun, but they just don’t have the Kirby magic. We do get some returning villains like Porcupine, Human Top and Egghead, as well as some new opponents like the villainous Black Knight and the almost laughable El Toro and the Magician. There’s even a guest appearance by Spider-Man, and a brief one from Captain America, among these stories, so there’s still entertainment aplenty.
Tales to Astonish #59 - This story is particularly noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First off: the other Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man & Thor) make a brief appearance. But we also have the return of the Human Top and special guest star the Hulk, with supporting characters Betty Ross and General Thunderbolt Ross as well. This also acts as a teaser and appetizer for the next issue of Tales to Astonish and the new format, which would include a story about Giant-Man and the Wasp and another one featuring the Hulk. This issue also includes a bonus featurette of background information about the size-changing stars Giant-Man/Ant-Man and the wonderful Wasp.
Tales to Astonish #60-64 - If one wants an example of Stan Lee’s achievements as a writer without the contributions of Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko one can look at these Ant-Man/Giant-Man stories that were being produced simultaneously as the ground-breaking stories in the pages of Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man. These are absolutely terrible. These stories are, at their best, on par with the worst stories featuring the Human Torch from the pages of Strange Tales. But at their worst, these are almost unreadable. Further, the characterization of Hank Pym only supports the notion of a mad scientist that is truly only a lab accident away from being a threat to the world.
Tales to Astonish #65-69 - The New Giant-Man as redesigned by Bob Powell & Don Heck debuts! And it’s so underwhelming that this series ends after 5 issues. I fear this is just another example of Marvel (meaning Lee) being under the influence of Lee’s own propaganda/hype. He believed wholeheartedly in what he said, even when outright lying, that he’d end up forgetting how much he was fabricating and what was reality. There is a clear difference between the stories that Lee produced that were co-developed with the likes of Kirby and Ditko, than those with less (let’s just say) imaginative artists. These adventures with Ant-Man/Giant-Man and the Wasp are clearly inferior in almost all respects to other stories being produced by Marvel over the same period.
So that rounds off this collection of the Ant-Man/Giant-Man & Wasp tales from the pages of Tales to Astonish, and over all it does illustrate how poorly developed the Henry Pym character was, and how primed the character was for becoming as controversial as he would be in later years. The complete lack of conscience for conducting biological and genetic experiments of humans without truly knowing the outcome, the arrogance, the self-indulgence, the toxic masculinity, and the lack of self-esteem, it’s all here, hidden away underneath the surface, but just waiting for future writers to bring into focus.
June 22, 2020
Ant-Man is a very early Marvel hero, first appearing in Tales To Astonish # 27 (January 1962). When scientist Henry Pym first tried his reducing solution, he shrank too fast and ended up in an ant hill. By means of judo, a friendly cat, a match lit by throwing a rock at it and a lasso from nowhere he managed to escape. The plot is ludicrous. He then discarded his potions and swore never to use them again. It was a typical ‘scientist learns better’ plot from Marvel’s early anthology magazines.
However, eight issues later, in Tales to Astonish # 35, Ant-Man appears as a super-hero. Weeks after his ant adventure, Henry Pym is fascinated by the little insects and now considers his serum a great discovery. He decides that ants use their antennae to communicate electronically and devises a cybernetic helmet that will enable him to chat to them. He also makes a protective outfit to protect himself from stings. Like the costumes of the Fantastic Four, it is made of unstable molecules so it can shrink, grow, burst into flames, turn invisible or do anything a hero does along with him. Henry Pym is recruited by the U.S. government to create a gas that will make people immune to radioactivity. Science, you may notice, was not Stan Lee’s strongest subject. Anyway, evil communist agents come to steal the gas recipe and Hank sees them off with his anty powers. It turns out that, even in his shrunken state, he retains the strength of a normal-size man and can hurl argumentative ants away as if they were…well, ants.
Communists were a common foe in the early days of Marvel, unsurprisingly, given the political climate in 1963. Moreover, many of the early comic creators were sons of east European immigrants and may have been genuinely dismayed by the rough red treatment of their ancestral homelands. Another commie rears his ugly head in Tales To Astonish # 36, ‘The Challenge Of Comrade X’. Ant-Man’s reputation has spread beyond the iron curtain and a secret agent is dispatched to learn his secrets. Quite a good story, actually. At this point, they were just thirteen pages long, the rest of the mag being filled with shorter tales of a more generally astonishing kind.
As ants are everywhere and can relay messages back to Hank whenever there is trouble he is equipped with a formicable, sorry, formidable communications network. They respond to certain ’verbal stimuli’, words like ’Ant-Man’, ’Protector’ and ’Jewellery’. I suppose, being American ants, they speak English. But what if some of them were commies? They live communally, sharing everything and have little individual ambition but work for the greater good of the colony. It seems to me that, if not for Ant-Man’s cybernetic control, they might have taken the Bolshevik side.
Their leanings are put to the test in Tales To Astonish # 38, when evil scientist Egghead learns their wavelength and tells them that he is their friend and Ant-Man is their enemy. Moreover, he informs them that with his help they can make Ant-Man their slave, to serve them the rest of their days. It’s not clear why they should want this. Egghead reasons that they will go along with his plan ‘for I have appealed to their greed and their vanity.’ The plot fails, as Ant-Man points out. ‘insects have no such emotions. Unfortunately, it is only we humans who possess such primitive traits.’ In fact, ants aren’t greedy because they are communists and if Henry Pym thinks we are more primitive than them, he really ought to go back to school and redo evolution. He also mentions that he doesn’t control them, they are his friends. Indubitably, he would have testified on their behalf had they been called up before a Senate hearing for Un-American ant activity.
In Tales To Astonish # 39, Ant-Man encounters the scarlet beetle that has become irradiated and developed a brain equal to that of a man. Now he plans to lead all the insects and conquer the world. Clearly, he has surpassed by far the usual beetle ambitions of mating and eating some dung. He uses Ant-Man’s growth gas to become man-sized and launches his war. ‘I’ll snuff out your life as I would a candle,’ he tells our hero dramatically, courtesy of scriptwriter Larry Leiber, who never paused to wonder how a beetle became acquainted with candles or indeed melodramatic clichés from bad movies. The plot was by Stan Lee, who often had his brother do the scripting chores in the early days. To be fair, they are pretty good.
The Wonderful Wasp is introduced in Tales To Astonish # 44, ‘The Creature From Kosmos’, in which another alien wants to conquer the world. Aliens, commies, South American dictators, evil scientists and so forth were par for the course in the early sixties. Henry Pym also acquired a rogues gallery of pretty second-rate villains like the Porcupine, the Human Top, Egghead, the Black Knight and the Magician. This story is better than the title makes it sound as we learn more of Henry Pym’s background and the art – Jack Kirby inked by Don Heck – is excellent. Every early issue of ‘Tales To Astonish’ has Ant-Man doing something amusing in it and I could summarize them one by one but the review would get very long. Suffice to say they are wonderfully awful and awfully wonderful, like the 1950s SF B-movies which inspired them. Or Them!
When Ant-Man became Giant-Man in Tales To Astonish # 49, he became less interesting for me, though he still got ant-sized quite often, usually to escape from traps. Giant-Man has an optimum height of twelve feet because after that he starts to get weaker. Some of the adventures aren’t bad. Egged on by misinformation from a villainous scientist, he attacks Spider-Man in Tales To Astonish # 57. In another small piece of lunacy, Spider-Man and the Wasp don’t like each other because of the natural antipathy of their insect counterparts. Clearly, a young man dressed as a spider will dislike a beautiful girl in a wasp costume! Two of the stories have potential invaders, Colossus and Attuma, give up their nefarious plans in the belief that all humans can change size and fight. This idea of bad guys wrongly generalising from one super-example was used in Asimov’s 1940s comedy tale ‘Victory Unintentional’ and probably in other stories, too.
Giant-Man tackles the Hulk in Tales To Astonish # 59, mostly as a prelude to the green one taking over the other half of ‘Tales To Astonish in issue # 60. In Tales To Astonish # 69, Giant-Man and the Wasp made their last appearance and the Sub-Mariner took over their half of the book with the following issue. The last few adventures have art by Carlos Burgos and Bob Powell who, I suspect, may have been pretty good illustrators but couldn’t adapt to the Marvel method. Not everyone could. Not everyone wanted to do more work, for the usual fee, so the writer could do less. Some of them, it is said, got quite grumpy about it.
I think this is worth getting for the early Marvel Kirby art and the dotty Ant-Man stories. If they are excluded, you’re left with a pretty average comic book of the early Silver Age. Don Heck’s drawings are interesting but Dick Ayers is very much an also-ran, though he was a good inker of Kirby. Really, Giant-Man deserved to be discontinued and, in any case, he lived on as a regular character in ‘The Mighty Avengers’, often as the focal point of some excellent Roy Thomas plot-lines. I can’t pretend this is the most essential of the ‘Marvel Essentials’. Even so, as long as you don’t take your comic books too seriously, it‘s worth a look.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
However, eight issues later, in Tales to Astonish # 35, Ant-Man appears as a super-hero. Weeks after his ant adventure, Henry Pym is fascinated by the little insects and now considers his serum a great discovery. He decides that ants use their antennae to communicate electronically and devises a cybernetic helmet that will enable him to chat to them. He also makes a protective outfit to protect himself from stings. Like the costumes of the Fantastic Four, it is made of unstable molecules so it can shrink, grow, burst into flames, turn invisible or do anything a hero does along with him. Henry Pym is recruited by the U.S. government to create a gas that will make people immune to radioactivity. Science, you may notice, was not Stan Lee’s strongest subject. Anyway, evil communist agents come to steal the gas recipe and Hank sees them off with his anty powers. It turns out that, even in his shrunken state, he retains the strength of a normal-size man and can hurl argumentative ants away as if they were…well, ants.
Communists were a common foe in the early days of Marvel, unsurprisingly, given the political climate in 1963. Moreover, many of the early comic creators were sons of east European immigrants and may have been genuinely dismayed by the rough red treatment of their ancestral homelands. Another commie rears his ugly head in Tales To Astonish # 36, ‘The Challenge Of Comrade X’. Ant-Man’s reputation has spread beyond the iron curtain and a secret agent is dispatched to learn his secrets. Quite a good story, actually. At this point, they were just thirteen pages long, the rest of the mag being filled with shorter tales of a more generally astonishing kind.
As ants are everywhere and can relay messages back to Hank whenever there is trouble he is equipped with a formicable, sorry, formidable communications network. They respond to certain ’verbal stimuli’, words like ’Ant-Man’, ’Protector’ and ’Jewellery’. I suppose, being American ants, they speak English. But what if some of them were commies? They live communally, sharing everything and have little individual ambition but work for the greater good of the colony. It seems to me that, if not for Ant-Man’s cybernetic control, they might have taken the Bolshevik side.
Their leanings are put to the test in Tales To Astonish # 38, when evil scientist Egghead learns their wavelength and tells them that he is their friend and Ant-Man is their enemy. Moreover, he informs them that with his help they can make Ant-Man their slave, to serve them the rest of their days. It’s not clear why they should want this. Egghead reasons that they will go along with his plan ‘for I have appealed to their greed and their vanity.’ The plot fails, as Ant-Man points out. ‘insects have no such emotions. Unfortunately, it is only we humans who possess such primitive traits.’ In fact, ants aren’t greedy because they are communists and if Henry Pym thinks we are more primitive than them, he really ought to go back to school and redo evolution. He also mentions that he doesn’t control them, they are his friends. Indubitably, he would have testified on their behalf had they been called up before a Senate hearing for Un-American ant activity.
In Tales To Astonish # 39, Ant-Man encounters the scarlet beetle that has become irradiated and developed a brain equal to that of a man. Now he plans to lead all the insects and conquer the world. Clearly, he has surpassed by far the usual beetle ambitions of mating and eating some dung. He uses Ant-Man’s growth gas to become man-sized and launches his war. ‘I’ll snuff out your life as I would a candle,’ he tells our hero dramatically, courtesy of scriptwriter Larry Leiber, who never paused to wonder how a beetle became acquainted with candles or indeed melodramatic clichés from bad movies. The plot was by Stan Lee, who often had his brother do the scripting chores in the early days. To be fair, they are pretty good.
The Wonderful Wasp is introduced in Tales To Astonish # 44, ‘The Creature From Kosmos’, in which another alien wants to conquer the world. Aliens, commies, South American dictators, evil scientists and so forth were par for the course in the early sixties. Henry Pym also acquired a rogues gallery of pretty second-rate villains like the Porcupine, the Human Top, Egghead, the Black Knight and the Magician. This story is better than the title makes it sound as we learn more of Henry Pym’s background and the art – Jack Kirby inked by Don Heck – is excellent. Every early issue of ‘Tales To Astonish’ has Ant-Man doing something amusing in it and I could summarize them one by one but the review would get very long. Suffice to say they are wonderfully awful and awfully wonderful, like the 1950s SF B-movies which inspired them. Or Them!
When Ant-Man became Giant-Man in Tales To Astonish # 49, he became less interesting for me, though he still got ant-sized quite often, usually to escape from traps. Giant-Man has an optimum height of twelve feet because after that he starts to get weaker. Some of the adventures aren’t bad. Egged on by misinformation from a villainous scientist, he attacks Spider-Man in Tales To Astonish # 57. In another small piece of lunacy, Spider-Man and the Wasp don’t like each other because of the natural antipathy of their insect counterparts. Clearly, a young man dressed as a spider will dislike a beautiful girl in a wasp costume! Two of the stories have potential invaders, Colossus and Attuma, give up their nefarious plans in the belief that all humans can change size and fight. This idea of bad guys wrongly generalising from one super-example was used in Asimov’s 1940s comedy tale ‘Victory Unintentional’ and probably in other stories, too.
Giant-Man tackles the Hulk in Tales To Astonish # 59, mostly as a prelude to the green one taking over the other half of ‘Tales To Astonish in issue # 60. In Tales To Astonish # 69, Giant-Man and the Wasp made their last appearance and the Sub-Mariner took over their half of the book with the following issue. The last few adventures have art by Carlos Burgos and Bob Powell who, I suspect, may have been pretty good illustrators but couldn’t adapt to the Marvel method. Not everyone could. Not everyone wanted to do more work, for the usual fee, so the writer could do less. Some of them, it is said, got quite grumpy about it.
I think this is worth getting for the early Marvel Kirby art and the dotty Ant-Man stories. If they are excluded, you’re left with a pretty average comic book of the early Silver Age. Don Heck’s drawings are interesting but Dick Ayers is very much an also-ran, though he was a good inker of Kirby. Really, Giant-Man deserved to be discontinued and, in any case, he lived on as a regular character in ‘The Mighty Avengers’, often as the focal point of some excellent Roy Thomas plot-lines. I can’t pretend this is the most essential of the ‘Marvel Essentials’. Even so, as long as you don’t take your comic books too seriously, it‘s worth a look.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
July 18, 2010
Essential Ant Man made for fascinating reading. Back when I was a kid, my older brother loved The Avengers, and my first introduction to the character of Hank Pym was in the pages of West Coast Avengers. Pym was a fallen hero, then, and he basically functioned as that team's science advisor and base manager, but they slowly turned him into an odd second string team member who used his shrinking powers to essentially run around with a pocket full of anything the team might need, from weapons to Quinjets. I would later find out that Pym had a bizarre history-going from Ant Man to Giant Man to Goliath to Yellow Jacket, creating Ultron, marrying The Wasp while out of his gourd, then in the late 70s/early 80s their relationship became abusive and he was disgraced off the team in a series of epic fails. With that history of constantly having his identity moved around, and the bizarro gender relations of early comics, it is hardly surprising that some enterprising comic writers looked back on his early days and went "hey! I know-let's turn this guy into a wife beater so we can explore that issue without jeopardizing one of our cash cows."
When I read the first four Essential Avengers books, this scenario seemed very likely, but reading his own books, there's enough here that I can really see how an author could have a big light bulb go off in his head and he'd end up with that twist. Pym is just so callous, casual and unthinking around Van Dyne, not to mention imbued with an inferiority complex from day one, that it really does seem like a great direction to bring the character. I am obligated to have fascination/love for such an unstable oddball of a character, however, and I especially love his pre-Wasp Ant Man days, where every villain seems to be a store owner in disguise (it is all VERY Scooby-Doo) or a Soviet agent, and Ant Man shoots himself into battle with an air-cannon, and is always ready to sacrifice his insect allies in the fight against crime! Sadly, the book does seem to go down hill in the later issues, when the art takes a nose-dive and the comic becomes a sort of uncomfortable cross between 60s romance books and superhero tropes. Still, this is definitely worth a look to lovers of the Silver Age.
When I read the first four Essential Avengers books, this scenario seemed very likely, but reading his own books, there's enough here that I can really see how an author could have a big light bulb go off in his head and he'd end up with that twist. Pym is just so callous, casual and unthinking around Van Dyne, not to mention imbued with an inferiority complex from day one, that it really does seem like a great direction to bring the character. I am obligated to have fascination/love for such an unstable oddball of a character, however, and I especially love his pre-Wasp Ant Man days, where every villain seems to be a store owner in disguise (it is all VERY Scooby-Doo) or a Soviet agent, and Ant Man shoots himself into battle with an air-cannon, and is always ready to sacrifice his insect allies in the fight against crime! Sadly, the book does seem to go down hill in the later issues, when the art takes a nose-dive and the comic becomes a sort of uncomfortable cross between 60s romance books and superhero tropes. Still, this is definitely worth a look to lovers of the Silver Age.
Read
June 24, 2016Hasta ahora está resultando muy entretenido...
February 4, 2021
Mazacote integral con los primeros años de historias de Ant-Man protagonizadas por Henry Pym, incluyendo las primeras apariciones de Scott Lang.
January 25, 2017
Disliked by many, but for good reason. I did enjoy the first several issues though. It does get pretty bad about the time Giant-Man shows up. Still, 5 stars for enduring characters.
June 1, 2023
Marvel's First Also-Ran:
Any time you pick a volume of Marvel Essentials and realize its the only volume in its series, you are in for something a little odd. So it is with the Astonishing Ant-Man. Notably, this volume does not start with a superhero story. Tales to Astonish #27 "The Man in the Ant Hill" is a science fiction thriller about a scientist who accidentally shrinks himself down and must survive... take a guess. Its only with the second collected issue, Tales to Astonish #35, that we get the good Doctor Pym's transformation into the unforgettable Ant-Man.
Technically this book is incorrectly named. What it actually collects are the appearances of Doctor Henry Pym (as himself, Ant-Man, and Giant Man) from Tales to Astonish #27 and 35-69. A lot of people deride the Ant-Man solo features as being too silly or unimpressive. Personally I think there's a lot of charm to a hero who can be credibly threatened by a sheet of wax paper or a pet aardvark. Here we are presented with a protagonist whose value lies more in his uniqueness than his strength.
But not every decision is a winner. In a baffling decision, the formula to many if not most Ant-Man stories is akin to a Scooby-Doo episode. A mysterious menace antagonizes the community, Ant-Man sets a trap, and the villain is unmasked to reveal usually whoever asked for Ant-Man's help to begin with. (Spoilers, I suppose.) Along these lines we get baddies like the Lenin-impersonator Comrade X, the racketeering Protector, and the aptly named Hijacker. Mixed in with these we have a few interesting baddies like Scarlett Beetle, a super intelligent insect who forces every bug in New York to join his conquering horde, and Egg Head, who I'm sad to admit is Pym's arch nemesis.
Mixed in with the good and the bad is the stuff that's so bad its good. I'm talking quality 1960's cheese. For example, Ant-Man transports himself across the city with a slingshot built into his wall, and catches himself by landing on piles of ants. Also, unlike in the movies and later comics, Pym does not control ants. According to Egg Head's debut appearance, he talks to them like Aquaman in Super Friends. And the reason they can't be persuaded to betray him is, quote, "They regard themselves as my friends... and my partners in the war against crime!" I couldn't make it up, folks. That honor is reserved for the Lieber brothers.
#44 introduces Ant-Man's partner the Wasp, and with her come more traditional superhero narratives. The pair faces aliens, communists, robots, and a few legitimate supervillains with some degree of staying power, like Porcupine, the Human Top now better known as Whirlwind, and Black Knight who would become a significant player in both the Avengers and Iron Man.
Of course, with Wasp comes a whole helping of good ole' 60's sexism. As with Sue in Fantastic Four, Janet has no particular intellect or skill, though at least her abilities lend themselves to some physicality. She is also portrayed as being entirely and helplessly man-crazy, an attribute which will remain consistent when she moves to other titles, unfortunately. I'm also more than a little troubled by the ambiguous age difference between the two leads, with Janet's ill-fated father being a contemporary of Hanks. I suppose that is another trope borrowed from Reed and Sue.
As the volume continues and the Avengers assemble off-page, the reader is hit with an unrelenting series of status quo shakeups. To summarize the big ones: Hank goes from using gas to change size to using his pills, now he gets big as well as small, now he can control his size with just his mind, now he controls Janet's size with his mind, now he can only grow so high, now he can grow higher but he always has to grow that high, and now he can't shrink. (I also think Janet got the power to control wasps at some point in there, but I can't be bothered to go back and check if that was in this book or Avengers.) Its pretty disorienting and unnecessary, and made more so by the fact that the writer will often lose track of what powers the duo have lost or gained. In the most glaring example,
In the end, its easy to see why Ant-Man didn't take off. The book is silly and weird. By the time Giant Man is having a fight with Spider-Man and then the Incredible Hulk is resurrection from cancellation limbo to be his Tales to Astonish co-feature, you can see that the writing was on the wall. But its because of this silly weirdness and not despite it that revisiting this period in comics history is a fun and rewarding experience. I whole heartedly recommend this to fans of Marvel's other Silver Age titles.
Any time you pick a volume of Marvel Essentials and realize its the only volume in its series, you are in for something a little odd. So it is with the Astonishing Ant-Man. Notably, this volume does not start with a superhero story. Tales to Astonish #27 "The Man in the Ant Hill" is a science fiction thriller about a scientist who accidentally shrinks himself down and must survive... take a guess. Its only with the second collected issue, Tales to Astonish #35, that we get the good Doctor Pym's transformation into the unforgettable Ant-Man.
Technically this book is incorrectly named. What it actually collects are the appearances of Doctor Henry Pym (as himself, Ant-Man, and Giant Man) from Tales to Astonish #27 and 35-69. A lot of people deride the Ant-Man solo features as being too silly or unimpressive. Personally I think there's a lot of charm to a hero who can be credibly threatened by a sheet of wax paper or a pet aardvark. Here we are presented with a protagonist whose value lies more in his uniqueness than his strength.
But not every decision is a winner. In a baffling decision, the formula to many if not most Ant-Man stories is akin to a Scooby-Doo episode. A mysterious menace antagonizes the community, Ant-Man sets a trap, and the villain is unmasked to reveal usually whoever asked for Ant-Man's help to begin with. (Spoilers, I suppose.) Along these lines we get baddies like the Lenin-impersonator Comrade X, the racketeering Protector, and the aptly named Hijacker. Mixed in with these we have a few interesting baddies like Scarlett Beetle, a super intelligent insect who forces every bug in New York to join his conquering horde, and Egg Head, who I'm sad to admit is Pym's arch nemesis.
Mixed in with the good and the bad is the stuff that's so bad its good. I'm talking quality 1960's cheese. For example, Ant-Man transports himself across the city with a slingshot built into his wall, and catches himself by landing on piles of ants. Also, unlike in the movies and later comics, Pym does not control ants. According to Egg Head's debut appearance, he talks to them like Aquaman in Super Friends. And the reason they can't be persuaded to betray him is, quote, "They regard themselves as my friends... and my partners in the war against crime!" I couldn't make it up, folks. That honor is reserved for the Lieber brothers.
#44 introduces Ant-Man's partner the Wasp, and with her come more traditional superhero narratives. The pair faces aliens, communists, robots, and a few legitimate supervillains with some degree of staying power, like Porcupine, the Human Top now better known as Whirlwind, and Black Knight who would become a significant player in both the Avengers and Iron Man.
Of course, with Wasp comes a whole helping of good ole' 60's sexism. As with Sue in Fantastic Four, Janet has no particular intellect or skill, though at least her abilities lend themselves to some physicality. She is also portrayed as being entirely and helplessly man-crazy, an attribute which will remain consistent when she moves to other titles, unfortunately. I'm also more than a little troubled by the ambiguous age difference between the two leads, with Janet's ill-fated father being a contemporary of Hanks. I suppose that is another trope borrowed from Reed and Sue.
As the volume continues and the Avengers assemble off-page, the reader is hit with an unrelenting series of status quo shakeups. To summarize the big ones: Hank goes from using gas to change size to using his pills, now he gets big as well as small, now he can control his size with just his mind, now he controls Janet's size with his mind, now he can only grow so high, now he can grow higher but he always has to grow that high, and now he can't shrink. (I also think Janet got the power to control wasps at some point in there, but I can't be bothered to go back and check if that was in this book or Avengers.) Its pretty disorienting and unnecessary, and made more so by the fact that the writer will often lose track of what powers the duo have lost or gained. In the most glaring example,
In the end, its easy to see why Ant-Man didn't take off. The book is silly and weird. By the time Giant Man is having a fight with Spider-Man and then the Incredible Hulk is resurrection from cancellation limbo to be his Tales to Astonish co-feature, you can see that the writing was on the wall. But its because of this silly weirdness and not despite it that revisiting this period in comics history is a fun and rewarding experience. I whole heartedly recommend this to fans of Marvel's other Silver Age titles.
Read
December 22, 2022This collection and I go way back. Around high school/freshman year of college, when Marvel started publishing these "Essential" collections (a revolutionary concept for me at the time!) I began the foolish quest to buy every single one. Foolish, not only because they were expensive (something like $15-$18, an exorbitant amount for a cheapskate like me), not only because they were the size of phonebooks and took up way too much space, not only because since they reproduce comics in black and white even the most dynamic comics aren't so dynamic, but also because it meant purchasing really boring sounding titles I really had no interest in ever reading, case in point Ant-Man.
Keep in mind this was a good decade before the Marvel Cinematic Universe exploded into the mainstream, somehow hypnotizing sheeple into believing even Ant Man was interesting (fwiw, I've never seen the Ant Man movies, and only a fraction of all the Marvel movies out there).
Flash forward to the pandemic, when I figured since I was stuck at home anyway I might as well read the really boring stuff I'd been putting off for half my life.
So I started reading Ant-Man and a bunch of other boring Essential collections I'd stupidly accumulated over the years.
But at some point I gave up on old Ant-Man. I mean, his adventures literally put me to sleep.
I did take some notes from this point in my Ant-Man -reading career, however. These notes must have meant something for me at the time, though now I find that fairly meaningless:
-"amoral" ants are crafty; help Ant-Man get out jams like jam, say, or a vacuum cleaner trap
-old man villain has amazing agism device
-traumatizing cold war origin retconned to have Lovecraftian bent
-ant mosh pit; weird assortment of foes like rejected Scooby Doo villains
-H.E. Huntley is a bad writer with terrible pacing
-Only Doctor Who and comic books would treat space aliens as a more plausible explanation than mythological figures coming back to life
-Jason Cragg and Trago are basically the same guy
-The villains are really weird because the Marvel Machine hasn't worked out the kinks in the tropes of the superhero genre. Everything is fair game.
-I liked this comic a lot better before Ant-Man got a big head as Giant Man and Stan Lee took over -Really clumsy handling of Wasp in repurposing/reframing these miscellaneous Twilight Zone stories
Anyway, nearly two years later I realized I wanted this book out of my house so I designated it bathroom reading, a priority one spot where reading projects are surely completed, as this one eventually was before the New Year.
My major problem with Ant Man (or Giant Man or whatever the hell he wants to call himself) is he has no identity and nobody ever knows what to do with him. He's only Ant Man for a lil bit before the Powers That Be grew tired of that concept and made him Giant Man, complete with a much more boring costume. Then they gave him all sorts of weaknesses (can't grow beyond X feet, can only be X feet for so long) to try and make him interesting. But the very fact is he's just not very unique. His origin story is forgettable and a closed system. There's already Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic doing the science bit. The Wasp is a terribly sexist trope but thank God she's there because she's the only one in the outfit with any personality. In retrospect, Giant Man nee Ant-Man's complete lack of humanity or passion made him the perfect patsy for some writer to make into a wife-beating jerk in comicbookdom later on.
Ant-Man's villains are... unique, I guess? Right now without the book in front of me I can only really remember the Porcupine, Egg Man, and the Top. The Porcupine is pointy. The Egg Man, super genius that he is, is constantly foiled by his own hubris for dismissing the capabilities of loyal ants.
The Top is a pretty interesting foe, I think purely by happenstance. He's just such a creep. There's one story where he's just stalking Ant-Man, and he tricks the Hulk into fighting him, but Ant-Man never finds out The Top's behind it. In the last story in this collection he changes his costume to something completely hideous and is also now a super genius, apparently? I recall in the Avengers stories (having rebranded himself the Whirlwind) he goes undercover as Giant-Man and the Wasp's chauffeur, and just sort of has that job for a while, never actually fighting them? If Stan Lee were alive I'd love to pick his brain about this character.
Anyway, that's all I gotta say about Ant-Man right now. Excelsior!
Keep in mind this was a good decade before the Marvel Cinematic Universe exploded into the mainstream, somehow hypnotizing sheeple into believing even Ant Man was interesting (fwiw, I've never seen the Ant Man movies, and only a fraction of all the Marvel movies out there).
Flash forward to the pandemic, when I figured since I was stuck at home anyway I might as well read the really boring stuff I'd been putting off for half my life.
So I started reading Ant-Man and a bunch of other boring Essential collections I'd stupidly accumulated over the years.
But at some point I gave up on old Ant-Man. I mean, his adventures literally put me to sleep.
I did take some notes from this point in my Ant-Man -reading career, however. These notes must have meant something for me at the time, though now I find that fairly meaningless:
-"amoral" ants are crafty; help Ant-Man get out jams like jam, say, or a vacuum cleaner trap
-old man villain has amazing agism device
-traumatizing cold war origin retconned to have Lovecraftian bent
-ant mosh pit; weird assortment of foes like rejected Scooby Doo villains
-H.E. Huntley is a bad writer with terrible pacing
-Only Doctor Who and comic books would treat space aliens as a more plausible explanation than mythological figures coming back to life
-Jason Cragg and Trago are basically the same guy
-The villains are really weird because the Marvel Machine hasn't worked out the kinks in the tropes of the superhero genre. Everything is fair game.
-I liked this comic a lot better before Ant-Man got a big head as Giant Man and Stan Lee took over -Really clumsy handling of Wasp in repurposing/reframing these miscellaneous Twilight Zone stories
Anyway, nearly two years later I realized I wanted this book out of my house so I designated it bathroom reading, a priority one spot where reading projects are surely completed, as this one eventually was before the New Year.
My major problem with Ant Man (or Giant Man or whatever the hell he wants to call himself) is he has no identity and nobody ever knows what to do with him. He's only Ant Man for a lil bit before the Powers That Be grew tired of that concept and made him Giant Man, complete with a much more boring costume. Then they gave him all sorts of weaknesses (can't grow beyond X feet, can only be X feet for so long) to try and make him interesting. But the very fact is he's just not very unique. His origin story is forgettable and a closed system. There's already Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic doing the science bit. The Wasp is a terribly sexist trope but thank God she's there because she's the only one in the outfit with any personality. In retrospect, Giant Man nee Ant-Man's complete lack of humanity or passion made him the perfect patsy for some writer to make into a wife-beating jerk in comicbookdom later on.
Ant-Man's villains are... unique, I guess? Right now without the book in front of me I can only really remember the Porcupine, Egg Man, and the Top. The Porcupine is pointy. The Egg Man, super genius that he is, is constantly foiled by his own hubris for dismissing the capabilities of loyal ants.
The Top is a pretty interesting foe, I think purely by happenstance. He's just such a creep. There's one story where he's just stalking Ant-Man, and he tricks the Hulk into fighting him, but Ant-Man never finds out The Top's behind it. In the last story in this collection he changes his costume to something completely hideous and is also now a super genius, apparently? I recall in the Avengers stories (having rebranded himself the Whirlwind) he goes undercover as Giant-Man and the Wasp's chauffeur, and just sort of has that job for a while, never actually fighting them? If Stan Lee were alive I'd love to pick his brain about this character.
Anyway, that's all I gotta say about Ant-Man right now. Excelsior!
July 26, 2010
Man, they just never could figure out what to do with Ant Man, could they? From the constant costume redesigns to the incessant power-tweaking to his weird "I-like-you-no-I-don't-yes-I-do-but-I'm-going-to-ignore-you" relationship with the Wasp.
It was fun in the beginning when he was just a little superhero who could control ants, but it quickly got tiresome once they lost interest in that concept and couldn't come up with a new one that stuck.
It was fun in the beginning when he was just a little superhero who could control ants, but it quickly got tiresome once they lost interest in that concept and couldn't come up with a new one that stuck.
January 18, 2010
These are far from the best of the early 60s Marvel superhero stories, but major kudos to Marvel for publishing this edition for its essential role in Marvel's early history. It's obvious that the writers and artists had a lot of fun exploring the possibilities of what size-changing could do for a crime-fighter, but they rarely came up with memorable villains and Hank Pym never developed much of a personality, even after the introduction of the Wasp.
August 18, 2009
i bought this because i was mildy interested in ant man and wanted to something to read on tour that i was kind of long and not something that i was going to get super into and read in one day. this was so boring that i frequently took breaks from reading it to stare at the side of the van for entertainment. half way through i gave up on reading this all together...
May 24, 2016
Bocha de Hank y Jan a cargo de Lee-Kirby-Heck y un cacho de Scott a cargo de Michelinie-Byrne-Layton. El integral del vengador más pequeño en uno de los tomos más grandes que ha parido la colección Omnigold, para quien se anime a cargarlo hasta su hormiguero.
October 19, 2023
My vintage so I have a soft spot for these stories, hokey though they may be. After all, how many times do you see a middle-aged supervillain accompany a superhero's fan club as they call in on his secret gym?
June 27, 2009
Another series of mediocrly written commic books where it is just the hero and the villains and that's about it.
January 22, 2013
Typical mediocre Marvel 1960s comics; some nice art, a lot of very silly stories.
July 20, 2013
Decisamente buone le prime storie, e comunque tutte quelle disegnate da Kirby.
Stan Lee però appare alquanto svolgliato.
Poteva fare di meglio, e lo ha fatto su altri personaggi.
Stan Lee però appare alquanto svolgliato.
Poteva fare di meglio, e lo ha fatto su altri personaggi.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews