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Marvel Feature #7

Jan 1973
Mike Friedrich, P. Craig Russell

Marvel Feature #7 cover

Story Name:

Paranoia is the Para-Man!


Synopsis

Marvel Feature #7 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 3 stars

Ant-Man and Wasp, trapped in their smallest sizes are trying to escape a man chasing them with a butterfly net. They are cornered on the edge of a chasm over of a shallows steam; Jan tries flying while carrying Hank but she grows dizzy and drops him into the water and she is then nabbed in the net. Hank throws his “rope” around a high twig and climbs out, only to be grabbed by the man with the net and sprayed with a chemical that knocks him out….

When he awakens, he finds he and Jan are in separate jars, placed there by Boswell, a fat and nearsighted man who thought they were some sort of insect. A green and yellow android calling himself Para-Man because he is superior to humans, enters, demanding to see Boswell’s specimens and flies into a rage when Boswell can’t identify them. Para-Man then bullies his captive into cleaning up the lab Para-Man orders him to find out what these new specimens are while the android sits before a TV screen, a drink of oil in its hand, watching a recording of how it was created by Boswell and soon became the dominant one. The android sees that Hank and Jan are unconscious due to lack of air and heads outside to soliloquize on its loneliness….

Hank recover sand uses the nail he keeps by his side as a lever to topple and break the bottle he is in; he frees Jan and they dash toward the door only to be caught by Para-Man who finally makes the connection that they are tiny humans. They elude their captor and Hank decides to end it by puncturing a gasoline can and, struggling to bring down matches from a table top, ignites the gas. It blows up in Para-Man’s face and sets the lab ablaze. Hank and Jan get out safely but Para-Man remains to rescue Boswell whom he has realized is special to him…if inferior. Deciding the tiny humans need to be punished, the android dashes back into the lab as it explodes. Boswell recovers the android’s severed head and it demands a stronger body. And then the chemicals she has ingested cause Jan to mutate into a human-wasp hybrid…and it attacks Hank….



 

Review / Commentaries


Marvel Feature #7 Review by (November 14, 2023)

Review: Para-Man, a one-time-only villain, probably because he looks like the Creature from the Black Lagoon masquerading as a Mexican wrestler. Or maybe vice versa. Anyway, after a strong opening with the heroes being captured as bugs and popped into jars, the whole thing falls apart with an arrogant android that thinks he’s Hamlet and possibly the dumbest mad scientist in all of Marvel. There’s too much thrown in, leaving little to develop properly, with occasional hints that the whole thing is a parody, especially the android watching TV while drinking a brew. But if it’s a parody, it isn’t funny (whereas if it’s meant to be taken seriously, it is mildly amusing). And that weird development at the end will be with us longer than you would expect.  

Comments: First and only appearance of the Para-Man. Dan Adkins and Mark Kersey shared inking chores. The letters page includes one by future Marvel writer David Michelinie.



> Marvel Feature comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
Diamond Select Toys Marvel Gallery: Ant-Man Movie Version PVC Figure, 9"
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

P. Craig Russell
?
Unknown
Gil Kane (Cover Penciler)
Joe Sinnott (Cover Inker)
Unknown (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Charlotte Jetter.

Characters

Listed in alphabetical order. All stories.

Ant-Man
Ant-Man

(Hank Pym)
Wasp
Wasp

(Janet Van Dyne)


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