Tales to Astonish (1959 series) #35

Review: And here we have him: the classic Ant-Man! Hank was always one of the most erratic Avengers, changing his hero identity multiple times in his first five/six years of comics, unable to settle on one (Ant-Man to Giant-Man to Goliath to Yellowjacket) with his mental state changing to match. Things keep going downhill as Hank became more confused and hapless with each appearance to the point where the character was simply no longer a hero. And as has been pointed out, what can you do with a hero whose two greatest accomplishments are a) hitting his wife and b) creating Ultron, a major villain? Replace him with a lighter, funnier version like Scott Lang. After TTA, the next Ant-Man series is a seven-issue run in MARVEL FEATURE--and then comes Scott Lang in a two-part intro in MARVEL PREMIERE. Eventually there would be a third Ant-Man, Eric “Irredeemable” O’Grady, who would be succeeded by the returning Scott but as for Hank Pym? He would spend the next several decades lurking around the edges of the Marvel Universe, hoping to make himself useful, even as late as SECRET AVENGERS but never quite finding a place. His most recent appearance? No idea.

But for now, we have him fighting crime with an army of ants, while he is able to maintain his human strength at a tiny size. I know this doesn’t make any sense but then cosmic rays, gamma rays, and irradiated spiders don’t give people superpowers so cut Stan and Larry a break. Soon they would flesh out his character a bit by adding a tragic marriage out of nowhere, followed quickly by a cute female partner. And then they join the Avengers but Hank quickly becomes Giant-Man so that he can look more impressive on a cover and actually contribute to a battle (the same reason they gave Invisible Girl force field powers). It’s after this that things fall apart for him, as indicated above. But for now, he’s a fun hero, pulling off some absurd adventures with the series quickly becoming the silliest Marvel series of the 60s with Human Torch’s solo series in STRANGE TALES the only real competition.

And here’s the big mystery: there appears to be no published account of the character’s creation. Who at Marvel first had the idea to turn this guy from a random science fiction story into a superhero? No clue, this info does not appear anywhere I can see. If you know, please get in touch so I can revise this review but until then, it seems very odd that even from the beginning no one wanted to take credit for this hero as though they knew he would go downhill.  

Comments: First story: First appearance of Hank Pym as Ant-Man who will star in this book until issue #69. First mention of unstable molecules in this series; they first appeared in FANTASTIC FOUR #6, created or discovered by Reed Richards. The Marvel Database locates this story in New York City, though nothing in the tale supports that. And the anti-radioactivity gas was a bust since the thing is never mentioned again, so the foreign spies were wasting their time. Second story: Text story with one illustration, reprinted from reprinted from SPY THRILLERS #4; story also printed in TALES OF SUSPENSE #49.