The city is
experiencing a wave of hijackings of armored cars, the guards unharmed but
their memories wiped of the robbery details. Howard Mitchell, head of the
company whose trucks are being targeted, berates the police for their lack of
progress and demands that Ant-Man be called in. Ants overhear this conversation
and relay the message to Hank Pym who dons his Ant-Man suit, shrinks in size
and catapults himself to Mitchell’s office. Ant-Man suggest a trap for the
Hijacker: announce a big shipment for the next day and Ant-Man will accompany
it with his ants….
The next
day, though, as the armored truck is about to depart, Ant-Man falls ill with
appendicitis and has his ants carry him to the hospital. Upset over Ant-Man’s
failure, they send out the truck and it is ambushed by a larger truck: the big truck
opens up and a giant magnet pulls the armored car into the back. There, the
Hijacker releases knock-out gas to incapacitate the guards. Now Ant-Man reveals
himself, having faked his illness, followed the armored truck in a toy
airplane, and withstanding the gas by wearing a new type of gas mask he
developed on page 1. He tries to escape the Hijacker by hiding in the truck’s
engine but the sound of the horn almost defeats him, until he tears out the
wires. The ants arrive and work the windshield wiper which flings the tiny hero
onto the Hijacker’s head where he tears open a hole in the bad guy’s mask so
that he succumbs to the gas. He is unmasked as Howard Mitchell. Taken into
custody by the police, Mitchell explains that his company was failing so he
turned to robbery and he figured that calling in Ant-Man himself would divert
suspicion. Ant-Man adds that he suspected Mitchell because the man had spent
time in Peru where the natives have a gas that erases memory. Plus, only
Mitchell knew the trucks’ routes so it was pretty obvious to Ant-Man if not the
cops.
“I Was
Trapped in the Mad Universe!”
Writer:
Larry Lieber. Plot: Stan Lee. Art: Don Heck. Colors: Stan Goldberg. Letters:
Artie Simek.
Synopsis: On
his way home from school, Tommy finds a glowing marble which produces a strange
sensation in him. Reaching home, he finds that a boy who looks like him is
already there, his parents call him an impostor, and the dog growls at him.
Dejected, he runs out and meets a man looking for the marble; the man explains
that it is a device to travel between parallel worlds and Tommy had been moved
to one that was very similar. The man sends Tommy home and he doesn’t stop to
pick up any marbles on the way!
“Bird Talk”
Writer:
Unknown. Art: Unknown.
Synopsis: A
paperboy meets a man who claims to be a bird census taker but he has lost the
special devices which allow him to understand birds’ speech. After he leaves,
the boy finds them and grows up to be the world’s greatest expert on birds!
“The Worst
Man on Earth!”
Writer:
Stan Lee. Art: Steve Ditko. Colors: Stan Goldberg. Letters: Artie Simek.
Synopsis:
In the year 2000 (!), master criminal Hogarr is captured and sentenced to life
imprisonment in a comfortable little cottage. He manages to escape only to find
the cottage is a satellite in orbit around the Earth!