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Tales to Astonish #67: Review

May 1965
Stan Lee, Steve Ditko

Story Name:

Where Strikes The Behemoth!

Review & Comments

Rating:
3 stars

Tales to Astonish #67 Review by (May 10, 2023)

Review: Hulk continues his vendetta against the Commies with a lot of Hulk smash tanks! By the time this starts to wear thin, Bruce Banner escapes the stereotypical Russians and is captured by stereotypical Mongolian bandits. And the obnoxious Glen(n) Talbot arrives to abuse Bruce who is delighted to see him. The action just rolls along with the Soviets showing the sense to quit while they are ahead and Talbot…not. And now they’ve fallen off a cliff! Hully gee!

Giant-Man story: So let’s ignore the fact that the villain is Kirby, absorbing the abilities of any who falls prey to him. And let’s overlook Hank treating Janet in a dismissive manner, giving her a bee to distract her while he can concentrate on something “important.” No, it’s the fact that Wasp is bathed in green ray twice and nothing happens to her while both times someone with her (the bee and Hank) loses an ability. It must be one of those revolutionary scientific rays that only affects what the scientist is thinking of and everything else exposed to it is kept safe by the power of thought. Plus, the ray only takes one ability, apparently randomly chosen by the ray, as it takes Hank’s shrinking ability but not the enlarging one that the bad guy wanted; all of Hank’s other knowledge and abilities are intact—so maybe Hank can explain how his two complementary talents aren’t the same thing. And the baddie must be in a foul temper as in the first panel on page four, he appears to be raising his middle finger to the green ray behind him. Wonder how the Comics Code Authority missed that? Anyway, the Hidden Man (so called because he is hiding in his lair, like every other villain who has minions to do his work for him) is nabbed by his own people who arrive in a spaceship over Manhattan while no one sees them and assure Giant-Man that they will “undo whatever harm [Supramor] has done.” Yet Hank does not regain the power to shrink, confirmed in the next issue. So, what happens to all the scientists whose specialized knowledge has been drained? It must be tough going from being the world’s leading expert on bees to flipping burgers at McDonalds. Let’s hope those other guys were repaired by the aliens!

Comments: Hulk cover portrait was marketed as a poster in the 1960s. Hulk story: For the first time, calming down turns Hulk back to Banner and it will stay that way forever; took them long enough to settle on a formula that works. Only appearance of Kanga Khan, no relation to the Pokémon Kangaskhan (presumably). The story ends with thanks to Steve Ditko for handling the art and the announcement that Jack Kirby will take over with the next issue. Inker Frank Giacoia credited as Frank Ray. Giant-Man story: Wasp’s headpiece is back to black after a one-issue blue period. Though Hank loses his Ant-Man shrinking abilities, they return in AVENGERS #46. Only appearance of Supramor, the Hidden Man. Hank Pym has a stamp collection, previously unmentioned.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Tales to Astonish #67 Synopsis by Julio Molina-Muscara
After crushing several tanks, the Hulk leaps away until he arrives to Eastern Mongolia.

Siting down to rest, he turns into Bruce Banner who is found by a local militia and taken prisoner.

Glenn Talbot is sent to rescue him.

Talbot gets to the camp Banner is kept locked. When a group of Mongols attacks the camp, Talbot uses the opportunity to free Banner and escape to the mountains. But they accidentally fall into a precipice!

“The Mystery of the Hidden Man and His Rays of Doom!”
Writer: Stan Lee. Pencils: Bob Powell. Inks: Chic Stone. Colors: ? Letters: Art Simek.
Synopsis: Outdoors one day, Giant-Man spies a loose connection on a power line and grows to one hundred feet to fix it. Suddenly, he is bathed in a green ray from an odd looking car; the driver is Loko whose master is the Hidden Man, secure in as secret location as gains the abilities siphoned off by the green ray, planning to conquer the human race. But Hank is strong enough of will to fight off the green ray, blowing a fuse so that Loko is forced to return to base….

Hours later, Giant-Man spies the car again and seizes it while Loko escapes, returning to be berated by his master who desire the ability to change his size….

Hank examines the captured car but is interrupted by Wasp who wants a means of keeping up with Hank when he runs in his giant size. Hank explains that he has been training a bee to carry him as Ant-Man so he turns the insect over to Jan, who takes it out on a test flight. The Hidden Man has been spying on Hank and Jan via the car and dispatches Loko in a second car to home of Fenton Farnum, the world’s leading authority on bees and drains him of his knowledge so that the Hidden Man becomes a bee expert and makes a plan to capture Hank through Janet….

Having hit a snag in his examination of the alien car, Hank calls in a top physicist for consultation but the man reveals that he has lost all of this knowledge of physics after being bathed in a green ray—and he is not the only scientist so afflicted. Hank makes the connection to his own experience and grows into Giant-Man, ready should the villain try again. Wasp returns on the bee but the green ray causes the bee to forget its training and sting Wasp. Hank quickly shrinks to Ant-Man size to remove the stinger with a giant tweezer when he is bathed in the green ray. He saves Jan but discovers he can no longer shrink to ant-size though he can still grow to giant-size. He uses the equipment in the alien car to trace the villain back to his secret lair. But the Hidden Man sees him coming and shoots him with a ray gun that knocks the hundred-foot hero to his knees. The Hidden Man sends Loko to run him down in the street but Giant-Man wrecks the car, saving an elderly pedestrian’s life and capturing Loko. Hank shrinks to twelve feet and pursues the villain, catching him despite his shrinking down. Then an alien ship appears in the sky and bathes Hank in a ray that puts him to sleep; they then capture Supramor, the Hidden Man, a criminal from their world, and take him back for punishment, while undoing all the harm he has done. Hanks decides not to tell Jan what had happened and can hardly believe it himself.



Preview Pages
Click sample interior pages to enlarge them:




Steve Ditko
Frank Giacoia
?
Jack Kirby (Cover Penciler)
Chic Stone (Cover Inker)
Stan Goldberg (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Art Simek.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Ant-Man
Ant-Man

(Hank Pym)
Bruce Banner
Bruce Banner

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Giant-Man
Giant-Man

(Hank Pym)
Hulk
Hulk

(Bruce Banner)
Thunderbolt Ross
Thunderbolt Ross

(Thaddeus Ross)
Wasp
Wasp

(Janet Van Dyne)



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