Tales to Astonish (1959 series) #58

Review: The Ant-Man/Giant-Man series in TALES TO ASTONISH was probably the silliest superhero saga in early Marvel history (though the Human Torch’s solo series in STRANGE TALES comes close) and this issue may be the most ridiculous. A dumb hero with limited powers faced a series of dumb villains and barely managed to defeat them. At one point in this tale, Hank says that the thirty-foot giant is twice his height of twelve feet, establishing that this physicist can’t do basic arithmetic. Then Ant-Man and Wasp shrink to an inch high to climb the mountain faster? On the other hand, Colossus is an alien stranded on a high rock and can’t figure out how to get down even though he owns a working spaceship. Plus he gets spooked by a man able to change his size. And the African natives are terrified of him, even though he can’t get down from the peak. On the other hand, the natives do seem to be engineering geniuses since they manage to erect a huge statue of Giant-Man on top of an unscalable mountain.

The Wasp story is not quite so dumb though it features Wasp jumping into a toy car that races around a track to get away from the baddie—and a baddie who still can’t catch her. And then he gets his cape caught in the escalator and doesn’t think to unbutton the cape at his neck. Then Wasp hits the emergency release button that not one of the store’s employees appears to have known about and goes home to—in the worst moment of the story—assure Hank Pym that she’s a helpless female so as not to damage his ego. Sad to say, this was a fairly common attitude of the era and probably sowed the seeds of their eventual divorce. But Wasp proves herself not totally incompetent, unlike her story in the last issue—and that’s something.

Comments: Giant-Man story: Wasp has a costume change in this issue. First appearance of Captain America in Ant-Man’s early series. Hank Pym gains the ability to control his size mentally. Wasp story: The Magician made his first appearance in issue #56; this is his final bow though his son would show up in ASTONISHING ANT-MAN #2, in 2015, 49 years later. Hank Pym does not appear as either Ant-Man or Giant-Man in this story. And it is revealed that the Wasp’s sting, which could knock a man down in the previous issue, is not powerful enough to penetrate a silk handkerchief.