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Tales to Astonish #65: Review

Mar 1965
Stan Lee, Steve Ditko

Story Name:

On The Rampage Against The Reds!

Review & Comments

Rating:
3 stars

Tales to Astonish #65 Review by (March 22, 2023)

Review: And Bruce Banner falls into the hands of the Commies even though an enemy sub should not have been able to get that close to a US base. And while the treatment of the Russian scientists may seem absurd now that we’ve been taught that the Cold War was all senseless paranoia, I suggest you read The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a man who experienced Soviet persecution firsthand, for a more accurate view of the treatment of Russian scientist/dissidents. And as if to deny what I’ve just said, Hulk smashes out of the cell where Bruce Banner was being held and all of the Commies are too stupid to make the connection. Meanwhile, things get exciting as Hulk faces a variety of weapons and smashes his way through all of them like a power washing video!   

Giant-Man story: A romantic interlude for Hank and Jan, interrupted by a new costume and a giant spider. Jan, who considers herself more fitted for fashion design than superheroing, puts together a new suit to replace the dorky red one and just adds a blue helmet and shoulder pads and for some reason, Hank can’t grow to Giant-Man without the helmet though he can still shrink. The cat seems typically malicious, giving away the guarded secret that most cats would murder their owners if given an advantage. And the giant robot ant from last issue would have come in handy this time around against the giant spider but Hank (and Stan) had forgotten all about it.

Comments: Hulk story: First issue of this series not to include General Thunderbolt Ross. Giant-Man story: Giant-Man has a new costume in this story to go with his new power of controlling the sizes of other living creatures. First appearance of Hank’s cat Tabby, who isn’t colored like a tabby; next issue marks his second and final appearance. Along with Prince Charming and Robin Hood, Wasp refers to Ben Casey, protagonist of his eponymous TV medical show (1961-1966). Letterer Sherigail has been identified as Morrie Kuramoto (see GCD).





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Tales to Astonish #65 Synopsis by Julio Molina-Muscara
When General Thunderbolt Ross soldiers arrive to the island, the Hulk and the Leader's Humanoid s fall into the ocean.

The Humanoids manage to escape while the Hulk turns into Bruce Banner and is caught by a Russian ship.

Unwilling to work for them, Banner is locked in a tiny cell.

Bruce turns into the Hulk and fights them, but he's hurt with a super gun. A warm hearted European scientist, another captive of the ship, heals the Hulk's wounds, and even provides him with some food.

“The New Giant-Man!”

Writer: Stan Lee. Pencils: Bob Powell. Inks: Don Heck. Colors: ? Letters: Sherigail.
Synopsis: Wasp arrives at Hank Pym’s lab to find him concentrating on creating a sort of helmet. Buzzing his face to gain his attention, he finally shows her that he has created a weapon to use as an Avenger. She volunteers to make Giant-Man a new uniform (which he prefers to “costume”). While she is out of the room, he tests his new invention on his cat, Tabby; the cat grows to giant size and shoots a hungry look at Hank. Hank quickly restores the cat to its normal size and grows to Giant-Man size to better handle the animal. A second try at enlarging the cat causes a feedback that shrinks Hank to normal size and he barely has time to shrink the cat before it attacks him again. His bottle of growth formula was knocked over in the scramble and Hank doesn’t notice that a drop has fallen on a tiny spider. Jan then shows him his new uniform, with a blue helmet and shoulder pads, with his control buttons underneath. Hank goes into he next room to try it on and Jan is attacked by the now-giant spider. He dashes in but can’t reach his helmet so he can grow larger. Jan shrinks into the Wasp to distract the monster. Hank tries shrinking but is caught in the spider’s web. Wasp frees him and gets him to his helmet so he can grow into Giant-Man and defeat the spider, hurling it out of a window. He then uses his new power—the ability to change other creatures’ sizes—to shrink the spider so that no one below is injured. Hank and Janet finish the story in a romantic mood, despite the spider….



Preview Pages
Click sample interior pages to enlarge them:




Steve Ditko
Dick Ayers
?
Jack Kirby (Cover Penciler)
Chic Stone (Cover Inker)
Stan Goldberg (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Sam Rosen.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

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)



> Tales to Astonish: Book info and issue index

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