Story #2The Menace of Madame Macabre
Writer:
Stan Lee.Penciler:
Bob Powell. Inker:
Frank Giacoia. Colorist:
Unknown. Letterer:
Morrie Kuramoto.
Synopsis
Janet comes upon Giant-Man
in his lab fixing the antenna on the roof; shrinking down to the Wasp to get
his attention, she tells him about Madama Macabre, an Asian scientist who
claims to be able to enlarge and shrink objects at will…
We cut to Madame Macabre herself,
commanding her dwarf assistant Gogo to put out a model tractor he has
constructed out of a special plastic material and she enlarges it and shrinks
it with merely a wave of her hands. Her goal is to have the same power over
living things that Giant-Man has. She has her other henchman place a miniature
wall at the art gallery and goes to visit Giant-Man. Entering, Madame snubs
Wasp, causing her to leave in a huff; Madame explains that she was educated by a
benefactor (we see it’s the Mandarin) in a lamasery where she learned mystic
abilities. She demonstrates her powers to Hank using model cars built by Gogo;
she then proposes they join forces to conquer the world. Hank declines and she
leaves in a huff….
Madame Macabre plots revenge against
Giant-Man at his weakest link, Wasp. Jan receives an invitation to a show at
the art gallery. She is nabbed and drugged and left in a high window where
Giant-Man spots her when he comes looking for her. He puts her in a place of
safety then spies MM’s henchmen stealing the art treasures while a phony wall
(see above) hides them from view of the night watchman. He shrinks to normal
size to enter and he is trapped in a box made of special plastic and Madame
shrinks it so that Hank is forced to reduce to Ant-Man size to keep from being
injured. When he refuses to reveal his secrets she starts to reduce the box to
nothingness.
But Wasp has revived and attacks MM who traps her in a bottle with
a cork and starts to shrink that but while the bottle is the special plastic,
the cork isn’t and it shatters the bottle when it grows too small. Madame
enlarges the toy tractor and sends it to run them over but Wasp drives it away.
Wasp attacks Madame and pulls off her wig, revealing electronic circuitry
inside, explaining how she was able to control the plastic objects “mentally.”
Giant-Man is freed and takes her prisoner but she vows revenge. The heroes
don’t care.