Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp Release: December 2, 1963 Cover: March 1964 12 cents Story by: Daring Stan Lee Art by: Dazzling Dick Ayers Lettering by: Dynamic S. Rosen 18 pages
Porcupine is only Dr. Pym’s second recurring villain. Egghead was the first.
Giant-Man’s costume seems to be undergoing frequent slight alterations. I’m not sure what’s going on with the black suspenders. They may be adjustable. Whatever is going on, this issue they seem to form an “x” on his back.
Featuring: Avengers Release: November 5, 1963 Cover: February 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Jack Kirby Inked by: P. Reinman 25 pages
We see a new cover box. Acknowledges that Hank is now Giant-Man and that Wasp exists.
Welcome to a special Mothers Day post. What makes this a Mothers Day post? Well, today is Mothers Day. Also, my mother likes the Sub-Mariner, and this is the issue where the Avengers meet Sub-Mariner.
Sub-Mariner doesn’t show up until page 15, but still gets the issue titled after him. Good for him.
In the first issue, Loki tricked the Avengers into attacking the Hulk.
In the second issue, Space Phantom tricked the Avengers into attacking the Hulk.
This issue, the Avengers just decide to attack the Hulk.
Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp Release: November 6, 1963 Cover: February 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Dick Ayers 18 pages
This story is 18 pages. They’d been seeming to have trouble filling 13, but 18 will be the new norm. The 5-page difference is made up for by the lack of a science fiction backup, save the tale the Wasp tells. An era is soon coming to an end.
While I mostly think of him and appreciate him as an inker, I’d like to note that Dick Ayers is a pretty solid draftsman in this issue. I complained recently about his Strange Tales work with George Roussos. But, inking himself, he gives a very clean take on these characters.
We meet the new Black Knight, Professor Garrett. He’d been a spy busted by Giant-Man. He fled the country to his castle in the Balkans. (Yes, another super-villain with a castle; at least this one’s in a part of the world with lots of castles.) He used his science knowledge to genetically engineer a winged horse and build a lance that has all kinds of weapons attached.
In particular, his lance can melt metal. Since that’s the only power of the Melter, the Melter would feel pretty useless if the two ever teamed up.
Featuring: Iron Man Release: October 8, 1963 Cover: January 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Steve Ditko Inked by: P. Reinman 18 pages
Paul Reinman on inks. It’s not often Ditko gets an inker. He usually does his own finishes. His first Iron Man story had Don Heck doing “refinement”. I think that’s the only other time we’ve seen anybody else finishing Ditko. Paul Reinman has been inking the X-Men comics, so he may be here to help keep their faces on-model.
Once again, that weird note at the beginning; we’ve seen something similar in every crossover. Stan thanks the editors of X-Men for letting the characters appear. You are the editor, Stan. But there may be legal reasons for this. Martin Goodman played all types of crazy games with shell companies and such to save a buck here and there.
The idea is it’s all one continuity, one universe. That’s why we read these comics together. But we don’t know that any character is part of that continuity until they cross over. At first, crossovers were sparse. It was a while before there was any hint Iron Man and Thor might be in this world. Crossovers have become increasingly common. After only two issues of X-Men, we learn they are a part of this world. The main story is a battle between Iron Man and Angel, but all the X-Men and Avengers will also show up.
Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp Release: October 1, 1963 Cover: January 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inked by: Dick Ayers 13 pages
This continues the story of the previous issue. This is arguably the first real 2-part story we’ve seen. The Fantastic Four took two issues to defeat Dr. Doom in Fantastic Four #16–17. But as one encounter was in the Micro-World alongside Ant-Man, and the other was not, it could be argued those were two different stories, the main plot of issue 16 being resolved. Here, issue 50 clearly ended with a note the story was to be continued. Nothing was resolved. So that makes this something of a milestone within our reading.
Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp Release: September 3, 1963 Cover: December 1963 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Jack Kirby Rendered by: Steve Ditko 23 pages
Kirby and Ditko is a rare and special combination. I think this is now the 4th time we’ve seen the combo.
Giant-Man gets a costume change, though less dramatic than the Iron Man one we just saw. Since he’s no longer Ant-Man, the ant logo is vestigial. He thus drops it in favor of some vertical stripes that resembles suspenders.
We get a major new villain, Human Top. For many characters, it’s obvious who their arch-nemesis is. Thor has Loki, the X-Men, Magneto. For Dr. Pym, it’s less clear. I had suggested it was Egghead, but a friend argued it was the Human Top. Both are contenders.
We learn Dave Cannon was born with super speed and the ability to whirl really fast like a top. This makes him a mutant as Professor X explained the term. Though this comic does not use that word.
Featuring: Avengers Release: September 3, 1963 Cover: November 1963 Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inking: Paul Reinman 22 pages
Cover box of the second issue matches the first. Wasp is still left out. Ant-Man has not yet been updated to Giant-Man.
Now that Ant-Man is Giant-Man, his strength is at least vaguely in the same class as the rest of his male teammates. The giant-formula has not been shared with his partner, the Wasp. And will not be any time soon.
Thor comments on Hulk’s outfit. We saw a similar exchange in Avengers #1½.
Featuring: Avengers Release: September 29, 1999 Cover: October 1999 250 cents Written by: Roger Stern (filling in for Stan Lee) Art by: Bruce Timm (filling in for Jack Kirby) 24 pages
The cover promised us a mystery villain, but I feel like the opening page spoils the surprise a bit by putting his name in the title. Even if I missed that clue, the villain would be revealed by page 3. Spoiler: It’s Doctor Doom.
Sorry, Tom. Nobody can really replace Irving Forbush.
Roger Stern is a nerd who grew up reading and obsessing over these same comics we have been reading, so the comic of course slides perfectly neatly into our continuity. It references stories we’ve recently read, and has all the characters right where they should be in their various arcs.
Featuring: Ant-Man and the Wasp Release: August 1, 1963 Cover: November 1963 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inking: Don Heck 18 pages
Ant-Man gets a new identity, and there’s a new little corner box to go with it.
The story is this. Ant-Man and Wasp joined a superhero team. Their teammates are Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor. All extremely powerful. Ant-Man is very small and controls ants. Perhaps this situation would have been tenable if Wasp didn’t keep commenting on how handsome Thor was. But she did. And Dr. Pym’s ego could not take this feeling of inferiority anymore. He needed to measure up.
So he thought and thought. He had a gas which shrunk him to ant-size. And a gas which allowed him to grow back to normal size. He had a routine. Reduce to ant-size. Grow to normal size. Now remember, he’s a genius. And it finally occurred to him: what if he skips a step in that cycle? What if he takes the growing gas when already normal-sized?
It worked! If he simply doesn’t take the reducing gas, he is no longer Ant-Man: he is now Giant-Man. And has strength that is at least closer to par with his Avengers teammates.
I have a science question about that, though. When he shrinks to ant-size, he retains human strength. They are very clear on that point. So he is the size of an ant but can punch as hard as an ordinary human. So why does his strength increase when he grows if it doesn’t decrease when it shrinks? Ah, never mind. I’m sure it would make sense if I knew science better.
