The Return of the Ant-Man/An Army of Ants!/The Ant-Man’s Revenge!
Featuring: Ant-Man
Release: June 5, 1962
Cover: September 1962
12 cents
Writers: Stan Lee and Larry Lieber
Penciler: Jack Kirby
Inker: Dick Ayers
13 pages
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| Tales to Astonish | Tales to Astonish #36 |
So great a discovery must not melt into nothingness! I must concoct the serums again!
The credits are taken from the table of contents for Marvel Masterworks Ant-Man/Giant-Man vol. 1. The book’s table of contents gives the credits I put above. I don’t see any credits in the actual issue.
June 5, 1962. Marvel introduces Spider-Man. And their take on the mythological Thor. Also: their scientist Henry Pym gets a costume and superhero identity and becomes Ant-Man. A decent chunk of the cast of Avengers: Endgame was introduced on that day. Stan Lee was involved in all three. Jack Kirby designed Thor and Ant-Man and was involved in initial designs for Spider-Man, before Steve Ditko came on board. Larry Lieber was involved in scripting for both the Thor and Ant-Man stories. That’s a lot of simultaneous creativity going on for a small group of people.
To recap, in Tales to Astonish #27, we met Dr. Henry Pym. He was a mad scientist type, in a story that seemed similar to many others of the time, likely intended as a one-off. We get a recap in this issue, which describes it as a “nightmarish story”. I mean, I guess if you hate ants.
But 8 issues later, Henry Pym returns. At the end of the last story, he decided his shrinking serum was too dangerous and destroyed it. Here, we learn he had a change of heart a few weeks later. He decided to concoct a new serum and hide it away until the world was ready. Wait… if he still thinks the world isn’t ready for the serum, why make a new one only to hide it? Why not just wait to make the new batch? Unless you expect an urgent need for it?
Continue reading “Tales to Astonish #35”