Tales to Astonish #42

A man spreads lies and fear to a crowd of people who soak it up.

The Voice of Doom!
Featuring: Ant-Man
Release: January 3, 1963
Cover: April 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: Larry Lieber
Art: Don Heck
13 pages

I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man/Giant Man vol. 1.

This is Don Heck’s second issue of Ant-Man. The art duties will be a mix of Heck and Kirby going forward.

An accident at an atomic lab sends some charged particles into Jason Cragg’s microphone that imbue him with the power to make people follow his every command. We have seen other radiation-based anomalies–notably the effects of a bite from an irradiated spider and being caught in the blast of a gamma bomb–and we will see many more.

Watch out for that atomic radiation

There is perhaps some political commentary in this issue. An orator speaks and sways the crowd with demagoguery and fear-mongering. Ant-Man tries to point out the orator offers no evidence, but his cries are lost on deaf ears. Perhaps the creators were thinking of some 1960s politicians when writing this. It certain applies seems to describe a 2019 politician or two.

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