Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: April 1, 1965
Cover: July 1965
12 cents
Edited with perfect control by: Stan Lee
Written with all bases covered by: Al Hartley
Drawn with the impact of a line drive by: Bob Powell
Inked with the beauty of a three-bagger by: John Giunta
Lettered with only a few errors by: S. Rosen
12 pages
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| Tales to Astonish #68, Story B | Reading order | Tales to Astonish #69, Story B |
| Tales to Astonish #68, Story B | Tales to Astonish | Tales to Astonish #69, Story B |
All good things must come to an end, and so must this series.
Giant-Man is reduced to a small corner of the cover, with Hulk hogging the space. No mention that this is the epic finale to the adventures of Giant-Man and the Wasp.
Hulk’s solo series ended after only 6 issues, but then he returned as the backup feature in this title and has been a monthly fixture for going on 60 years. He returned by ending the Wasp’s solo series. Captain America’s return to a solo series caused the Watcher to lose his.
Marvel has had distribution problems for as long as we’ve been reading them, keeping a tight limit on the number of titles they can publish. So for every new title, something has to go. They’ve been trimming the western and humor lines, but ultimately it’s time to let go of some superhero titles.
We read the final Human Torch story a while back, but it was actually released just a week after this. Both Human Torch and Giant-Man lose their series at the same time. Both to make way for better things.
They found the weakest two series in terms of story to ax, and presumably the sales reflected that. Thor stories are good now, so it’s good they’ll stick around. Iron Man stories aren’t any good yet, but maybe they will be one day. Either way, he gets to stick around, now with the dubious honor of being Marvel’s worst remaining title.
We’ll have to wait until next month to see who these cancelled titles are making room for. Neither character will be new to us. One just hasn’t had a title for a while, and the other will get a second title with a very different focus.
Before we get to the final issue of their series, I think it’s worth pausing to reflect on the entire 36 issue run of Henry Pym/Ant-Man/Giant-Man/Wasp stories.
Continue reading “Tales to Astonish #69”