unstable molecules – Coke & Comics

Fantastic Four Annual 1

Sub-Mariner Versus The Human Race!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: July 2, 1963
Cover: 1963
25 cents <– whoa!
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
37 pages

We just read no less than 5 Sub-Mariner stories from the ’40s and ’50s to have some context for this giant-sized Fantastic Four/Sub-Mariner epic we are about to read. At 37 pages, this is the longest story we have yet read. And at 25 cents, this and the Strange Tales annual are the most expensive comics we’ve come across by a factor of 2.

When Sub-Mariner returned in Fantastic Four #4, he learned that his kingdom had been destroyed and his people were missing. He’s been searching for them ever since. Until now.

Is it the longest ever? Or might Stan be exaggerating?

Quite the opening couple pages. The bold imagination on display is Kirby at his best. But we haven’t seen that much of his true potential yet in these stories. He’s just been getting warmed up.

The Fantastic Four decide to take a vacation along with Alicia. Reed’s suggestion is to take a cruise to where some sea monsters have been sighted.

Tales to Astonish #41

Prisoner of the Slave World!
Featuring: Ant-Man
Release: December 3, 1962
Cover: March 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: L.D. Lieber
Art: Don Heck
10 pages

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

This is a pretty momentous issue. We’ve read a variety of Marvel comics together here. We’ve taken peeks into the past and the future, and checked out some of Marvel’s “weird tales” books with tangential connections to our superhero comics. But we’ve mostly been reading superhero series of the early ’60s. We’ve followed the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Human Torch, Thor, and Ant-Man. What have all these series had in common? They’d all been drawn by Jack Kirby.

Now, for the first time, Jack is going to take a break from drawing several comics a month and draw one less. This issue of Ant-Man will be drawn by Don Heck. We’ve met Heck once before. He drew a Medusa story we checked out in Tales to Astonish. A great artist in his own right. He’d been associated with the company that will become Marvel off and on for almost a decade at this point, drawing westerns, war stories, and sci-fi/fantasy tales.

Tales to Astonish #40

The Day that Ant-Man failed!
Featuring: Ant-Man
Release: November 8, 1962
Cover: February 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: L.D. Lieber
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Sol Brodsky
11 pages

We’re 6 issues in to these Ant-Man stories, and it’s time to state the obvious conclusion: they’re not very good. Now, the first story in issue 35 was good. It was a clever story about a scientist quickly having to put his inventions to work to stop some Commies. But it then falls apart. Somewhere between issue 35 and 36.

In issue 35, Ant-Man is forced to be born by circumstance– he has hostages to rescue. The issue ends with him musing whether he will ever be forced to become Ant-Man again. Issue 36 begins some time later. Ant-Man is now a regular crimefighter, internationally famous, beloved by people and law enforcement, who has specially constructed an ant-sized headquarters in his home, and who uses his network of ant friends to help him find crime to battle.

That’s a pretty big leap. It’s possible there’s some interesting character development there– but we don’t see it. In that first story, Dr. Pym had lab assistants. We’ve since met nobody else in his life: no friends, no colleagues, no love interest. The entire story in each issue is devoted to the mission. We learn nothing about his inner life, nothing about his personal life, and get no good sense of why he is Ant-Man. He just battles boring villain after boring villain (plus one giant beetle— that was cool.)

Tales to Astonish #35

The Return of the Ant-Man

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

Previous	#14	Next
Venus #1	PRELUDE
Journey Into Mystery #83	Reading order	Fantastic Four #6
	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?