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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|---|---|---|
| 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?
His experiences in the last issue led him to study ants and learn to communicate with them. We get many ant facts through Dr. Pym’s narration and the editors’ notes.
- In each colony there are a few females, but there are thousands of workers!
- Females are called queens! Workers are smaller than queens and are wingless!
- We know that ants have sense organs and a nervous system!
- In ant colonies, large workers do the fighting, food gathering and exploring! Small workers carry, forage, build and tend the young!
Yes, those are all quotes from the comic. Yes, they all used exclamation points. No, I don’t think we’ve yet seen a period. That ants have a nervous system may be the least exciting assertion they have thus far insisted end with an exclamation point.
The plot here is that Dr. Pym is working on a top secret project to invent radiation immunity, but the Commies want it and attack. Cold War stuff. He is forced to use his experimental Ant-Man stuff to shrink down and rally an army of ants to save the day.
“But they’ll be stopped… by a mere rubber band and some thread, among other things!” The “other things” include a shrinking formula and helmet that controls ants. Don’t think the string is the key ingredient in this plan.
His specially designed helmet allows him to communicate with ants, who he can persuade to help him. He retains his full human strength in ant form somehow. We won’t worry about implications of this. We also learn people can’t hear him in Ant-Man form. He can’t shout loud enough to be audible to a normal-size human.
Here’s Dr. Pym way too proud about outsmarting a beetle.
Notably, this story introduces the concept of unstable molecules. It’s in the suit Dr. Pym designed. The stated purpose of the suit is to protect him from ant stings and bites. It seems to have the effect of shrinking and growing well. We will see other heroes make costumes out of this miraculous substance. Did Dr. Pym invent it?
The Cold War is a persistent theme so far. Hulk fought the Soviet Gargoyle in his first appearance. The Fantastic Four wanted to beat the Soviets in the space race in theirs. And now the introduction of Ant-Man comes from his need to stop some Soviet spies.
This isn’t yet the beginning of the story of an active superhero. Dr. Pym makes no vows to go thwart evil. This was a (second) one-off adventure for him. At the end of the story, he muses, “Will I ever be forced to become Ant-Man again?” Spoiler: Yes.
Won’t anybody please think of the shipping industry!
Rating: ★★★½, 60/100
Significance: ★★★★★
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man/Giant-Man vol. 1.
Characters:
- Henry Pym/Ant-Man
Minor characters:
- Tom (Dr. Pym’s assistant)
Story notes:
- Very clear there are two serums: one to shrink, one to enlarge
- Helmet to communicate with ants; costume to protect from stings or bites
- Government gave Pym top secret assignment: gas to make people immune to radioactivity
- Still has strength of full grown man, even in ant form
- Costume made from unstable molecules; their introduction to the Marvel Universe
- People can’t hear Ant-Man in his ant form
- Other stories in this anthology: “The Door to Nowhere”; “The Thing from Outer Space”
| Previous | #14 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Venus #1 | PRELUDE | |
| Journey Into Mystery #83 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #6 |
| Tales to Astonish | Tales to Astonish #36 |
