Featuring: Ant-Man
Release: February 5, 1963
Cover: May 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.
As with the Thor comic released the same day, this issue sports the spiffy new logo box with a picture of the lead character, the price, and the phrase “Marvel Comics Group”.
One of my gateways into the world of superheroes as a child was Batman: The Animated Series. A frequent feature of the show was villain origins that cast them in a sympathetic light. Often they were fired or otherwise screwed over by a corporate bigshot. Riddler, Clock King, Mr. Freeze… all were given origins where you could at least see why they were upset, even if supervillainy is rarely justified.
Professor Weems has such an origin. Fired based solely on his age. With the twist that he had been so excited to show his grandson his lab and his work. Not sure that would even be legal today. They’d at least need some better official story.
Anyways he created this device that did something with electromagnetic something… eh, I’ll let him explain it:
Time-Master gets his revenge by aging people, including Ant-Man, but his mad spree ends when he accidentally ages his grandson.
The aged ant-Man brings to mind a scene from Avengers: Endgame.
The judge shows Professor Weems clemency because he didn’t mean to be evil. I still think some punishment was probably in order. And he gets his old job back because he’s proven his inventions have evil potential… just what the corporation was looking for.
Ant-Man’s routine has become standard by now. The ants listen in at police stations. He catapults himself toward the station. Ants catch him.
Apparently men could be just as creepy back in 1963 as today. “Luscious”?
I don’t know if superheroes like being referred to as “adorable”.
Rating: ★★½, 47/100
Characters:
- Dr. Henry Pym/Ant-Man
- Professor Elias Weems/Time-Master
Minor characters
- Tommy (grandson of Professor Weems)
Story notes:
- We learn Ant-Man is based in Center City
- Elias Weems fired based on new policy to fire anybody over 65 years old
- Weems created electromagnetic energy which increased the motion of a living thing’s atoms, quickening the atomic activity of all living tissues and causing them to age.
- Time-Master’s note sent to Station 86
#61 story in reading order
Next: Strange Tales #108
Previous: Journey Into Mystery #91
It took me all these years to discover that Ron Frenz’s cover to Captain America #355 was a homage to this comic!
https://www.comics.org/issue/46474/cover/4/