Featuring: Ant-Man and Wasp
Release: April 2, 1963
Cover: June 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: H.E. Huntley
Art: Don Heck
13 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man/Giant-Man vol. 1.
With the return of Egghead, Ant-Man gets his first recurring villain. We’ve only seen so many recurring villains, with many new (but often forgettable) ones cropping up. Fantastic Four recurring villains so far are: Namor, Dr. Doom and Puppet Master. Thor of course keeps fighting Loki. Human Torch has now fought Paste-Pot Pete twice and Wizard thrice. And I think that’s it. So far, no recurring foes for Spider-Man, Iron Man, or Hulk (unless you count the US military).
They dedicate 2 pages the recapping the last battle with Egghead. At this point, the writers have mostly seemed to pay little attention to details, continuity, or consistency. Yet here they stick pretty close to the actual story in the recap, including some dialogue. Mostly new art and script, but a very close retelling.
Remember that in the 1960s, comics weren’t yet published online. You had to find them at a local vendor, so it was possible to miss an issue. This recap would help keep readers of that era up to speed if this happened.
We now have a new status quo. Ant-Man and Wasp are teammates. She thinks they should date. He is stuffy. They are both eager to battle evil and such. Wasp is sometimes overeager to prove herself. Even though she’s the one who can fly. While he… catapults.
This is mostly a pretty bad story, with the one redeeming moment a cool shot of Ant-Man riding an ant to charge a kimono dragon as though he’s a knight. But the surrounding panels fail to live up to one good panel, and the fight is resolved through text rather than picture.
Also, there’s an ant-eater.
“Why don’tcha just step on him when he shows up?” That’s a very good question I’ve been wondering about.
“Socialite playgirl”. That’s basically how Tony Stark gets described, with genders swapped.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆, 33/100
Characters:
- Dr. Henry Pym/Ant-Man
- Janet Van Dyne/Wasp
- Egghead, alias Carl Striker
- Ape
- Twister
Minor characters:
- Anton M(e)yers (diamond cutter)
Story notes:
- Egghead is Ant-Man’s first recurring villain .
- Spends almost 2 pages on recap of last Egghead adventure.
- Ape and Twister agree to work for Egghead to defeat Ant-Man.
- Egghead assumes false identity of Carl Striker, Zoologist.
- Dr. Pym fails to recognize Egghead in disguise because he has grown a beard, despite egg-shaped head.
- Anton Myers to make Middleton Diamond into pendant for Lady Elizabeth necklace.
- Ape is afraid of snakes.
- The diamond cutter is sometimes referred to as Myers and sometimes as Meyers.
- Egghead invents electronic dewelding gun.
- Diamond at 22 Maiden Lane.
- Quite the jump from Wasp calling Ant-Man to him being there.
- Fight against dragon ends mostly through text.
- Picture of Ant-Man charging is kind of cool (cover photo)
- Ape and Twister arrested; Egghead escapes.
#74 story in reading order
Next: Amazing Spider-Man #3
Previous: Journey Into Mystery #93
