Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: September 3, 1963
Cover: December 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby
Rendered by: Steve Ditko
23 pages
Kirby and Ditko is a rare and special combination. I think this is now the 4th time we’ve seen the combo.
Giant-Man gets a costume change, though less dramatic than the Iron Man one we just saw. Since he’s no longer Ant-Man, the ant logo is vestigial. He thus drops it in favor of some vertical stripes that resembles suspenders.
We get a major new villain, Human Top. For many characters, it’s obvious who their arch-nemesis is. Thor has Loki, the X-Men, Magneto. For Dr. Pym, it’s less clear. I had suggested it was Egghead, but a friend argued it was the Human Top. Both are contenders.
We learn Dave Cannon was born with super speed and the ability to whirl really fast like a top. This makes him a mutant as Professor X explained the term. Though this comic does not use that word.
The comic definitely wants to go out of its way to praise law enforcement. That’s twice by page 3.
Jan claims she became the Wasp because she has a crush on Dr. Pym. It was supposed to be to avenge her father.
Notice Wasp is able to have her wings, even when full-size.
Wasp also seems to have a sense of the underlying reason he changed to Giant-Man. Size isn’t everything, Hank.
Dr. Pym has a device to turns ants’ thoughts into images. Wasp notes ants cannot speak. But Dr. Pym can speak directly to ants. We’ve seen him do it before.
We get a glimpse into Giant-Man’s ego. He scoffs at the idea that ants would think he’d be interested in so routine a crime as a department store robbery. Of course, that was exactly the type of crime he regularly solved as Ant-Man. But now he’s Giant-Man and a member of the Avengers. This type of crime is beneath him. For all his bravado, he’s about to get his butt kicked.
In his secret identity, Dave Cannon is an ice skater. He whirls really fast… but not as fast as he can. He doesn’t want anybody suspecting this ice skater who can whirl really fast is actually the really-really-fast whirling criminal, the Human Top.
Dr. Pym applies for a job at Danly’s in order to better guard it. This seems unnecessary. I wonder if a renowned doctor of biology asking for a job as a clerk raised any eyebrows. It would surprise nobody in recent years.
Giant-Man makes a fool of himself chasing Human Top around. He’s big and slow and up against a speedster. He causes a lot of destruction in his chase.
Today we refer to this “chemical energizer” as “steroids”.
Giant-Man then trains himself and uses chemical enhancements to try to match Top’s speed. He’s not even close. Trying to outrace a speedster is dumb anyway. The solution will obviously involve clever traps. He’ll get there eventually.
Our more observant readers may be wondering why we are reading this September 3 comic now when the last several entries were from September 10. We went back in time a week because this is a 2-part story, and I thought it would be good to keep both parts together. This is generally the philosophy of the CMRO. This isn’t that hard for 2-part stories, usually just requiring a shift of a week or so. It will get trickier if we want to keep longer stories together, such as a 16-part story.
Rating: ★★½, 47/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man/Giant-Man vol. 1. You can also find it in Ant-Man/Giant-Man Epic Collection vol. 1: The Man in the Ant Hill. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Dr. Henry (Hank) Pym/Giant-Man
- Janet Van Dyne/Wasp
- Dave Cannon/Human Top
Minor characters:
- Sam (payroll guard)
Story notes:
- Cannon worked as professional wrestler and circus performer before getting involved with the Betting Syndicate and their schemes.
- Newspapers detail Human Top crimes from 1959-1962.
- An ant uncovers the Human Top plan to rob Danly’s Department store at 10am.
- Dr. Pym refers to Jan as “honey”.
- Cannon in ice show.
- Dr. Pym develops chemical energizer to increase his speed.
#124 story in reading order
Next: Tales to Astonish #51
Previous: Tales of Suspense #48
