Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: October 1, 1963
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Dick Ayers
13 pages
This continues the story of the previous issue. This is arguably the first real 2-part story we’ve seen. The Fantastic Four took two issues to defeat Dr. Doom in Fantastic Four #16–17. But as one encounter was in the Micro-World alongside Ant-Man, and the other was not, it could be argued those were two different stories, the main plot of issue 16 being resolved. Here, issue 50 clearly ended with a note the story was to be continued. Nothing was resolved. So that makes this something of a milestone within our reading.
We meet the Giant-Man Fan Club for the first time. Giant-Man notes they seem more interested in taking pictures of the Wasp. If so, why not just form a Wasp fan club? Is there one?
The story begins where last issue left off, with the large and slow Giant-Man attempting to outrace the speedster, before he comes around to the obvious idea of traps.
They lure him to a spot, set up fences to trap him, and Giant-Man puts glue on his hands. This is what Giant-Man should have been working on all along instead of building mechanical human tops to train against.
I have no idea why Giant-Man doesn’t shrink down for the meeting; guess he doesn’t want to waste any pills. Note again that Janet has wings when full-size.
This issue is actually probably most notable for the second story, the debut of Wasp’s solo adventures. We’ll cover that next time.
Rating: ★★½, 49/100
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 (Jan) Van Dyne/Wasp
- Dave Cannon/Human Top
Story notes:
- Human Top stole civil defense plans from federal building; plans to sell them to Commies.
- Reference to Wall Street Journal.
- Wasp altered her costume since last issue.
#125 story in reading order
Next: Tales to Astonish #51, Story C
Previous: Tales to Astonish #50
