Featuring: Wasp
Release: October 1, 1963
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Story plot: Stan Lee
Script and art: Larry Lieber
Inking: G. Bell
5 pages
Wasp finally gets her own solo adventures… the first female character to do so. And she’ll spend the series… reading science fiction stories to sick children.
Huh. Not exactly where I thought her character arc was going.
So far, she has shown an interest in men, makeup, and fashion. At least her interest in science fiction is less stereotypical.
Really, this is the same type of story that has been appearing in this series after the Ant-Man tales all along. Weird little science fiction shorts. We’ve been skipping most of them. But now they’re part of our superhero reading because the Wasp is narrating them.
And I misspoke when I said sick children. That must be next issue. This issue, she’s entertaining at a veterans’ hospital.
Her story is set in the far future, the year 2000. Rack Morgan is a criminal space pilot who visits the forbidden planet Draconius, ignoring the warnings about the dangerous Wobbows. As often happens in these short little tales, the unscrupulous character gets what’s coming to him.
However, the veterans seem more interested in the storyteller than the story.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 50/100
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 Women of Marvel: Celebrating Seven Decades. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Janet Van Dyne/Wasp
- Rack Morgan
Minor characters:
- Sam (Rack’s victim)
Story notes:
- Wasp’s story set in far future– the year 2000.
- Rack Morgan a mercenary space pilot.
- Morgan takes shortcut through another company’s space lane.
- Morgan runs across an X-32 saucer.
- Rack steals the Blake cargo from Sam.
- Draconius forbidden to humans because it is inhabited by dangerous Wobbows.
- Morgan thinks he sees gold, but the Wobbows are able to disguise themselves.
#126 story in reading order
Next: Tales of Suspense #49
Previous: Tales to Astonish #51
