Featuring: Wasp
Release: January 3, 1964
Cover: April 1964
12 cents
Dreamed up by: Stan Lee
Scribbled + sketched by: Larry Lieber
Finished in India ink by: Sol Brodsky
Lettered + bordered by: At Simek
5 pages
Last issue, Porcupine seemed very interested in trying to learn Giant-Man’s secret identity. But Wasp’s mask has never covered her face and she doesn’t seem that concerned about her secret identity.
In fact, here we see her babysitting a friend’s child in costume. He refers to her as “Aunt Jan”. Maybe Porcupine wasn’t the genius he thought he was. It’s like thinking people somehow knew Sue was Invisible Girl but not that Johnny was Human Torch.
Unconcerned with secret identities, she tells Tommy a tale of a ruler whose ego was his downfall.
Tommy wants to know why she doesn’t have Wasp wings when normal-sized. I want to know why she sometimes does.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 50/100
Significance: ★★☆☆☆
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man/Giant-Man vol. 2.
You can find the story 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:
- Wasp/Jan van Dyne
- Hank Pym
- Tommy
- Shann
Story notes:
- Hank invites Jan to dinner and dancing, but she is babysitting her girlfriend’s son.
- A successful ruler feels he has been taken for granted because his people are too content and happy. He wants to be remembered as Shann the Conqueror!
- Shann’s people invade Andromia and its Andromian inhabitants.
- People find the conquest didn’t help them at all; their taxes have been raised.
#163 story in reading order
Next: X-Men #4
Previous: Tales to Astonish #54
