Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: May 5, 1964
Cover: August 1964
12 cents
Written completely by: Stan Lee
Illustrated neatly by: Dick Ayers
Inked discreetly by: P. Reinman
Lettered sweetly by: Art Simek
16 pages
Wasp notes it’s skiing season. This note is very important for chronologists. I myself haven’t paid close attention to seasons, but experts in this field think very hard about the seasons, and how they relate to the school years of Peter Parker and Johnny Storm. The Official Marvel Index to the Avengers notes this story takes place in February, likely with references like the “skiing season” quote in mind.
It’s now been two issues since Hank bought that engagement ring, but he hasn’t mentioned it again. The relationship drama is now centered around the amount of time he spends in his lab, to the neglect of his girlfriend. She complains he has a test tube instead of a heart.
Wasp has a new costume. We’d already seen this costume in Avengers #6, but both Hank and Captain America act like they’re seeing it for the first time. This is unfortunate and perhaps implies this story takes place chronologically before that issue, but there is contradictory evidence as well. The narration had left very little space for adventures prior to Avengers #6, especially not a trip to Africa. We barely squeezed their battles with the Magician and Spider-Man into the interlude in the middle of Avengers #5. They only had a few days between their battle with Hulk and the battle with the Lava Men, and Hank needed to rent a yacht and plan a society party in that time. Perhaps Captain America and Giant-Man simply failed to notice her new look when they were too busy fighting the Masters of Evil They are men, after all.
Giant-Man comes up with a pretty miraculous invention. He will no longer need to take a pill to change sizes. He can now change size by thought alone through his cybernetic helmet. They don’t really explain how this works, but I assume it involves a dormant form of the serum resting within him that can be activated through cybernetic impulses. If so, he may need to periodically refresh the serum. Just as with the ability to grow, he seems to have no intention of sharing this new invention with his partner.
Well, actually, he sort of shares. Her shrinking can also now be activated by mental impulses– his mental impulses. So he now has the power to make himself shrink or grow or to make Jan shrink or grow. He reveals this to her mid-adventure by making her shrink. He calls it a surprise. She calls it eerie. I call it a violation.
Captain America had come to ask them to investigate the threat of the Colossus, standing atop a peak in the Bora-Buru region of Africa. Captain America notes Colossus can’t get down from the peak. If that were true, I don’t really see what the problem is. But I’m not convinced Captain America is right. After all, Colossus got up to that peak somehow. Plus, we will learn he has a spaceship.
Hank uses an analogy to attempt to explain the nonsensical powers. When he shrinks, he retains his normal strength, but gets weaker as he grows.
This issue again features this series’ weirdest trope, which I’ll talk about in more detail at a later date. We’ve just seen it so many times, and will see it more. The Colossus sees Giant-Man grow in front of him and can tell he is growing. But then when Giant-Man shrinks, Colossus thinks he disappears. Why would he not assume Giant-Man shrank? He saw him grow.
And then… a trope we’ve seen too much of… Colossus retreats. So awed by a misinterpretation of the hero’s powers, he gets in his spaceship and runs away. He was winning the fight against a man who can grow into a giant, but when he thought that man could also disappear, he panicked and fled, calling off the entire alien invasion he had been a scout for. The alien invaders always, always, always, always, always give up too easily. Usually after a single scout gets defeated or scared away.
The most significant thing about this story is the statue. The locals erected a statue of Giant-Man atop the peak, to the seeming neglect of the contributions of Wasp to the battle. I presume that statue is still there. Let me know if you see it if you ever visit the Bora-Buru region of Africa.
Rating: ★★½, 40/100
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 on Kindle.
Characters:
- Giant-Man/Henry “Hank” Pym
- Wasp/Jan Van Dyne
- Captain America
- Colossus/Agent 7M
Story notes:
- New York lab described as “penthouse” lab.
- Wasp wants to go skiing; has Lake Placid brochure.
- Hank figures out how to use cybernetic helmet to mentally change size– his own as well as Jan’s.
- Wasp gets new costume. Hank points it out. We had already seen the costume in Avengers #6. Captain America also reacts to her new costume, as though seeing it for the first time.
- Colossus lives atop peak in Bora-Buru region of Africa, a fictional place near Equatorial Africa. (Equatorial Africa would include places from Guinea to Kenya.)
- Colossus demands a human sacrifice.
- Colossus about 30 feet tall.
- Giant-Man grows weaker the larger he gets.
- Colossus destroys jet.
- Wasp can’t fly at high altitudes.
- Colossus sees Giant-Man grow, but then thinks he’s vanished.
- Wasp shoots hook into Colossus’ nose.
- Giant-Man groggy from growing too fast.
- Colossus is winning the fight, but runs away anyway because Giant-Man seemed to vanish.
- Colossus radios Vega Superior that earthlings are superior.
- Statue of Giant-Man in Bora-Buru region of Africa.
#212 story in reading order
Next: Tales to Astonish #58, Story B
Previous: Journey Into Mystery #106, Story B
