Tales to Astonish #67

Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: February 4, 1965
Cover: May 1965
12 cents
Way-out story by: Stan Lee
Ring-a-ding art by: Bob Powell
Singin’ inkin’ by: Chic Stone
Boss balloons by: Artie Simek
12 pages

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We need to recall that everything is happening almost concurrently. The X-Men fight the Stranger and then Juggernaut. The Fantastic Four fight the Frightful Four and get lost at sea. The Avengers fight the Masters of Evil, then disband, then get replaced by the New Avengers. Thor fights Absorbing Man, then faces the Trial of the Gods, then the Destroyer. Hulk faces a series of villains controlled by the Leader.

These all overlap to some extent.

We’ve just caught up on 4 months of Hulk stories in this title. We’d been keeping up with the Giant-Man stories, but skipping the Hulk ones. Now we’re caught up to both. The Huk’s saga is continuing, so we’ll read the next 3 issues together.

That’s commentary on when these Giant-Man/Wasp stories take place. They fit better before Avengers #15 or perhaps in the middle of Avengers #16, before Giant-Man and Wasp announce their retirement (page 6). When the Avengers disbanded, it sure looked like Giant-Man and Wasp wanted a break from superheroing. These next 3 issues we are about to read are published concurrently with Avengers #15-17.

All respect to Bob Powell, who I think is a fine draftsman, they really need Ditko or Kirby or Wood to design the villains. Here we meet the Supreme One and his servant Loko.

Loko has ray to absorb Giant-Man’s powers for Supreme One. Giant-Man’s will allows him to resist, and the ray blows a fuse.

This series is soon, mercifully, to come to an end. In its final days, they are trying out all kinds of new changes, similar to the final days of Hulk’s original series: a sense of grasping for a viable status quo. Giant-Man recently got a new costume. Now Wasp gets a pet bee. By the end of the issue, Giant-Man will lose his ability to become Ant-Man.

Notice Wasp still clearly seems to want to continuing superheroing. Thus this must take place before their retirement scene in Avengers #16.

Thanks to the Supreme One’s green ray, the bee forgets its training and stabs Jan. Hank must save her with tweezers.

Plainly the best scene of the issue is when Hank realizes he’s lost his shrinking powers, and we see him straining to try to shrink across multiple panels.

Aliens come to take our villain back; he is not supposed to be trying to conquer primitive worlds. They claim to undo all the damage he has done, but we will see next issue Hank still can’t shrink. The bee is well-behaved again, though. Why do the ray’s other effects get reversed, when Hank has permanently lost his ability? I can’t explain it, but I’ll give you no prize if you can.

Hank thinks Jan wouldn’t believe him if he told her aliens were involved. Why not? They have personally been involved in repelling at least three alien invasions, and are likely aware of some of the many, many others.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆, 38/100
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 Pym
• Loko
• Supreme One/Supramor/Hidden Man
• Wasp/Jan Van Dyne
• Fentum Farnum

Story notes:

• Giant-Man grown to 100 feet tall; he has little power at that height– optimum power is at 12 feet tall.
• Hank trains bee to give Wasp a ride (easier to train than a wasp). Apparently the bee can fly faster than she can.
• Fentum Farnum, world’s greatest authority on bees.
• World’s top physicist lost all physics knowledge to green ray.
• Giant-Man loses ability to turn into Ant-Man.
• Title seems to suggest the villain is named the Hidden Man, but he is never called that in the issue. Loko refers to him as the Supreme One; the other aliens call him Supramor.

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