Tales to Astonish #39

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Cover Date: January 1963

Plot Overview: Henry Pym decides to investigate strange signals he's been receiving from the ants. He heads into the sewers and finds a large gathering of bugs. The Scarlet Beetle is making a speech about how bugs should conquer mankind. He's been effected by radiation and given human intelligence. Pym intervenes but is defeated by the sheer number of bugs. The Scarlet Beetle takes his enlarging gas and becomes the size of a human.

The Scarlet Beetle uses his army of bugs to reek havoc on the population of the city. Meanwhile the ants rescue Pym. Pym heads to the surface and uses his ants to defeat the bug army of the Scarlet Beetle. Pym and the Beetle face off and end up in a toy store. Pym used a toy lance to break the gas canisters on the Beetle and he returns to normal size. Pym then uses his scientific knowledge to rob the Beetle of his human intelligence. The issue ends with regular people wondering where Ant-Man was when they needed him.

My Take: I would say this issue was delightfully ridiculous. The Scarlet Beetle was a great villain for a one shot. His plot was great and the scenes really worked for some reason. The police being unable to use their guns due to a bee attack was great. This is the first issue where I felt that Ant-Man kind of worked as a solo concept. It felt like the Scarlet Beetle was a suitable villain for him. The situations presented were also unique to Ant-Man.

The art to this issue was pretty solid. The story was also a really quick read. This was a very nice issue to cleanse the palette after how awful Fantastic Four #10 was. Nothing in this issue was ground breaking but then who needed it? Sometimes a short little romp with no consequences can be fun especially in this anthology titles.

I'd give this *** out of *****

Notes: This is the first appearance of the Scarlet Beetle. I'm pretty sure he never appears again.

Next Issue: Journey Into Mystery #88

Posted in: Henry Pym,Tales to Astonish