Tales to Astonish #44

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Cover Date: June 1963

Plot Overview: The issue opens with Henry remembering back to his wife. She was a political prisoner in a foreign country and murdered upon her return. This led Henry to become the Ant-Man.

In the present Henry has decided that he needs a partner. Someone to help him in battle and to carry on his legacy if he were to ever die. He develops specialized cells so that this new person can grow wings and antenna when they're small. Shortly afterwards Henry is approached by Vernon Van Dyne and his daughter Janet. Vernon is playing to use a ray beam to contact other planets and wants Henry's help. Henry declines.

Sometime later Vernon's experiments are successful but the Creature from the Kosmos rides the beam to Earth. He explains that he is a criminal and he has come to conquer the Earth. The Creature uses some weird power that kills Vernon. Janet finds the body and the Ant-Man arrives shortly afterwards. Janet vows revenge on whoever did this and Ant-Man sees in her a potential partner. Ant-Man tells her to contact the FBI and to go to Henry Pym's lab. Ant-Man's ants also act strangely and say they are afraid of this creature.

At the lab, Pym reveals his identity as Ant-Man to Janet and asks if she would like to join. Janet agrees and Henry injects her with the specialized cells. The Creature from the Kosmos begins to rampage in the city and they head off to action. The ants refuse to fight the creature but Wasp tries to attack it head on. She almost looks at the Creature and falls victim to his strange powers but Ant-Man saves the day.

Ant-Man has an idea and they head back to Pym's lab. He realized the creature is made from an acid that is present in ant stingers. He makes an antidote and places the antidote in shotgun shells. With the help of the ants they fire on the Creature until it disappears. Ant-Man and the Wasp have saved the day.

My Take: This seems like a drastic direction shift for the Ant-Man stories. First of all he gets a partner in the Wasp and second, this was the first time that they really tried to develop the character of Henry Pym. They retconned his story quite a bit from his first appearance and tried to make him a more sympathetic character. It was a little hollow if you ask me.

Janet Van Dyne almost immediately falls in love with Henry Pym and it's kind of eye rolling to be honest. They've known each other for roughly 5 minutes and she's making big declarations of love while Pym doesn't want to get involved and scolds her numerous times.

I think this issue shows that Henry Pym's power set really doesn't carry solo stories well. Even with Janet's addition, the book still feels contrived and silly more often than not. To me, this book is easily the weakest of the Marvel lineup at this point.

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

Notes: This issue has the first appearance of Janet Van Dyne aka the Wasp. It goes without saying that she's been one of the top characters in the Avengers books for a long time.

Next Issue: Tales of Suspense #42

Posted in: Henry Pym,Tales to Astonish,Wasp