12:01 PM
Brad
Plot Overview: David Cannon has the ability to spin his body at an incredible rate of speed. He uses this for petty crimes as a youngster until the police finally catch him. He then learns to become an ice skater and rigs races to get payoffs from gambling syndicates. Cannon decides to go into business for himself and becomes the Human Top.
Hank Pym reads of the exploits of the Human Top but decides that it's beneath him. He summons the Wasp and the ants communicate that the Human Top is planning to rob Danly's Department Store. The Wasp scolds Pym for getting too big a head and ignoring the Top. Pym agrees.
Meanwhile, the Top is working as an ice skater and mocks how little he makes at it. He dons the costume of the Human Top and prepares to rob Danly's Department Store.
Hank and Jan take jobs at the Department Store so that they can stop the robbery. The Top steals the payroll and makes his escape. Giant-Man and the Wasp leap into action. Giant-Man chases the Top but he's too slow and clumsy to capture him. Giant-Man eventually has his ants chew the pavement and knocks the Top off balance. This isn't enough as the Top regains his footing before Giant-Man can capture him. The Top disappears into the sub-way system and the papers report about the Human Top's victory.
The Top basks in his victory but decides he has to finish Giant-Man off once and for all. Meanwhile, Giant-Man has been putting himself through all sorts of tests and drills to try and increase his speed and agility. He even takes a chemical compound to help. He has the Wasp control a robotic top and he almost catches it. Giant-Man is feeling confident in his abilities but the Wasp is worried. She doesn't have the heart to tell him that she was only running the top at half speed and that he doesn't have a chance against the real Top. The issue ends with the Top carrying dynamite and it's to be continued until Tales to Astonish #51.
My Take: I saw the cover to this one and I was dreading it to a large degree. This seemed like one of those issues that was going to have an absolutely ridiculous villain and he was to a degree. But I thought the execution wasn't really that bad. The Human Top really just outran Giant-Man and got away with the stolen money. Not a bad little story and it was nice to see them give the Top a pretty fleshed out origin story.
My only problem was Giant-Man seemed needlessly clumsy in this issue. He was running into signs and things like that. Granted, this is only his third appearance as Giant-Man, it just seemed to come out of nowhere a bit. In fairness, his other two appearances were stories where brute force were all that mattered. So I guess this would have been his first real attempt at having to be quick on his feet.
This issue shows the wisdom of switching to the Giant-Man persona. You couldn't have told this story with Ant-Man. The Top presented problems that were uniquely difficult for Giant-Man and the Wasp to overcome. It will be interesting to see how they manage to defeat the Human Top in the next issue.
The dynamic between Hank and Jan is what it is. Jan is crazy about Hank and Hank is put off by her obvious signs of affection towards him. He was a little more playful with her in this issue and that was a nice thing to see. I wish that they would push their relationship forward a little bit. They don't need to be a couple, I just want to see Hank reciprocate a little more than he currently does.Jack Kirby was on art duties this time and I think the quality shows in this issue. The action scenes with Giant-Man trying to capture the Top were really good and felt fluid. It really felt like Giant-Man was this big awkward oaf and the Top could run circles around him with ease. The Human Top's outfit was pretty ridiculous but more often than not the costumes are going to be bad. It comes with the territory right now.
I give this **1/2 out of *****.
Notes: This issue features the first appearance of the Human Top. He would later go on and become the more well known Whirlwind. Whirlwind is a very well known C list villain. He joins the Masters of Evil at one point and he's an antagonist to Giant-Man, Wasp, Iron Man and the Avengers more than a few times. He also appeared in several of the Marvel cartoons and the arcade game Captain America and the Avengers. So while he's not a huge mover and shaker in the Marvel Universe, he's a very well known character.
Next Issue: Tales of Suspense #48
Posted in: Henry Pym,Wasp,Whirlwind
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