12:01 PM
Brad
Plot Overview: Giant-Man continues to train at capturing the top. After another failure he admits that he can't catch the Human Top but he can't give up. Meanwhile, the Human Top blows up an abandoned tug boat with the dynamite we saw at the end of Tales to Astonish #50. He plans to use this as a distraction from his real crime.
Giant-Man and Wasp arrive on the scene and they see the Human Top fleeing from his real crime. Giant-Man gives chase and is no closer to catching the Top than before. This time, Giant-Man tries some misdirection and actually catches the Top. The Top spins at almost top speed and manages to get away. The Wasp has the police hit the Top with water from a fire hydrant. This slows him down but he manages to recover before the Wasp can get to him.
Giant-Man says that he's made a mistake in trying to match speed with the Top. He needs to try a different approach. The Top stole defense plans from the Federal Building but they happen to be out of date. The authorities know who he's going to hand the plans over to. Giant-Man captures those people and heads off to meet the Top in disguise.
Giant-Man reveals himself at the exchange and the chase is on again. The Top runs away and learns that the city has been fenced in. Giant-Man waits for the Top to wear out a bit and then pounces on him. Giant-Man finishes him off with a punch. As the Top is being taken away, he reveals to the Wasp that he put glue on his gloves to get a better grip on him.
In a short backup, the Wasp tells a group of disabled veterans a science fiction story. It's a mostly forgettable tale about Rack Morgan. He breaks all the rules and ends up being killed by an alien because he ignored the rules about landing on an alien planet.
My Take: Really fun issue this time out. It was really similar to last issue but I think avoided the pitfalls. Giant-Man didn't seem like as much of a clumsy oaf this time, just overmatched. This also felt like a more straight up superhero story and not a specialized story because he was the size of an ant. They also downplayed the Wasp's attraction to Giant-Man a little. She still made her comments and he was still annoyed but they didn't dominate the story.
Giant-Man and Wasp work better as a combo. With his ability to grow larger, you can get some more standard stories out of it. They don't have to come up with ridiculous things for an ant sized person to do on a monthly basis anymore. The Human Top is silly but he's a better villain than we've seen in the entire run of Tales to Astonish so far. I'm still not eager to read the book when it comes around but I do think it's gotten better.
I can't put my finger on it but this issue just read a little better in general. It didn't feel like we were having Hank and Jan's powers explained to us again. It felt like we picked up right where the last issue left off and went right into the action. Things weren't over explained. It was just about Giant-Man trying to catch the Top. It felt like a nice fast paced story and I was shocked when I got to the last page of the story.
Jack Kirby drew this issue so the art was again top notch. I really like the Giant-Man costume in it's current form. It's just a cool costume with the red and blue. The Human Top was also really well done. He was always spinning in the book but if you really looked at him you could see he was keeping the form of a speed skater. It was a really cool art effect in this book.
I give this *** out of *****.
Notes: Giant-Man is swarmed by his fan club at one point in this issue and one of the fans refers to him as high pockets. The Wasp later adopts that nickname for him.
Next Issue: Avengers #3
Posted in: Henry Pym,Tales to Astonish,Wasp,Whirlwind
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