Tales to Astonish

Tales to Astonish is the name of several comic book series published by Marvel Comics. more...

Ant-Man and Giant-Man

The initial Tales to Astonish was a science fiction anthology that began featuring superheroes during the Silver Age of Comic Books.

Henry Pym — a scientist who appeared in a one-shot, "pre-superhero Marvel" story, "The Man In The Ant Hill", in issue #27 (Jan. 1962) — returned donning a cybernetic helmet and red costume and using a size-changing technology to debut as the insect-sized hero Ant-Man in #35 (Sept. 1962). In an undistinguished series scripted by Larry Lieber over plots credited to his brother, Marvel editor-in-chief Stan , and penciled first by Jack Kirby and later by Don Heck and others, Ant-Man fought a series of soon-forgotten antagonists such as the Protector, the Porcupine, Comrade X, Egghead, and the Scarlet Beetle (an actual scarlet beetle). Ant-Man teamed up with a socialite-turned-heroine, Janet Van Dyne, a.k.a. The Wasp, in #44 (June 1963), when a pseudonymous Ernie Hart took over scripting and artist Kirby returned for an issue.

Ant-Man began size-shifting in the opposite direction in #49 (Nov. 1963), when he added two letters to his name to become Giant-Man, and fought the classically ludicrous alien dubbed the Living Eraser — who, until the deliberately ludicrous hero Squirrel Girl was created in the 1990s, was evoked through the years as a shorthand phrase for any embarrassingly ill-conceived character. That the celebrated Lee & Kirby themselves reteamed for this story is likewise invoked as an example of even legendary creators being capable of such misfires.

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