Marvel in the 1960's: Tales to Astonish #27

         The comic starts with a cry of triumph from Henry Pym. He yells. It works! I've done it. He using a formula that has reduced a full sized chair to doll size. He than uses a reverse potion to regrow it to it's normal size. In a flash back colleagues make fun of him for his ideas and how out their they are.

         It took him months to perfect it but once he did anything could be reduced in size and maybe shipped cheaply. He dreams that entire armies can be transported in one plane and than regrown. Sometime late he moves a chair and uses the reducing potion on himself. It starts to work on him and he grows smaller at a very fast rate. Faster than expected.
        Eventuality, in his small form he gets outside. However, he wonders how he will get back to normal. He thinks no one can hear him but some ants nearby do. He soon spots the ants and see that they are attacking him. They soon pin him into a corner and he is forced to flee into the ant-hill. Suddenly, he falls down a open shift in the hill and falls and than falls into something.

  


        It turns out to be honey and as he struggles to get free the move it hold him. An ant then sees him and moves toward him. The ant than helps to pull him out and does not hurt him. However, the group attacking him before come in and close in on him. He sees a nearby match stick they bought in and hopes it is not too damp. He picks up a pebble and tosses it at the match hoping he has not missed.
        The match ignites and starts a fire. It causes the ants to back off and he makes a lasso to climb up from them. He gets up to the top. An ant is waiting for him and attacks him. He uses is brain and uses judo on the ant to get free. He sees a way out and gets out of the hill. He sees in his window the enlarging serum. The ants though have followed him.

        However, as the ants come he see's the ant who saved him and points to the window ledge hoping it will help him. Somehow it does help him and climbs him up the wall. This allows Pym to climb into the serum. He begins to regrow and turns into a normal sized human again. He than destroys the potions. At the next science meeting he says he will stick to practical projects. The comic ends with him looking at the ant-hill with a changed way of thinking.

comments

Henry Pym's part is a small part of an anthology comic. However, this issue introduces the man who would later be the Ant-man in later comics and founding member of the Avengers. This story helps to establish his character. It shows he is a scientist who does some out their science. I also believe this would help him to began the process that would have him become Ant-man. The parts in the anthill show him the powers of ants and how helpful they can be. This issue does not fit into the Marvel comic universe yet but along with the Fantastic Four does begin the process of a future shared universe. It is also interesting to note that a good part of Marvel's early characters would appear in anthology comics that would cause the character to eventually take over the title and than get the comic renamed to star only them. Sadly, this was never quite the case for Henry Pym in the 1960's. Today while Pym is in the modern comics his role is not quite as big as the other big members created in the 1960's.