Tales to Astonish #27 (1962)
By Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers
Background: Horror and gruesome sci-fi tales had been very popular in the '40s, until the publication of the book Seduction of the Innocent by psychologist Fredric Wertham in 1954 resulted in a public outcry and later on in the creation of the Comics Code Authority. The now self-regulating publishers were forbidden to depict violence and gore in crime and horror comics, as well as sex or sexual innuendos. Sci-fi and horror stories survived but only in very toned-down form. This is one of those stories.
So, What Happens? Ridiculed scientist Henry Pym has created a serum that can shrink objects to miniature size or restore them to normal. He dreams of using it for the good of mankind, but first needs to try it on a living subject and decides to test it on himself. It works so quickly that the antidote is now out of reach, so he panics and runs out in the garden, where a colony of ants take notice and attack. He tries to hide inside the ant hill, where he almost drowns in the ants' stores of honey. Saved by a different ant, he finds a matchstick and lights it up, keeping most of the colony away. After fighting off another ant with a judo move, Pym finally exits the ant hill and sees the antidote on the window ledge. The ant that had saved him earlier helps him again, this time carrying him up to the ledge so that he can access the serum and go back to full size. Realizing the danger, Pym destroys all the chemicals.
Notes: The story is only 7-pages long. Pym has brown hair on the cover but is blonde on the inside, as he will be in subsequent stories.
Something Silly This Way Comes: Leaving the antidote on the window ledge and running out in the garden are both pretty stupid things to do, but nothing more so than hiding from ants inside an ant hill. Why did the other ant help Pym?
Review: This is a good example of the tame and formulaic sci-fi stories Marvel was producing before the dawn of the superheroes. The plot is extremely simple, and Henry (no Hank nickname for him yet) is a rather typical comic-book scientist, scorned by his peers and willing to risk his life to prove them wrong. Thankfully, he at least doesn't want revenge on mankind for failing to recognize his genius, and wants to create the serum for the good of all. For some reason, he will never follow up on this particular idea, but at least it shows an altruistic side behind the egomaniac "I will show them" front.
Unfortunately, the rest of the story is nothing special, as it's not scary enough to be a horror tale, nor original enough to make for great sci-fi. Things happen to serve the plot rather than for any real reason, and more often than not don't make much sense, for example the ant saving Hank (Henry) twice and acting like a Deus Ex device. It's also obvious that at this stage Stan didn't have any plan to turn Pym into a superhero, as Hank clearly destroys the serum by the end of the story and seems sincere when promising to turn his attention towards other types of research. I suppose him creating it again later on could be considered classic Marvel's earliest retcon.
If the dialogues by Stan have very little of his usual flare, the (uncredited) art by Kirby and Ayers is quite good all things considered: stiffer than what we'll get used to, but sharp and expressive.
Final Verdict: Not really a sign of things to come, but rather a formulaic tale with some nice art. 2/5
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