Trying To Make A Super-Star Out Of An Ant-Man

It seems that there really will be a E-Book by yours truly containing some pieces - original and re-worked - on the first few years of the Marvel Universe appearing later this year. Never having done anything of the sort, it's proving to be an interesting, if somewhat nerve-wracking, process. Given that I've been at something of a loss for what to do next following the completion of my original target of 10 000 hours writing on the blog, the E-book's a project that's arrived just at the right time. Though I'll be shifting back to paying far more attention to contemporary comics from this point onwards here at TooBusyThinking, the time invested in grappling with the product of the long-lost Sixties has proven unexpectedly inspiring. By that, I don't mean that I'd imagined spending time with the earliest of Marvel's super-books would prove to be anything other than fascinating. Yet the comics of the period never seem to run out of qualities which are as surprising as they're captivating, and that's true no matter how often those books have been read.

And so, I've been re-reading the earliest of Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym's adventures for the two-part piece on the Wasp which began at Sequart this week - here - and that's really hammered home the speed at which Marvel's earliest superhero features were constantly being redeveloped. To know that there was little of a status quo in the earliest of the company's super-books is one thing. But to sit down and note such changes one by one is to be forced to reappraise once more just how fluid, ambitious and unprecious Lee, Kirby, Ditko et al's approach was. It's not just that things which didn't seem to be working were swiftly changed, but that often entirely successful strips were fundamentally reworked. Peter Parker could have presumably stayed in high school forever, for example, and yet, in less than three years, he'd graduated and left most of his supporting cast behind.

Below are just some of the changes which affected Henry Pym during the 35 months in which he was the co-star of one of Tales To Astonish's lead feature. Considering that most of those tales were short features of mostly 12 or so pages, that's a hectic degree of innovation.

The novelty which pseudo-tech could offer was constantly evoked throughout Pym's few years as a lead character. In the above, from Ant-Man's first appearance in Tales To Astonish #35, Pym's chemical-induced ability to change size was matched to his ability to construct kid-enrapturing, crime-fighting hardware.  

One month later and Pym's "secret headquarters" was revealed, which we've discussed here at TooBusy before.

Two months passed and Lee, Kirby & Leiber were already attempting to amp-up Pym's physical capabilities. In TTA~38,  the character was given "electronically controlled spring(s)" in his heels, as well as a "lasso ... (made of ) ... nylon fibre which is practically unbreakable". Never seen again, it did allow Pym to swing hapless criminals around his tiny head.

Five months passed - the equal-longest period without significant change in the history of the strip - and the most fundamental shake-up in any of Marvel's first wave features arrived. Pym's back-story was expanded to include a previously-unmentioned Hungarian-American wife who'd been murdered by Red agents during their honeymoon, as well as a new sidekick to both mentor and fall in love with. Just to make things even more psychologically febrile, the Wasp was the spitting image of the dead Maria Pym. (The changes to the Wasp over this period will be something I'm going to take the chance to discuss next week.)

Four months later,  Lee and Kirby supplemented Pym's ability to shrink with the capacity to do the opposite, replacing the gas which had previously triggered such changes with liquid-filled capsules. In doing so, they rebranded the character as "Giant-Man", a complete reversal of Pym's original USP. The strip's capacity to absorb one changed premise after another would lead to a long period during which Pym would operate at both giant and ant-size, an ability which he apparently never choose to share with his crime-fighting partner.

Two months later and the finest tale of Pym's early career appeared. With the first chapter inked by Steve Ditko and the second by Dick Ayers, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby portrayed Pym as a manic, brittle personality utterly obsessed with proving himself as a superhero when faced with the crime-spree of the Human Top. (TTA #50/1) As you can see from the panels above, Pym was now supplementing the capsules he used to change sizes with a "chemical energizer" which was designed to "increase (his) speed" too. So began a process by which Pym started to take on aspects of other character's abilities too. Here he was attempting to synthesise the speed of a Spider-Man if not a Quicksilver, though his was always a second-rate, tech-boosted version of the qualities which other super-people possessed. As such, Pym started to disappear under his own failure to be a character in his own right, while presenting the impression of being a chemical adventurer to match DC's Hourman.

Three months pass and Stan Lee and Dick Ayers now start to play up Giant-Man's abilities as a super-sized gymnast. Pym's apparently uncontrollable attempts to make himself both formidable and more dashing lead him to create a fake-flagpole bearing a "powerful tension-cable" known as a "sky-hook" which allowed him to reach the street from his apartment as quickly as possible. Having proven to be clumsy and quite frankly dangerous as a giant in the Human Top two-part tale, Pym now becomes a constantly-practicing super-acrobat capable of following Spider-Man across the rooftops. (TTA#55)

Two months after that, in TTA#58, and Pym develops the ability able to change size through the use of the "cybernetic nerve centre" in his mask, which could also trigger size-changes in the Wasp. (Again, no such reciprocal arrangement was ever mentioned.) It's odd that Pym never thought to add "stingers" such as the Wasp had been given, but it's hard not to believe that he was so fixated on his own masculinity that only-fisticuffs would do. Still, now the pills and potions are a thing of the past, which oddly enough makes the character seem less impressive, though more ethically defensible. When a super-power becomes something which can be achieved without the slightest degree of sweat, it tends to become far less compelling a quality.

In the following issue, not only iwas Pym presented facing down the Hulk and quite comfortably surviving, but also shown starring in a 5-page "bonus feature" which described his many abilities and technological advantages. A device for hauling him up the sides of skyscrapers was described, as well as a ant-drawn chariot, while his endless gymnastics and weight training was emphasised. As was quite fitting where the constant inflation of Pym's powers and resources was concerned, his tiny hidden-in-the-wall HQ was here replaced by a huge penthouse base. In it, there's even a gym for Giant-Man, though no sign of a similar training base for his other, teensy-weensy identity to train in. (Art by Dick Ayers and Paul Reinman, TTA#59)

A relatively stable five months passed and, with the strip just five more issues from being cancelled, Pym's costume is re-designed, as shown here in a frame from TTA#65 by Bob Powell and Don Heck. With all his time spent being blokeish, the responsibility for the new super-suit devolved upon the Wasp.

Then, in Pym's penultimate appearance just four months afterwards, the emphasis changed from adding power and skill to accentuating a possibly-fatal limitation. Although it was always a given that there were limits to Pym's ability to grow and remain strong and healthy, here the consequences of ignoring that is accentuated. In this scene from TTA#68 by Stan Lee, Bob Powell and Vince Colleta, the roots of the various size-changing crises which would strike Pym in coming years were clearly shown. (His return to the page in The Avengers during 1966 would find him trapped at giant-size for a protracted period.)

Finally, and just to show that the innovation - for good or ill - never stopped even in the pages of a cancelled strip, Pym's last starring appearance in TTA - #69, July '65 - saw him increasing the size of a wasp until he could ride over it over New York City. It was yet another significant increase in his abilities which later incarnations of the character often simply ignored. (By Lee, Hartley, Powell and Giunta.)

  
Next, TooBusyThinking will be returning to the 21st Century ...