Ant-Man/Giant-Man Epic Collection, Vol. 1: The Man in the Ant Hill

Ant-Man/Giant-Man Epic Collection

by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Ernie Hart

A man of action and a man of science, Dr. Henry Pym invented an amazing growth serum and a cybernetic helmet, and with them he became -- the Astonishing Ant-Man! Pym soon teamed with Janet Van Dyne, the winsome Wasp, and the two tiny titans went on to battle an array of mini- and maxi-sized menaces from the Scarlet Beetle to the Black Knight! But adventures in the microscopic world weren't enough for one of the Marvel Age's first super heroes. Soon, Ant-Man became the biggest Avenger there ever was -- Giant-Man!

Collects Tales to Astonish #27, 35-59.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Superheroes

448 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 2015

About the author

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Man in the Anthill collects issues #27, #35-59.

I grabbed this on the cheap from ShopGoodwill after waffling on it for years. I'm not sure it was a good choice.

Anyway, August is #JackKirbyMonth according to my sector of comics twitter so I gave this a shot. My family was stricken with covid last week but I don't think that was the entire reason this took me so long to get through.

According to the first page, Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Ernie Hart are the writers with Jack Kirby, Don Heck, Dick Ayers, Larry Leiber, and a slew of inkers handle the art.

First things first, I enjoy the origin story, The Man in the Ant Hill, quite a bit in an EC science fiction sort of way, and the early Ant-Man solo stories are charming in a Silver Age kind of way, even if they lean mediocre. Once Ant-Man becomes Giant-Man and is paired with the Wasp, my interest quickly waned.

The pair bicker like every other Marvel couple and it turns out shrinking is way more interesting than becoming a giant to me. The latter parts of the book felt like trying to eat a twelve foot party sub. It tastes good at first but by the end, your jaw hurts and you're really tired of sandwiches altogether. Giant-Man and The Wasp are the sandwich if this metaphor wasn't clear enough.

That's that. I gave it a three because I liked the earlier parts but it's really probably a high 2.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get that Ant-Man is the star here, but why isn’t the Wasp given equal credit on the cover? Shouldn’t this have been called the Ant-Man & the Wasp Epic Collection? Kind of insulting to diminish the Wasp’s presence especially when she features so prominently on the cover. Yeah, let’s give all the spotlight to the size-changing mad scientist who’s clearly not a very stable hero.

Tales to Astonish #27 - This story introduces Dr. Henry Pym, but not as Ant-Man, that comes in his next appearance. This is just an astonishing tale that is more reminiscent of the weird sci-fi films of the era, films of people getting trapped by weird pseudoscience phenomena (think The Fly, The Invisible Man or even The Incredible Shrinking Man. This amounts to one of the better stories in this collection.

Tales to Astonish #35-40 - The stories in these issues, introduce Henry Pym in his new secret identity as Ant-Man, battling threats such as communist agents, a protection racketeer, a mad scientist known as Egghead (who’ll be back to haunt Pym throughout his career), an irradiated beetle with dreams of conquest, and a hijacker. There are some similar themes throughout most of these stories that weaken them as a group, but they’re still fun and the art by Jack Kirby elevates these stories to hold the reader’s interest.

Tales to Astonish #41-43 - Don Heck takes over the art duties, and while he’s no Kirby, and his style does take a bit to get used to, he does provide a different perspective on the character. But the villains continue to be, if not increasingly, lame. An invader from another dimension who cannot even conquer his own people, a man who’s voice is immediately believed and whose every word is taken as indisputable truth, and then another mad scientist who is a master of aging (and no, none of these are Kang). These could all have been marvelous stories, but the art doesn’t quite work as well.

Tales to Astonish #44 - Kirby returns and he introduces Ant-Man’s new partner, the Wasp. But he also introduces some retroactive continuity with a previous wife for Pym, a new layer of motivation for becoming a crime fighter, and a new threat from space. Basically, Kirby just reinvented Ant-Man. What is so shocking though, is how easily Pym was ready to perform experimental surgery on Janet Van Dyne and accept this virtual stranger as a partner. This actually illustrates a fundamental flaw of Pym’s personality, and one that will get developed in greater detail over the years. Pym is a genuine mad scientist himself, and what he does to Van Dyne in this story, as well as how he’d experimented on himself previously, illustrate just how unbalanced he actually is.

Tales to Astonish #45-48 - Don Heck returns to the pencilling duties and Egghead shows up for his second attempt at defeating Ant-Man. Not a great story, rather typical of superhero stories of this era, but it does develop Egghead’s obsession with defeating Ant-Man. Then Heck delivers another alien invasion scenario, followed by another cheap thug with a gimmick and then a real honest supervillain: the Porcupine. Wait, seriously? Oh, no. Seriously, something has to change or this series and character is going to the dogs. Although, to be fair, this is also the start of Ant-Man and the Wasp co-founding the Avengers with Thor, Iron Man and the Hulk. So changes are definitely in the air.

Tales to Astonish #49-50 - Kirby returns! And he brings some of those BIG changes for our little heroes (who recently helped found the Avengers), as Ant-Man becomes Giant-Man. Unfortunately, this also further illustrates Henry Pym’s inferiority complex, as he desperately needs to feel he’s in the same class of heroes as his fellow Avengers, like Thor, Iron Man and Hulk. The first antagonist is an invasion from another dimension and then we’re treated with the first appearance of the Human Top (who will eventually become Whirlwind, not to be confused with Whizzer/Speed Demon). Human Top also becomes the first villain to affectively defeat GiAnt-Man and the Wasp and come back and face them again. Oh wait, did I forget about Egghead? No, Egghead just escaped, he never defeated our size-changing dynamic duo.

Tales to Astonish #51-58 - These issues feature not only a tale of Giant-Man and the Wasp, but also a second tale that either features the Wasp spinning an astonishing tale or, as in the last couple of tales, involved in some solo antics of her own. Unfortunately, Kirby has left the series and the art duties here are from Heck and Dick Ayers for the most part, and this means the stories aren’t nearly as entertaining as the Kirby ones. Still fun, but they just don’t have the Kirby magic. We do get some returning villains like Porcupine, Human Top and Egghead, as well as some new opponents like the villainous Black Knight and the almost laughable El Toro and the Magician. There’s even a guest appearance by Spider-Man, and a brief one from Captain America, among these stories, so there’s still entertainment aplenty.

Tales to Astonish #59 - This last story in this volume is particularly noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First off: the other Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man & Thor) make a brief appearance. But we also have the return of the Human Top and special guest star the Hulk, with supporting characters Betty Ross and General Thunderbolt Ross as well. This is also a teaser and appetizer for the next issue of Tales to Astonish and the new format, which would include a story about Giant-Man and the Wasp and one featuring the Hulk. This issue also include a bonus featurette on background information about the size-changing stars Giant-Man/Ant-Man and the wonderful Wasp.

So that rounds off this volume, and over all it does illustrate how poorly developed the Henry Pym character was, and how primed the character was for becoming as controversial as he would be in later years. The complete lack of conscience for conducting biological and genetic experiments on humans without truly knowing the outcome, the arrogance, the self-indulgence, the toxic masculinity, and the lack of self-esteem, it’s all here, hidden away underneath the surface, but just waiting for future writers to bring into focus.

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 1 out of 5]

3 and a half stars by 150 reviewers. That's what this one got? Really? Unless 100 of those readers are in their late 50s, along with all of the other 1st epic volumes written by Stan Lee back then, rating these with 3+ stars based purely on nostalgia because they were kids when these were published, then this makes no sense and Goodreads is lying to my face.

This was complete garbage and a chore to read.

[Alex Andrasik · Rating 2 out of 5]

**CORRECTION** I state in the below review that this collection contains all of Hank Pym and the Wasp's Tales to Astonish appearances; in fact, there are apparently 10 more after #59. 35 issues instead of 25 is still a flop by Silver Age Marvel standards. **END CORRECTION**

Well, that was just...not very good.

I guess it's difficult to bat a thousand, and other sports metaphors, and considering the run that Stan Lee and his artist collaborators had in the early 60s, it's amazing there weren't more duds like Ant-Man/Giant-Man. And that pains me to say, because I have a great affection for the hero's journey and redemption arc that would make up the bulk of Hank Pym's career--to say noting of my love for his "partner-in-peril" and future ex-wife, the Wasp, who is one of my favorite Marvel characters.

The problem with this early run--which, being cancelled after only 25 headline appearances qualifies Pym's saga as early Marvel's only certified flop--comes down to an identity crisis, I think. This character went through three soft reboots in less than two years, by my count: first, the one-off sci-fi horror story gave way to an unexplained superhero identity: Ant-Man! Suddenly okay with the ants! Suddenly not scared and panicked by his strange transformation! Lantern-jawed, broad-shouldered, somewhat stern and completely uninteresting. Then, happily, less than a year later, Hank Pym suddenly found a partner, and a backstory: he's a widower, still pining for his lost Iron Curtain-hopping bride, suddenly reinvigorated by the introduction of a driven new love interest (never mind the creep factor of his observation that she looks just like lost Maria, "but such a child!"). Given a new mission, and an insouciant partner to banter with, there was a sudden uptick in quality, but it didn't really last (and the single worst issue of any comic I've ever read is in this run--#47, the execrable "Music to Scream By," which tries to tap into the cool-factor of smooth jazz and only ends up being horribly racist to South Asians, somehow). Then came Giant-Man! Nothing says confidence in your character than completely reversing his gimmick, but also letting him return to his original gimmick whenever dictated by the plot. This was all a mess from a publishing and storytelling point of view (though I appreciate the way later writers took this meta-identity crisis and built it into Hank's in-universe personality, creating a sincerely fascinating character full of self-doubt and indecision).

Stan didn't seem to know what to do with the guy, interesting yet limiting power set aside; he gets passed off early on to his brother, Larry Lieber (did you know anyone other than Stan wrote early Marvels? If not, it's probably because they were mostly of Larry's caliber), whose wide, flat style apes the Mightier Lee's in terms of empty bravado but lacks all charm, subtlety and inventiveness. There are some really terrible stories in the mix here, beyond the previously mentioned smooth jazz trainwreck; Lieber is particularly guilty of recycling plots, including two victims-who-turn-out-to-be-the-bad-guy and three supernatural-creatures-who-turn-out-to-be-aliens. (I'm counting later issues here that are technically credited to Stan, but I'm convinced that was a marketing ruse to drum up readers). And most of the interactions between Hank and Jan are about as problematic as you'd expect (but more about that later). The heroes do get two recurring villains who would prove significant: the egotistical scientist Egghead, who fails to make a mark here despite his later importance, and the Human Top (aka Whirlwind), whose casual swagger marks an impressive departure from the usual mustache-twirling mode of these baddies.

Okay, let's talk Wasp and WASPs. I love Janet van Dyne, and you know what, I even love her in these formative appearances. She's the prototypical "society girl playing at flightiness to obscure a tough-as-nails interior," though where that paradigm falls down is in the fact that her tough side is never really explored outside her initial appearance; still, the underlying tenacity and intelligence of the character is evident, all of her man-crazy lines delivered with an arch wink at Hank and the audience. I think it was a big step just to have a female co-headliner in the 60s, and look at that cover on her first appearance (reproduced as the cover to this collection): she's the active partner, the hero of the scene, bravely carrying Hank Pym (who's adopted a classic damsel in distress pose) away from the Creature from Kosmos. She's never the shrinking violet the early Sue Storm presented, nor the mere love interest evident in every other comic book, but an adventurer and hero. So, okay, most of her conversations with Hank are groaners; what I'll say is she gives as good as she gets, and there's certainly nothing misogynistic in the will-they-or-won't-they flirtation between her and Hank. There's even a moment where Hank tells her what he really thinks of her--that she's brave and strong and brilliant--that actually had me dabbing at my eyes. I wonder what teenage boys in 1964 thought when they got to that panel? Whatever, in another issue Giant-Man literally calls her "honeychile" and I don't know what to do with that.

As for the art: very uneven. Jack Kirby contributes a few issues, and the character designs, but it's clear he's as disinterested as Stan. Dick Ayers handled the later issues with all the visual interest of a Cracker Jack comic strip. In between, though, was a genuine surprise to me: some pre-Avengers work by Don Heck, which I found intriguingly scratchy and sketchy; it put me in mind of moody mid-90s Sal Buscema. This is by far the most dynamic artwork of the run, and in Heck's pencils, Jan and Hank really had some distinct character for once.

I think there was a lot of potential to the saga of Hank Pym--visual and narrative potential--that was squandered because his creators couldn't muster up the interest that would make the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the Hulk superstars. There are two moments from the early otherwise tepid Ant-Man run that stand out to me for their visual interest and storytelling ingenuity: in one, Hank flees an enemy into the ignition of a car, the huge car key thrusting above him, its disproportionality offering a fascinating sci-fi set piece; in another, quite simply, Hank hitches a ride on a child's roller-skate. Both of these are so much cooler than later contrivances like Hank's cellophane chariot pulled by flying ants, or a weird duel on top of a plateau. Even in the later, winding-down Giant-Man stories, there were glimmers of interesting storytelling possibilities; we learn that, beyond 12 feet, Hank actually begins to weaken; I think later runs in the Avengers explored this facet, but how cool would it have been for a leading man to have to deal with such a counter-intuitive weakness?

It's also neat that, in these early stories, the source of Hank's power is something external to himself--his loopy "capsules" that he needs to keep close at hand to be able to shrink and grow. On several occasions, Hank is taken unawares and finds himself without his powers, and it's always interesting to see how he works around that limitation; there's also two instances where a villain gets a hold of the capsules, with appropriately dramatic (and divergent) results. And of course, the greatest benefit to this externality of power is that Hank is able to bestow it on another, to take what makes him special and gift it for the benefit of the world, as he does with Jan. Hank's powers are at once a strength and a weakness at this stage, in several different ways. Once Hank developed the ability to grow and shrink at will through his "cybernetic helmet" (as well as the troubling ability to regulate Jan's size in the same manner), I lost what little interest in the series I had left.

I leave you with the observation that it's completely absurd that the comic refers to its titular hero by a different name depending on how big he is (so he's never definitively Giant-Man, but becomes Ant-Man again by virtue of shrinking) in what was certainly Marvel's most muddled PR mess, and I remind you that there exists in this world a comic book panel wherein Hank Pym uses the word "honeychile."

[RagleGumm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Das sind die ersten Abenteuer von Ant-Man und The Wasp, da war viel Nostalgie dabei :-)
Die Stories sind aber schon ziemlich angestaubt. Richtig gut finde ich noch die erste Geschichte und die mit dem Time-Master.
Ach ja, Giant-Man ist öde. Über die Darstellung der Wespe verlieren wir besser kein Wort ...

[Edward Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice to read these stories, some of which I hadn’t read before.

[Eva B.]

3.16 stars?? Y'all SUCK

[Beau Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

After watching the Ant-Man, and The Avengers movies I decided to do a little background reading on a character I knew very little about. After reading this collection I realise that Ant-Man doesn't have a strong enough personality to lead in any of the team-up movies, but the stories in this volume are guaranteed to satisfy your curiosity about his origins.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not exactly Stan Lee's shining hour...Ant-Man was always something of a third string character, a bargain basement Reed Richards with an inconsistent personality, while the Wasp was presented initially as a flighty teenager with a crush on Hank Pym -- a romantic element that wobbled all over the neighbourhood like a drunken Lothario, again echoing Sue Storm's fraught romance with Reed. The plots tended to be silly, the soap opera element was generally absent (not surprising, given that stories could be written by Lee, his brother Larry Lieber, a combination of both, or even other hands entirely; art chores, while most often carried out by Dick Ayres, could be handled by any handy bullpenner.)

I'd claim that there's an awkward charm to the stories, but the truth is that even the warm glow of nostalgia doesn't cover up just how bargain-basement this series was -- even fiddling with the premise so Pym could be Giant-Man as well as Ant-Man didn't help, nor did having Hank and Janet become founding members of The Avengers (so little regarded, indeed, that they were left out of the lineup for the movie Avengers.) The oddest attempt to make the book interesting was the backup in a number of issues where the Wasp tells stories to kids -- stories that read like refurbished stories from pre-Fantastic Four era Marvel comics.

The stories are nicely restored, however, and this is a decently hefty volume. Sadly, it seems rather inessential.

[Paul Stanis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Ant-Man and the Wasp comes some way in this collection, developing from a mystery structure where villains are unmasked in twist endings to a larger than life superhero book with two heroes integrated into the Avengers and an increased page count to boot.

Look for what is I believe the first silver age female main villain, though still disguised as a man (#36); the villain Eraser’s powers engaging with the comics medium (#49); Ant-Man wistfully longing for the tech to hypnotize people to do his will (#42); Porcupine using DDT to kill some of Giant-Man’s ant helpers (!) (#53); Wasp prophetically floating the idea of a female Hulk (#57); a Colossus that predates the mutant (#58); Wasp keeping framed pictures of defeated villains on the wall (#58); Stan Lee retconning Robert Bruce Banner as his full name to cover forgetting Bruce’s name in Fantastic Four #25 (#59); and the first appearance of Black Knight (#52).

MCU connections: There’s a fight amongst toys like in Ant-Man (#39); Wasp trying to defuse the payload of a rocket, also from Ant-Man (#59); Ant-Man rapidly aging as in Avengers: Endgame (#43); a very different Kraglin of A-Chiltar 3 (#46); and Porcupine looking much like he does in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (#48).

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a huge collection of comics from the dawn of the Marvel era containing all of the Ant-Man stories from his origin in January of 1962, to when he became the monthly feature in September of that year, all the way through to September of 1964, the issue before The Hulk began sharing the book. Along the way he teams-up with The Wasp, adopts the first of his many alter-alter-egos (Giant Man), and becomes a founding member of The Avengers. These were the days prior to the "Stan Lee Presents" era... the days when each issue told a self-contained story, and you could count on the cover saying the book cost 12-cents, and every sentence ended with an exclamation mark! Nostalgia can be a wonderful thing; Lee will always be The Man and Kirby was always The King and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the talents of Larry Lieber and Don Heck. On the other hand, some of the plotting is pretty bad, Hank always treated Jan poorly, and Jan was given some really bad dialog. Some of the later issues included second short features in which Jan narrated individual tales, and these are the best in the book. Altogether, it's a fun book and fascinating from a historical perspective.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 1 out of 5]

"The Man in the Ant-Hill" was a typical SF story for Marvel's anthology comics, where a scientist accidentally shrinks down to ant-size and struggles to survive. Atypically, it then became a series in the Tales to Astonish anthology.
Despite the legendary aura of early Marvel Comics, the first couple of years were mostly "meh" except for Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. Then things got better. Ant-Man improved and changed — adding the Wasp, becoming Giant-Man — but it never got actually good. Kirby's art is dull compared to what Gil Kane did for the Atom around this time. The villains are "meh" and the Hank/Jan bickering is less rom-com than annoy-com.
Still, having come so far I'd pick up a TPB of the remaining 10 or so stories (Sub-Mariner would eventually replace Giant-Man in the book) if it were available.

[Dan Blackley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of Hank Pym-Ant man and Giant Man. These comics are the original ones from Tales to Astonish. We also have the Original Wasp in these. All the stories are interesting and fun. Some are a bit sexist due to the time they were written.
It's a fun way to see how Janet and Hank became a couple.

[Craig This]

I appreciate these Epic Collections. It is like stepping into a time machine and traveling back to the early days of comic book superheroes. True, the stories may not be as polished, indepth, and sophisticated as we know them today. But I appreciate looking back and reading and seeing what these early comic book writers and artists were creating and developing.

[Acton Northrop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fluffy stories even by early-days Marvel standards but solid artwork and invention by Kirby and the underrated Dick Ayers. Read this in preparation for West Coast Avengers vol. 3 which picks up a bunch of loose threads from this volume.

[Gary Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hey, Hulk, check this guy out. Got the strength of a human!

Putting aside bad jokes and bullying on Saturday Night Live, Ant-Man was a cool character and proved a formidable foil to many a foe, as evidenced in this collection of fun, JFK-era stories refreshingly free from the sordid soap opera and psychobabble later and lesser writers subjected hapless Hank Pym. These stories spring from the early Silver Age with the primary purpose of entertaining readers--and that they do!

Ant-Man/Giant-Man and the Wasp were clearly second-tier characters and Stan Lee did not lavish love and attention upon them. As a result, other talented writers like Ernie Hart (writing at H.E. Huntley) and Stan's kid brother Larry Lieber were able to exercise their imagination in the book's best stories.

Tales to Astonish #42 is a pre-Wasp Ant-Man story by Larry Lieber that was among the book's highlights. The inventive villain here is Jason Cragg, "a radio announcer who just didn't have what it takes." A mishap at a "nearby atomic experimental laboratory" sends a stream of ionized atoms into the air that are picked up by Cragg's microphone, giving him a silver-tongued power of persuasion. Cragg adopts the persona of a Chatauqua orator with a stovepipe hat, big beard, and dated suit. Will Ant-Man, unable to resist Cragg's hypnotic voice, leap to his doom from a pier? The story is just goofy fun, accompanied by beautiful Don Heck art that he both penciled and inked.

H.E. Huntley took the reins for a memorable five-issue run beginning in TTA #44, which key issue introduces the Wasp. It features the compelling story of Janet Van Dyne, a woman who uncannily resembles Hank's late wife Maria, but whom chaste and chivalrous Hank observes is "not much more than a child." When she tragically loses her father, Hank recruits Jan as his partner in avenging his death and bestows upon her the powers of the Wasp.

I can't prove it, but nonetheless am confident in contending that future Star Trek II and VI screenwriter Nicholas Meyer paid loving homage to this story and particularly to page 12, panel 2 when writing his 1973 drive-in movie classic Invasion of the Bee Girls.

My favorite Ernie Hart/Huntley story was TTA #47,"Music to Scream By" featuring Trago, the man with the magic trumpet. Jazz fan Jan drags Hank to a club and drops names like Wild Bill Donovan and Count Basie. Trago is a disgraced trumpeter who travels to India and, sitting at the feet of "Ghazandhi, a mystic and scholar of ancient phenomena," learns how to hypnotize people with his music. This inventive tale, so different in subject and tone from anything Lee was writing, was also complemented by inspired Don Heck pencils and inks.

Huntley also co-created with Heck the enduring villain the Porcupine in the next issue, which sadly turned out to be Huntley's fifth and final issue. Stan took back the reins to introduce Giant-Man in #49 (which momentous event warranted bringing back Jack Kirby to pencil). But with Stan's return came the devolution of Janet/Wasp into a flaky marriage-minded coquette and a flurry of lesser stories (e.g., El Toro, the Magician, and reheated and rehashed returns of the Porcupine, Egghead and the overused Human Top). This collection's final 10 stories all appear written on whatever wispy creative fumes were left after Stan invested himself fully into that month's Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man.

And speaking of that friendly neighborhood wallcrawler, Stan apparently forgot what book he was writing when he had Giant-Man exclaim, "Quiet Jan! My antennae are tingling! There's someone lurking nearby!" (TTA #58, pg. 3, panel 3). Couple that with Giant-Man swinging like Spidey on his "sky-hooks" for a number of stories at the end of this collection. The genuine, original Spiderman did show up in TTA #57 for what amounted to an audition for Marvel Team-Up. Here Egghead engineers a battle between the two heroes. Copy and paste that same scenario two issues later when the Human Top tricks the Hulk into battling Giant-Man.

That Hulk appearance in TTA #59 was Stan's canny marketing ploy to promote the Hulk's coming aboard as co-feature in the following issue, announced in a full-page ad included herein. And that's where this Epic Collection closes. But there are still ten more tintinnabulatin' Giant-Man and Wasp yarns to be told before the Sub-Mariner bumped Hank and Jan out of the title in TTA #70. I hope they will soon be collected and rounded out with such later stories as Marvel Premiere #47 and 48 that introduced Scott Lang as Ant Man.

This was a warmly welcomed collection and one thoroughly enjoyed for the first two-thirds with waning returns on the latter third. I also liked the Wasp backups that framed short Atlas-era stories written and illustrated by Larry Lieber. Jack Kirby (inked by Ditko in #50) penciled many of the early stories, but Silver-Age stalwarts Don Heck and Dick Ayers do the heavy lifting throughout, aided and abetted by the usual suspects of the era: Reinman, Roussos, Chic Stone, and Sol Brodsky. When a man and aging fan wants to get away from life for a while, there's much to enjoy here again and again.

[Robert Kimberlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice collection. Decent stories and artwork. It also had plenty of good humor. I love the good old days.

[Francisco · Rating 2 out of 5]

So another of those Marvel Epic collections that I've been getting into lately. This one collects the first stories of Ant-Man/Giant-Man and eventually the Wasp which can be found in Tales to Astonish #27 and #35-59. And it's a doozy.

Unfortunately I don't mean this in a good way. Hank Pym as the Ant-Man is probably the most reactionary, sexist piece of shit in the whole of the 1960s Stan Lee comics. This is particularly apparent when the Wasp comes in, not only is he constantly dismissing her opinions explicitly because she is a woman, but Lee also writes her as someone who is a catalogue of the worst of 60 sexist stereotypes. This even makes very little sense as her origin story had potential, but a couple of issues in all she wants is to get Pym's attention and seems to be only concerned with men, clothing and stuff. It's horrible.

In terms of other types of conservatism there's one particular issue where Hank Pym merrily does some dirty black ops coup for the CIA because they don't like the election results in a certain country "because no one would freely elect communists, therefore the elections must be fake". What the fuck. It's actually pretty telling stuff. It's weird how much this contrasts with other writing by Lee, that even when it has these elements they are certainly more muted than here. Kirby's art is fine but nothing to write home about, and the Ant-Man is probably the least interesting and most infuriating character from the Stan Lee 60s roster. He also has the shittest villains: The Human Top (spins very fast), The Egghead (is smartish), The Living Eraser (erases stuff into another dimension) and The Porcupine (has a suit with quills) they all originate here and they are all shit.

[Jimbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always a fan of Ant-Man/Giant-Man but I never read any of his early adventures in Tales to Astonish, so this book was really cool.

Again, the early Marvel stories were inconsistent and although Marvel prided itself of all the action happening in NYC, in the early Ant-Man they took place in Central City (huh?) Anyway, although it was basically written by three people, this was a wonderful collection of origin story, of both Ant-Man/Gaint-Man and the Wasp, also the introduction of the Porcupine and Whirlwind (then known as The Human Top).Also the beginning of the rivalry between Hank Pym and Egghead. Again with Stan Lee, they had the obligatory monsters and aliens from other dimension and worlds (very 50's b-horror), but the majority of the stories were super-hero fighting villains.

[Bryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the early 60’s Marvel stuff features the industry’s most talented creators at the height of their powers crafting stories and characters that still stand the test of time.

And then there’s Ant-Man.

[LB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not great but my expectations weren’t super high for an Ant-Man collection. Definitely a bit repetitive but that was pretty standard for this time. Marvel was obviously still trying to figure out how to write female superheroes… (And I think they still are.)

[Kris Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this is one of the “lesser” titles of the Silver Age, it was still a lot of fun to read. Readers with modern sensibilities will dislike the “you're just a girl, Wasp” vibe to some of the earlier stories in this book. I have a soft spot for Egghead and The Human Top. Seeing Ant-Man transition into Giant-Man was pretty cool.

[ReyReyPod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic 60's capers

[Patricio Sureda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Calificiación: 5

[Daniel Kleven · Rating 4 out of 5]

The earliest Ant-Man comics found in "Tales to Astonish," from the introduction in 1962 through 1964. Includes The Wasp, and Ant-Man's reverse size "Giant-Man."

[Erik J · Rating 3 out of 5]

1960s comics are always a slog to get through.

I didn't hate this one though.

Overall - 3/5

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

First in Ant-Giant Man collection with the Wasp

[Doug Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

i thought this book was fun, there wasn't really anything that stood out but it was consistent throughout

[Ginger Wolverine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book if you really want to get to know Hank Pym and the ant man. It’s wordy, but it’s the best era for Hank