Tag Archives: Hank Pym

By request from a Balladeer’s Blog reader here is my look at the early adventures of this superhero.

7 TALES TO ASTONISH # 40 (February 1963)

Title: The Day The Ant-Man Failed

Villain: The Hijacker, a costumed supervillain who wielded a gun that both knocked out its victims and made them lose their short-term memory. That gas was derived from an ancient Inca formula. In later years the Hijacker fought Black Goliath and the Thing.

Synopsis: The Hijacker is robbing armored cars all over New York City by knocking out the drivers and leaving them with no memory of their attacker. With the help of Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four Ant-Man devises a gas mask made of unstable molecules.

The gas mask is to protect our hero from the Hijacker’s gas and the unstable molecular makeup of the mask will allow it to shrink and grow along with the rest of Ant-Man’s costume and equipment. Continue reading →

This past summer Marvel Comics added Ant-Man to their growing list of mega-successful film adaptations of their costumed crime-fighters. By request from a Balladeer’s Blog reader here is my look at the early adventures of that superhero.

1 TALES TO ASTONISH # 27 (January 1962)

Title: The Man in the Ant Hill

Villain: Various hungry ants

Synopsis: The emphasis in this debut story was on Incredible Shrinking Man– style antics. Dr Hank Pym has perfected his shrinking and growing formulas – later retconned to Pym Particles delivered via serum, pills or gas. Testing them on himself the good doctor shrinks and finds himself stuck in the “jungle” of his own back yard struggling to get back to his growth serum. Continue reading →