Tales to Astonish

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Image:Talestoastonish.jpg Tales to Astonish is the name of several comic book series published by Marvel Comics.

1 Ant-Man and Giant-Man
2 The Hulk and the Sub-Mariner
3 Bibliography
4 References

Ant-Man and Giant-Man

The initial Tales to Astonish was a science fiction anthology that began featuring superheroes during the Silver Age of Comic Books.

Henry Pym — a scientist who appeared in a one-shot, "pre-superhero Marvel" story, "The Man In The Ant Hill", in issue #27 (Jan. 1962) — returned donning a cybernetic helmet and red costume and using a size-changing technology to debut as the insect-sized hero Ant-Man in #35 (Sept. 1962). In an undistinguished series scripted by Larry Lieber over plots credited to his brother, Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee, and penciled first by Jack Kirby and later by Don Heck and others, Ant-Man fought a series of soon-forgotten antagonists such as the Protector, the Porcupine, Comrade X, Egghead, and the Scarlet Beetle (an actual scarlet beetle). Ant-Man teamed up with a socialite-turned-heroine, Janet Van Dyne, a.k.a. The Wasp, in #44 (June 1963), when a pseudonymous Ernie Hart took over scripting and artist Kirby returned for an issue. Image:TalesToAstonish49.jpg Ant-Man began size-shifting in the opposite direction in #49 (Nov. 1963), when he added two letters to his name to become Giant-Man, and fought the classically ludicrous alien dubbed the Living Eraser — who, until the deliberately ludicrous hero Squirrel Girl was created in the 1990s, was evoked through the years as a shorthand phrase for any embarrassingly ill-conceived character. That the celebrated Lee & Kirby themselves reteamed for this story is likewise invoked as an example of even legendary creators being capable of such misfires.

Lee remained as writer through the end of the feature's run, except for two stories scripted by Leon Lazarus (#64, Feb. 1965) and Al Hartley (#69, the finale, July 1965). Artists of the latter part of the run included Steve Ditko, Dick Ayers, and Golden Age greats Carl Burgos and Bob Powell.

The backup feature "Tales of the Wasp" (#51-56) used the superheroine as a framing device for anthological science-fiction stories, having her relate tales to hospitalized servicemen and the like. The Wasp also starred in two subsequent solo backup stories. All were scripted and penciled by Lieber.

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The Hulk and the Sub-Mariner

Image:TalesToAstonish67.jpg The Hulk, whose original series The Incredible Hulk had suffered a quickly canceled, six-issue run in 1962-63, returned to star in his own feature when Tales to Astonish became a split book at issue #60. The Hulk had proven a saleable guest-star in three issues of The Fantastic Four and an issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. Now and these new stories — scripted by Lee himself and illustrated by the seldom-seen team of penciler Steve Ditko and inker George Roussos, proved a hit that firmly established a future star character who would otherwise have been remembered as an early Marvel experiment that hadn't worked, another Doctor Droom, a.k.a. Doctor Druid. Additionally, Ditko, who has virtually always inked his own sketchy but almost preternaturally elemental pencils, was given an even darker, more shadowy look that usual by Roussos' bold, craggy inks, creating a unique look that in some ways pressaged that of the "grim and gritty" late-1980s and 1990s comics.

This early part of the Hulk's run introduced the Leader, who would become the Hulk's archnemesis, and additionally made the Hulk's identity known to, initially, the military.

Namor the Sub-Mariner received his first feature in a decade beginning with #70. After the final issue of Tales to Astonish (which became the solo magazine The Incredible Hulk with issue #102), the Sub-Mariner co-starred in the split-book one-shot Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1 before going on to his own 72-issue series.

A brief horror anthology bearing the same name ran from 1979-1981, and the one-shot Marvel Selects: Tales to Astonish featured the Hulk, Namor, Ant-Man and the Wasp.

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