COMICS-Tales of the Bargain Bin: "The Coming of Colossus!"
Tales to Astonish #58- August 1964
(Giant-Man and the Wasp)
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist (first half): Dick Ayers
Artist (first half):Larry Lieber
Straight from the the Bowels of the eStragand Complex it's another (rare)
old-timey comic book review. From 1963, we have one of Marvel's old anthology books-
"Tales to Astonish"... a title that can still be found on the racks today as "Incredible Hulk" (Well, as soon as Hulk goes back to its original issue numbering). "Astonish" is still considered a fairly important milestone for Marvel. Originally a sci-fi/fantasy mag when it debutted in 1959, it had the honor of premiering Marvel's first solo superhero: Henry Pym the Ant-Man, in 1962. It also ran several little-known "prototype" characters of the Hulk, Electro and the Toad Men before Ant-man took over the title. Soon, Pym's eventual longtime love interest, Janet Van Dyne (the Wasp) was added. After a year or so, Ant-Man transformed himself into Giant-Man. So instead of shrinking, Pym could now enlarge himself.
The story opens in Henry Pym's laboratory where he's discovered how to alter his size by simply thinking about it through his cybernetic helmet. Previously, Pym had to rely on swallowing capsules of "Pym Particles" to change his size. He can also cause the Wasp to shrink as well. Wasp is begging Pym to go on a vacation to Lake Placid, but their Avengers buddy, Captain America suddenly drops into the lab. The Avengers have received reports of a strange giant trapped on a lone mesa in the middle of Africa. The giant can't get off the mesa, and the natives have begun worshipping him as a god. Lately, he's been asking the natives for human sacrifices! The Avengers would check it out..but Cap, Iron Man and Thor are all busy with "personal issues" (they had dates), but Giant-Man and the Wasp are up for it.
The duo flies over to the African country of Boru-Bora and spot the giant immediately. He's hanging out on the mesa, next to a shiny "mushroom looking" thing. Going by the name of Colossus, he look like a cross between future Marvel villains Belasco and Ares. He even has little devil horns on his forehead. I'm guessing there was a slight biblical inspiration to his name and appearance, though. Obviously, he has no connection to the X-men's Colossus, who appeared about 13 years later. Giant-Man exclaims "he's 30 feet tall! That's TWICE as large as my Giant-Man size of 12 feet!" (Ummm... ). Colossus reaches out and smashes Giant-Man's plane. The heroes parachute to safety and decide to climb the mesa at ant-size. Giant-Man has constructed a handy little grapple gun that makes the climb much quicker. Of course, like just about everything else Giant-Man used, the grapple is also controlled by his cybernetic helmet.
Increasing to 12 feet, Giant-Man gets into a melee with Colossus. Wasp helps outs with well-timed air blasts from her "wasp sting". Giant-Man zips all the way up to 30 feet tall, but the bigger he gets, he loses strength proportionately. This time, the stain is too much and Giant-Man almost faints. Colossus decides to use Giant-Man as his "human sacrifice" and carries him over to his shiny "mushroom". Giant-Man discovers that it's actually a flying saucer and Colossus doesn't want a sacrifice, he wants a test subject to examine. Yes, alien abduction, 30 years before it became a common redneck joke! Giant-Man instantly shrinks to ant-size and freaks out Colossus by apparently disappearing. Colossus hops into his flying saucer and returns home. He radioes his superiors that earthlings are too advanced and can do amazing things...so steer clear of Earth and better not invade it.
The stereotypical "African natives" saw the whole battle and erect a statue of Giant-Man to commemorate the guy who defeated the evil "god", Colossus. It's funny that a big plot point was the fact that nobody could get up or down the mesa... but the natives suddenly had no trouble going up there to build a statue. Plus, Colossus has no problem
flying his ship..so why wasn't he able to fly OFF the mesa to the
bottom?! I know,I know... looking for an explanation in story featuring giant aliens and superheroes IS a little bottomless. It's also a little wacky that the
African mesa has pine trees, and looks like more like
upstate New York than central Africa. The heroes fly back home, but this book ain't over yet, true believers!
The second half of the book features a solo Wasp story. Supervillain the Magician has escaped from prison and is out for revenge. Hank is upstate performing experiments, but upon hearing the new over the radio, sends a message to Jan, via ant-telegram. Hank's message tells Jan to remain inside, where everything's safe. Jan defiantly heads out to view the new "Wasp-inspired fashions" at a department store. There, it turns out that the Magician had set the whole thing up with outside contacts, as a trap for Giant-Man and the Wasp. We know Magician's EVIL..he uses the magic words: "Abra Cababra, Alla Kazamm!" Wasp flies into action and after a chase through the store, defeats the Magician. She leads the Magician to an escalator...and manages to catch the his cloak in the steps! The horror of the 60's- kids getting their shoelaces caught in an escalator- is actually used to defeat a supervillain! Don't laugh, as a young'un I remember my ma cautioning me about tying my KEDS before we went to South Hills Village. Wasp also uses a remote-control robot toy to tie the Magician up. She flies back home and acts all girly when the oblivious Hank returns. Final panel has Wasp slipping a sly "wink at the camera", same gag that usually ended 60's Superman cartoons.
I don't think the Magician made many more appearances, but this story is unintentionally satirical. First, Wasp is a WOMAN..so what's she do? She wants to go shopping! At least the final gag had Wasp pretending to be "helpless" in a mocking way. Considering that Marvel's two biggest 60's female characters had the power to either shrink really small or turn invisible (Wasp and Fantastic Four's Invisible Girl)... they weren't known for advancing women's causes. But give Marvel some credit. They were several steps above DC's treatment of women. Where every other month, Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, Black Canary or Supergirl ended up tied or handcuffed.
This book also has the usual hilarious 1960's ads. There's a version of the classic Charles Atlas ad and a peculiar one from movie starlet Quinn O'Hara, advertising Wate-On. "Don't let them call you skinny!", use Wate-on to get you some thunder thighs! I doubt that you can find a women's weight gain pill, today. Well, I guess this still make such a thing... only it's now called a SNICKERS bar.
On the rating scale, I'd rate this at $1.50. As long as you're prepared
for 60's Silver Age cheese, this is a fun read. Final scorecard has shrinking people, devil horns, ant-telegrams, 12x2=30, a fight in a department store, a shiny mushroom and "savage natives". And people wonder WHY I still dig comic books.
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