Tales to Astonish #27

The Man in the Ant Hill

By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers

Villains: Some Ants

So, What Happens?

Scientist Hank Pym has concocted a chemical that can shrink his office furniture and then restore it to normal size. He casts his mind back and remembers how the scientific community had always belittled him and laughed at his outlandish theories. He starts to think of all the good he can do in the world if he can shrink and restore things at will and decides to test it on himself to see if it works on living beings.f

He shrinks down to a tiny size and starts to panic, running around his lab and outside into the garden. His restorative serum has been left on a high window ledge he can no longer reach. His cries for help are heard by the denizens of a local ants nest who start to hunt him down. He attempts to hide inside their ants nest but falls deeper into the ground and almost drowns in their stores of honey.

One of the ants rescues him from the honey but the rest of the swarm continue to attack him. He finds a discarded matchstick and lights it to keep the ants at bay. Climbing back out to the garden he gets the friendly ant to carry him up to the ledge holding the serum and restores himself to full size.

He destroys what is left of his potions and has to face the laughter of his peers when he tells them that his experiments were failures.

So is it any good?:

It’s a fairly standard sci-fi short that Lee presumably remembered when he saw the sales figures for Fantastic Four or some other hero comic (or possibly those of the Atom over at DC).

It’s 7 pages introduce a character who comes across as a generic mad scientist type, has him realise his ambitions before concluding that something’s are best left alone.

It’s all very formulaic and I can’t really see that much potential in the shrinking powers on show here. They just seem to make huge dangers out of everyday things. Fine for an unscary horror comic take on Alice in Wonderland but hardly great for a heroic series.

If you are really reaching you can see some of the roots of Pym’s later characterisation in the way the scientific community treats him and the way he makes great discoveries before deciding not to carry on with them after he can’t really cope with their practical usage.

While consistent that really is a reach and the truth is that this is just one of many sci-fi short stories but one that retroactively got fitted into the heroic Marvel Universe. There really are no signs that Pym will even keep the chemicals, despite the fact that they would presumably be totally safe for use on non-living subjects which on its own would be a huge scientific breakthrough.

Are there any goofy moments?

Pym’s “I’ll show them” interactions with his fellow scientists are quite funny.

As is the idea that he will escape the ants by hiding in the ant hill.

Oh and leaving the serum that will bring him back to his proper height on a high ledge?

Trivia:

This story was apparently very close to an earlier Syd Shores story “Trapped in the ant Hill” in Mystic 57. The short mystery and sci-fi ideas were of course constantly recycled but there has been a long history of historians or more likely back issue dealers spotting 'try out' stories for the marvel super heroes and Pym's later importance got that issue identified as one.

Is it a landmark?:

Yes, it's the first appearance of Hank Pym.