The legendary John Buscema took over the regular art chores on The Avengers a few issues prior to this one, and quickly makes the series his own.
In this second part of the story that introduces the Red Guardian to the Marvel Universe, we present a terrific action page that pretty much captures the melee madness of the cover.
(Spoiler alert: Turns out the Black widow wasn’t really a widow. But, as always, we digress.)
Welcome to the 60th anniversary (!) of the Avengers, who debuted as a team in 1963.
Concluding the 60th anniversary celebration of Ant-Man/Giant-Man.
John Byrne provides his own spin (that pun was intended) on Spider-Man’s early days with the “maxi-series” Spider-Man: Chapter One. This series created some controversy, as many fans believed the early Stan Lee and Steve Ditko stories did not need a refresh. (Unlike say Byrne’s own Superman revamp years earlier, which was the right reboot at the right time. But… we digress.)
This fun page from issue #11 guest stars Giant-Man and Wasp in a revamping of Spider-Man’s very early Spidey crossover in Tales To Astonish #57. (How early was the original story? It’s the same month as Spider-Man #14, which also featured the Hulk. Spider-Man had a very busy month in the Marvel Universe, as Annual #1, featuring the Sinister Six, was also published at about the same time.)
2022 is the 60th anniversary of Marvel’s shrinking and enlarging superhero Ant-Man (Giant-Man), sometimes hyphenated, sometimes not. Either way, we’ve got a cool page from Dandy Don Heck to lead off a mini-anniversary celebration.
That middle right panel has big (pun actually not intended) appeal to me — it appears that Giant-Man is about to break right through it, as he grows o his larger size.
Plus we have he lovely Janet Van Dyke (Wasp) and the ridiculous villain El Toro to boot.
What’s not to like?
Fun Fact(s): Henry (Hank) Pym invents his shrinking serum in Tales to Astonish #27, cover dated January 1962, but actually appearing on newsstands that previous September. But he doesn’t actually become the Ant-Man character until his second appearance in issue #35. The Wasp appears first in #44, and Pym becomes Giant-Man in #49. Whew.
Ant–Man (no costume.) Ant-Man (costume.) Giant-Man. Goliath. Yellowjacket. Hank Pym, scientist, no alter ego.
And here, Ant-Man again.
Hank Pym was definitely having an ongoing identity crisis in his 10 years in the Marvel Universe.
Needless to say, seeing Ant-Man and Wasp as a full-length feature on the newsstands was a surprise. It lasted seven issues of Marvel Feature, before disappearing once again.
Here, P. Craig Russell and Dan Adkins present us with a nice Bronze Age action page. This is some of Russell’s earliest professional work, and his distinctive style has yet to develop.
In fact, since Craig broke in as Adkins assistant, it definitely feels much closer to Dan’s work than Craig’s.
Ina few months, Craig would take over the art chores on Killraven in Amazing adventures, and as “they” say (and I say too much) the rest is history.
As for Hank Pym, the identify crisis would continue. He returns as Yellowjacket, joins the Defenders, then rejoins the Avengers, and then… well, it actually becomes even more complicated.
But of course, Scott Lang eventually takes the role of Ant-Man, and as they say…
Hank Pym returns in his Ant-Man persona — with the lamest of reasoning — in the classic Avengers #93.
