TALES TO ASTONISH #49: Super-Size Me!

Published: November, 1963

I always thought it comical to have a superhero the size of an ant. Of course, the further I got into the Ant-Man series, the more I became convinced there must indeed be great power in being small. Ant-Man can do all kinds of superhero stuff the normal-sized good guys can’t do, usually because he can move around without being noticed. You might compare his superpowers to those of Sue Storm, the Invisible Girl. Every villain is always on the lookout for those muscle-bound dudes in leotards, but nobody ever thinks to look for a girl, or for someone who’s itty-bitty. The element of surprise goes a long way in the Marvel Universe.

I’m sure this theme resonated big-time with the young readers of the earliest Marvel Comics. Those little boys probably felt fairly insignificant when looking up to their older brothers and cousins, playing high school football, driving jalopies, getting all the girls. Maybe they identified with the tiny Ant-Man, who did not let size stop him from achieving, and even exceeding, his goals.

Which makes me wonder why, now, we are heading in the completely opposite direction. Is Ant-Man changing because about this time his audience is changing? Now, more readers are those high school kids in jalopies, and even college kids in dorm rooms, and as every young man knows, “bigger is better.”

Could it be that simple? I don’t think so.

HOW MANY SUPERHEROES CAN DANCE ON THE HEAD OF A PIN?
Russ says that after the introduction of the Wasp, there was no need to have TWO tiny superheroes. If something needed to be done on the miniscule level, the Wasp was there to take care of it. And what’s more, she’s got that handy stinger to take her victims by surprise. And what has Ant-Man got? Well…ants. Even the winged ants that Ant-Man rides like a couple of bucking broncos are not that impressive.

It’s no accident that “The Birth of Giant-Man” happens immediately following the formation of the Avengers. If Pym has the scientific know-how to make himself really really small, surely he can also make himself really really big. And if something like this is bound to happen, now is the time. Pym and Van Dyne are playing with the big boys. I understand why the Wasp cannot become “big.” It would be too distracting, to have a giant-sized fully developed female in the group. No, best keep the little woman in her place.

So Ant-Man is chosen for the expanding role of Giant-Man, and why not? To keep the perspective issues in perspective, the giant is limited to a mere twelve feet, before he becomes “almost too weak to move,” and unable to support his own weight. Twice as big as the average man? Sure, there’ll be some awkward moments for the artists, but overall, it works.

TALL, BLONDE, HANDSOME, AND…WELL…TALL…
It works for fighting villains, but this introduction of Pym as a giant also serves another, much more fascinating purpose. As we well know, there is no more flirtatious female in the Marvel Universe at this time than Janet Van Dyne. Her expressions of affection are largely reserved for her stoic partner, Henry Pym. She’s completely enamored, and not at all shy about making her feelings known. Pym tolerates her “femaleness,” and occasionally scolds her for not being “serious-minded,” but on rare occasions we have glimpsed the depths of his feelings for his spunky sidekick.

Pym doesn’t know how good he has it. Jan’s an attractive, self-assured young woman who isn’t afraid of anything, and is completely devoted to him. He takes her for granted, likely imagining she’ll always be there. He probably doesn’t think about it this way, but in fact he’s “stringing her along,” believing that nothing will ever shake her commitment to him.

But then, in the first issue of The Avengers, enter the mighty Thor! And Jan is all…WOO HOO! Hey, handsome! Where have you been all my life? She’s uttered a few of those Mae West type comments about other attractive men before, but none of them were as bulkily good-looking as Thor, and none of them were GODS. Pym is right to feel threatened. There’s no way he could know about Thor’s preoccupation with the lovely Jane Foster, so he has to assume that if Thor should make a play for his faithful little Wasp, there would be nothing little old Ant-Man or Henry Pym could do about it.

Though Pym has this super-smart scientific brain, he’s still enough of a bozo to think that the best way for him to hold on to the female in his life (without actually having to make any kind of a commitment, of course) will be to out-do Thor. By offering something the mallet-swinging long-haired Asgardian cannot: enormous SIZE! Surely Jan will be impressed with that, right?

Twelve feet?

Hey, I also like my men tall, but honestly…enough is enough already!

DECISIONS, DECISIONS…
I say Pym is a bozo, and perhaps he is…but Stan Lee is NO bozo. Threatened by the mighty Thor, Pym has two choices. One: he can confess his love to Jan, at which point they will promptly get married, and like any good married couple in the 1960’s, she’ll have to give up her career and stay home to have babies.

Nah…that’s not really going to work out so well, is it? The spunky Wasp would be reduced to a blandly domestic role, nagging Pym about why he has to go out and fight crime when Junior would like to go to the park with Daddy. Marriage and children would take all the fun out of their relationship. Right now, Pym and Jan are in an odd and oddly appealing courtship. There’s so much anticipation about what might end up happening with them. Once it happens though, it’s all over. Remember Cybil Sheppard and Bruce Willis in Moonlighting? When they finally kissed, it was the kiss of death for the show. So, let’s just not go there, okay?

The second option for Pym is to act like any other human male facing the threat of an unspoken competition with a romantic rival, and use all the resources at his command to become (literally) bigger and (hopefully) better, than his challenger. In nature, when trying to woo a female, the peacock struts his feathers, the lowly lizard puffs out his neck. Playing up his best features, Pym instinctively does at least as well as any self-respecting peacock.

WITH GREAT SIZE COMES…A WHOLE BUNCH OF OTHER COOL STUFF
Oh! And in addition to all that, did I happen to mention: We now have GIANT-Man. We have a superhero whose superpower is that he’s a GIANT, very big, very strong, and certainly intimidating. Giant-Man can go places and do things that Ant-Man cannot. He has a unique skill set that may prove to be the envy of even Iron Man, Hulk and that muscle-bound long-haired Thor. Being able to change size almost at will gives him fabulous opportunities to get out of sticky situations, as well as come to the rescue of his fellow man, his secret heartthrob, and his new superhero buddies.

So there’s all that going on, which is really what this story is all about. But in case you might be interested, let me quickly mention that there’s also this villain called the Living Eraser. Ho hum…He’s easily dealt with and almost beside the point. The real point is that Henry Pym has taken a decisive action so that it will be a long time before anybody even thinks about erasing him from the world of superheroes, the scientific community, or from the life of the one woman he’s not ready to admit he’s madly in love with.

What a monumental moment in Marvel Comics! Pym is bigger, better and stronger than ever. But join me next time in the Marvelous Zone, when we continue the recent trend of strength in numbers. Should be X-citing!