Don Heck (1929–1999)

Many superheroes exhibit powers that defy easy logic, chosen instead for their look on the 4-color page or for the concept. Ant-Man is one of those. Not only does Henry Pym figure out a way to miniaturize himself, but he also can communicate with insects and can withstand behind shot from a catapult-like device to nearly any part of the city (the G-forces must be tremendous) where he lands on a hill of ants that have congregated on the exact spot he was aiming for. When Lewis Carroll asked us to believe several impossible things before breakfast, Stan Lee wants us to accept even more before lunch and dinner.

The addition of the Wasp to the stories helped, mainly to give Pym someone to talk to because Lee’s characterizations of women in the 1960s had more issues than the number of comics he was publishing at the time. For every case where the super-heroine came through with an independent attack and saves the day there’s a dozen instances of the same heroine decrying her lack of make-up, her fashion, or expressing her infatuation for some male. Lee also loved to put those women in Damsels in Distress roles, often forgetting they were supposed to be heroic as much as the men. (He did get better, and comics in general would improve upon this in later decades).

And, as much as Ant-Man’s powers are hard to believe, the villains here are almost equally outrageous, including, for example, the Human Top, who spins his way into banks, etc., to complete his burglaries.
Better things are to come with these characters, especially the reboot that occurred when Ant-Man became a Marvel Universe movie franchise. Reading these early stories is only for the historians and those interested in the development of the characters.… (mer)

Like the other early iterations of the now classic Marvel superheroes, this volume of Thor’s early adventures is a mixed bag. For the most part, the stories rely on the conflict between Thor and his evil half-brother, Loki, who, while imprisoned in Asgard, has the ability to cause problems with his magic. Some of these stories are inspired; others, like the one where Thor gets knocked in the head in a certain spot that turns him evil, are not. The soap opera aspect that Stan Lee added to the genre is here in the unrequited love that Thor and his alter ego, Dr. Don Blake, have for his nurse, Jane Foster. Because Odin has ordered Thor never to reveal his true identity to a mortal, Thor/Blake cannot tell Foster his secret, and she, like so many others before her (I’m looking at you, Lois Lane), can’t figure out the tie between Blake and Thor. Other than Loki, the villains here are mostly forgettable.… (mer)

Collecting the first 34 Iron Man stories when he was still a second-string character without his own book. It’s very much a product of its time full of military-industrial complex jingoism, anti-communist rhetoric, insidious racism, and blatant sexism. The science is at times laughable in retrospect, and the plots repetitive. But woven throughout are some interesting characters that you really start to engage with. Revisiting the introductions of Hawkeye and the Black Widow as villains is a little jarring but sets up their relationship, while the interplay between Pepper Pots and Happy Hogan is a joy. Perhaps most surprising is that even this early there is some thought provoking introspection from Tony Stark on what it is to be a hero and how Iron Man impacts his life and aspirations.… (mer)