Issue(s): Tales To Astonish #46 (Ant-Man/Wasp story only)
Cover Date: Aug 63
Title: "..When Cyclops walks the Earth"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Plot
Ernie Hart - Script
Don Heck - Penciler
Don Heck - Inker

Review/plot:
It's a common thing in these early Ant-Man stories where he disappointingly observes that there's not much crime going on in his city. Whether that's because he's already done a great job clearing it out or because his city was never a hotspot of criminal activity to begin with, i'll leave to you. But this is one of those issues, so Pym takes his young female partner on a trip to Greece, where they wind up fighting a Cyclops...

...no wait, even better: an alien invasion force using a pretend Cyclops. Because no one would be afraid of mere aliens, right?

Before that, though, we start with another scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp seemingly flying through the city together.

In fact, Pym has been launched by his catapult and is flying in a straight line into a pile of ants, as usual.

By the time he gets back to his lab, the Wasp is impatiently waiting for him and we see one of the earliest signs that something is wrong with someone here. Pym thinks he's only been "a few minutes" behind her, but Jan says she's been waiting for "hours". That's a big difference! Did someone have a dissociative episode?

I do like the Wasp in these issues, though. She's feisty, brave, and adventurous.

    

It's often framed as Jan trying to prove to Pym that she's not a child, but i like that she's far from a cowardly damsel in distress, and is definitely the most physical Marvel woman we've seen to date (outside of Namora in the Golden Age). She's even retained her "stinger" from last issue.

She also apparently has the ability to talk to wasps, which is odd to me only because it's something you never see her do. But Pym talks to ants, and she does have the antennae, so why shouldn't she have similar control over wasps? I think at some point the antennae fall off and maybe she then loses this power, but i also vaguely remember reading somewhere that she says that she just doesn't like to talk to wasps, so she never does.

This issue has an educational bent, using the word "hexapoda" to refer to Pym's ants (along with an explanation of how the word is derived from the Greek) as well as explanations of cyclops and pegasus.

The reason for the pegasus reference is because Ant-Man starts riding a flying ant this issue. It's a hecuva better way to travel than catapult.

The mishmosh of bugs and aliens and the cyclops gives Heck a lot of fun stuff to draw, including this panel that makes me want to re-watch Time Bandits.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - formative Wasp story

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Ant-Man vol. 1