Following up on yesterday; I read Tales to Astonish #35. As I am sure you knew or have guessed, it’s the next issue to feature Dr. Henry Pym. This time however, he takes up the role of super hero for the first time becoming Ant-Man.

This story is a great follow-up to the first, serving as a wonderful sequel, and a good explanation on how a scientist with a bad experience becomes a hero.  This time, with a plan of keeping him around for a while, given the regular feature spot in Tales To Astonish with this issue.

Story

I liked the origin story better, but not much. I feel it is a fairly average story, that takes us from where the first one left off with an ending that makes us suspect that he will never have anything to do with the shrink and growth potions again to where he needs to be to become a hero.

The story seems to show that he has gotten some respect from issue number 27 to now, as the US government hired him to lead an important project, one that the communist would have a reason to stop and steal.

This, combined with his reasons for redeveloping the potions (although with no intent to use them)  as well as his fascination with ants due to his first experience, lead him to have all that he needed to become a real hero.

The story had some plot holes though that made me feel it to be a bit less than great story, and only good.a key example is:  Why is Dr. Pym not tied up like his assistance are? Needless to say, Dr. Pym would go on from this tale to be a classic hero, and not just one at that.

Art

 liked the art a lot better this time then I did in #27, from the cover, to the ant’s to the miniature man in a large world, it all looked good, and matched the story quite well.

The Micro to Macro world looked good in panels that featured both perspectives as well, from Dr.Pym’s looking like a small man in a big world, to  the action going on above and the ants and Ant-man looking tiny. It all fell together and flowed with a grace that I enjoyed.

I think the detail when comparing the words was just right too, not too much detail on the micro, while much stronger detail on the macro.  this served to emphasize the size differences  between the two.

Our Hero, Dr. Pym’s ant man costume, is far from as enjoyable as say Thor’s,  and design is more simplistic then The Thing’s,  but we are in its heart talking about what a Scientist would have come up with purely to protect himself.  So while the design is simple, it truly is appropriate.

The view of the Ant’s are as good as our hero, from the micro world view giving them a strong ant look, and detail to as the world view is more macro, shrinking them until there nothing more than little splotches in mass numbers.

I feel, that this whole issue, the way it changed perspective and used both the small and large was quite effective. and a strong point of the artwork of the issue.

Originality & Continuity

I feel that they really took the time that they needed at the beginning of the story to recap Dr. Pym’s original story,  as well as to explain in a logical way how then to now connects together. it may have some  holes in it, but overall I feel it was done well.

As such I feel the continuity was done well and right, given that they likely could have just made a new hero with a similar concept and changed much of their original story to fit there needs if they wanted too.

I give hats off to  at how well they gook the one shot story and made it into an ongoing one, how they took a simple scientist and made him into a hero.  I am extremely satisfied with how it all fell together when looking at the two issues as a whole.

Characters & Development

We still, basically just have Dr. Pym as our character, none of his assistants nor are any of the antagonist fleshed out.  this makes for a simple story, but one that really in my opinion part two of the origin of Ant-man;  As it’s this tale that finishes what the last started, making our main character into a hero for the first time.