Last issue, Dr. Pym donned the Ant-Man costume and identity for the first time.  between then and now it seems our hero has been busy. This issue does a great job of showing how Ant-Man is a general hero, helping out whenever he is needed. It also explains quite well how he knows when he is needed.

While I do feel there are gaps between Tales To Astonish #35 and this issue, I have an overall satisfaction with this story and it fitting into continuity.  This story has a bit of hero development, how Ant-man does thing’s , gets around and such, but no development of Dr. Henry Pym.  For now, I do feel that is acceptable.

Story

sometimes a story is made good by the things it does not tell us, this is one of them.  So I won’t go into detail with the synopsis. what I will say is I did find it quite enjoyable as I got into it. All I will say for a synopsis is this is another communist Plot story, only this time, the communist are trying to learn Ant-Man’s secrets by capturing him.

The story introduces a lot of neat gadgets and explanation’s as to how Ant-man gets around and knows when he is needed.  I feel it offered just the right amount of diagram’s and explanation, and did not go so far in-depth that it got in the way of the story.

We also see in this story as we did with the last that Ant-Man is a different kind of hero, he rely on his stealth and his brain to succeed and not his powers or even his gadgets.  He is as much spy and detective material as he is a hero.  This is something I feel could be played out in the future.

Art

I feel that the small to large world view was done quite well again in this issue,  it also made great use of foreshortening when keeping Ant-Man in the foreground and others further back. They did make wonderful work in switching the viewpoint from the small Ant-Man perspective to the larger real perspective.

The backgrounds in many of the panels where underwhelming, after the last Thor when detail was added to everything, I could feel it missing in many panels here.  although not strictly needed much of the time.

That all said, I felt the art was just a tad less compelling than the last issue, but still an outstanding work.

Originality & Continuity

as for Originality, a communist plot where they want to capture our protagonist is not original. In fact, it reminds me a lot of The Hulk #1.  It does however speak of the mindset of the day. The Cold War is high on everyone’s minds in 1962.

The story does fit into the continuity we have so far,  although it does feel like there was a good crime fighting tale or two in between this issue and #35. Ant-Man has clearly became a well-known name, and followed both by the local police and the communist of afar.

Characters & Development

in this book I feel we got hero and world development going on the most.  We learn that Ant-Man has been busy and has become fairly well-known.  We also are shown the neat gadget’s he has made, and methods he has found to aid him in his heroic endeavors.

We get a good look at how he comes and goes from his lab as Ant-Man, as well as how he stays informed about whats going on around the city.   it is a short tale, but it builds upon these small details quite well. This all will help build up Ant-Man in the future.