Tales to Astonis #43
The Astonishing Ant-Man Verses the Mad Master of Time!
Racing back to his lab so he can resume normal size, Ant-Man accidentally gets trapped under an envelope dropped by a delivery person passing by. When they pick up the envelope he lets everyone on the street know that Ant-Man is there. Everyone has questions for him, but the tiny hero has places to go and quickly departs.
The delivery person continues their route, dropping the letter off at the home Professor Elias Weems. Weems is delighted to see that it is a letter from his grandson Tommy, who is going to be visiting Elias while the boy is off from school. He is particularly happy because his grandson is proud of Elias because he is a scientist.
However, the following week when Weems arrives at work he learns that he is being fired because of a new company policy that discharges any employees over the age of 65. Elias tries to appeal to his boss but is told that the company prefers employing younger people because they are more alert and innovative. This is a huge blow to Elias’ self-esteem and he fears that his sudden unemployment will cause his grandson to lose respect for him. By the time Elias reaches his home he has grown angry and decides to show the world what it means to be discriminated against due to old age by creating a device that can age all living creatures.
Over the next few days, Elias Weems begins working on a device this device. When he is finally complete he tests the device on a sapling in his yard. He is pleased when the tree suddenly grows to full size and becomes old and gnarled. Weems then decides to test his device on a live animal next. He goes to the local zoo where he tests his device on a baby elephant, causing it to rapidly age until it is old and wrinkled. Among the astonished witnesses is none other than Henry Pym, aka Ant-Man. Spotting the beam of energy that is aging the elephant, Pym tries to follow it to its source. However, by the time Hank reaches its origin point, Elias Weems is long gone. Weems continues to test his device and discovers it works on humans when he rapidly ages a young woman being cat-called by some teens. Pleased with the results, Elias Weems gets to work on his revenge scheme.
The next day, the police receive a letter from someone calling himself the “Time Master” who demands that they make him ruler of the city he will use his ray to make people old before their time. This demand is overheard by one of the ant’s in Ant-Man’s network and it is relayed back to him. Deciding to take this threat seriously, Henry Pym changes into Ant-Man and catapults himself to the police station. There, he gets all of the details from the police and promises to keep an eye out for any trouble. Ant-Man deduces that the Time Master must be a brilliant scientist and suspects he might have been fired from a job and that angered him enough to lash out against society. With this theory, Ant-Man visits a number of labs around the city to see if anyone fits that description. Sure enough, he learns about Elias Weems at his former place of employment.
By this time, Weems is furious to when there are no reports about his threat to the city in the newspapers. However, before he can go out and use his aging ray, Ant-Man arrives at Weems home to try and stop him. Unfortunately, Weems is a quick draw and pulls his aging ray out and uses it to rapidly age the hero. Weakened by the sudden onset of old age, Ant-Man is powerless when Weems removes his cybernetic control helmet and tosses him into a garbage pail. Weems then heads off to city hall to start rapidly aging people there. It’s only once Elias is gone that Ant-Man remembers that he can resume his normal size, allowing him to easily escape from the trash can. Recovering his helmet, Ant-Man throws an overcoat over his costume and races to city hall.
When Ant-Man arrives he spots Weems on a nearby rooftop and shrinks down to size in order to stop him. However, he is too late as Elias projects a wide beam from his ray that causes everyone outside city hall to start rapidly aging. Weems is horrified when he spots his grandson Tommy walk into the path of the beam and is suddenly turned into an old man. Scrambling to undo this terrible mistake Weems fumbles and drops his weapon over the edge of the building. Luckily, Ant-Man has amassed a pile of ants to cushion the time device’s fall. Coming down from the roof, Elias then restores everyone back to normal and is happily reunited with his grandson. Later, Ant-Man visits the company that employed Elias and convinces them to give Elias his job back.
Recurring Characters
Ant-Man
Topical References
When racing back to his lab, Ant-Man gets trapped under a telegram that a delivery boy accidentally drops. While telegrams are still a thing, they aren’t very common in developed countries that have things like telephones and the internet. Also, a child delivering a telegram isn’t a thing anymore. One could assume that instead of a kid with a telegram it is a normal adult delivery person, like a mailman.
