Music to Scream By

Ant-Man and the Wasp have caught Ramond Theis, an international criminal, in the middle of robbing a room in one of New York’s fanciest hotels. After roping up Theis, they recover a stolen gem called the Star of Ghana. They are thanked by the gem’s owner, who comes from India. He is impressed by Ant-Man and the Wasp’s abilities, likening them to the powers of magicians have in his homeland. When the Wasp points out that most of these “magicians” are really doing magic tricks to fool tourists, Ant-Man mentions that there is a man who can hypnotize cobras with his flute. The owner of the gem has heard of this man, called Ghazandi, and claims he has the power to hypnotize man as well. However, the hypnotist refuses to do so because if he plays a single wrong note he will lose his power. The two heroes find this story very interesting but have to head for home.

After Ant-Man has mounted Korr, his winged ant, the pair fly back for home. On the way, they pass by a local jazz club. Janet convinces Hank to go in and listen to the music. While Janet is a huge fan of jazz music, Pym is uncomfortable being out of his element. Thankfully for Hank, the box office is robbed giving him an excuse to leave. He and Janet run for cover and quickly change into Ant-Man and the Wasp and chase after the thief. Ant-Man and the Wasp quickly capture the crook. When the owner of the club catches up he identifies the thief as Trago, a jazz musician that plays his club.[1] The club owner decides not to press charges due to their friendship but — bizarrely — orders Trago to leave the country and not come back. He even goes so far to pay for Targo’s ticket out of the country, choosing New Delhi, India. With the situation under control, Ant-Man and the Wasp head home.

Trago’s new life in India doesn’t go very well and two months later he nearly starves to death because he can’t find work. He is saved from the brink of death by Ghazandi, the famed mystical flute plater. The pair bond over their mutual love of playing music. When Trago asks Ghazandi to tech his secret, the mystic is able to read Trago’s mind and learn what brought him to India. Despite this, Ghazandi teaches Trago how to hypnotize snakes with his music. Foolishly, the mystic also agrees to teach Trago how to use his power to hypnotize people as well. With these new skills, Trago returns to the United States and begins using his hypnotic music to rob the patrons of jazz clubs he performs at. After a string of successes, he decides to return to New York City. There he plans on getting a television appearance so he can hypnotize the audience of an entire city and rob it blind.

When Trago finally gets this live broadcast, Ant-Man and the Wasp are among the listeners. Although they succumb to Trago’s music, Korr drags them away from its influence by taking them into a nearby ant colony. As the two heroes snap out of their hypnotic trance they are soon ambushed by a snake. Luckily, Korr sacrifices his life to save his masters by taking one of their canisters of shrinking gas and allowing himself to be swallowed by the snake. This releases the gas causing the snake to shrink down to the size of a worm.

With Ant-Man’s helmet and the Wasp’s antennae rendering them immune to Trago’s music, the pair confront the villain at the jazz club. There, Ant-Man remembers the story about Ghazandi and how playing the wrong note would rob him of his power, Ant-Man tries this out Trago. Leaping into Trago’s trumpet, he bends one of the valves, causing the musician to play one note off-key. This is enough to not only strip Trago of his power but also make him forget everything after he got his first gig playing the trumpet. With the crisis over, Ant-Man and the Wasp head for home.

A few weeks later, the couple go to a local bistro to check on Trago and see that he is back on the straight and narrow. However, seeing Trago again gets Pym thinking about Korr, who had grown attached to the ant. Janet understands why he is sad and the two head for home.

Recurring Characters

Ant-Man, Wasp

Continuity Notes

1. Trago’s first name is not mentioned in this story. However, Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #12 reveals that his first name is Liso.

Topical References

• Janet Van Dyne speaks of Jazz legend Count Basie in the present tense. This should be considered topical because Basie died in 1984. She also mentions “Wild Bill” Donovan, which if this was a jazz musician from the 60’s, he didn’t make a huge impact in the world of music since I can’t find anything about such a man. The only “Wid Bill” Donovan I could find was the former head of the OSS, he died in 1959. He also doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who liked jazz music, so…..