Tales to Astonish #50
The Human Top!
David Cannon was born with the uncanny ability to whirl around at great speed. Although the kids in his neighborhood were delighted by this ability, Cannon was quite the bully as a child. Since he could move at incredible speeds the youth soon got involved in petty crimes that the police were powerless to stop. As a teenager, Cannon used his powers to cheat in sporting events, such as speed skating, in order to fix matches for gambling syndicates. At the time, one of the mobsters suggested that David lay low before he gets investigated. However, by this time David became so confident in his powers that he began believing that the authorities could never catch him. Indeed, for years David Cannon committed a series of increasingly brazen robberies earning him the name the Human Top.
Reading about the latest Human Top robbery is Hank Pym, who calls to remind Janet Van Dyne that they have a meeting. Janet knows as she has been spending all day getting dressed up for the meeting to impress him. Changing into the Wasp, Janet flies to Hank’s house where he is changing into Giant-Man. Once he is dressed, he takes one of his size-changing capsules to assume a twelve-foot height. After joking around for a bit they get an incoming call from Giant-Man’s network of ants. Through a series of pictograms, one of the ants explains that the Human Top is planning on robbing Danly’s Department Store the following morning.
Meanwhile, David Cannon is passing the time by rehearsing for an ice show before being told to go home and get some rest. Instead, Cannon tries on his new Human Top costume and begins preparing for the Danly’s job. Little does he know that Henry Pym has taken a job at the department store to keep a closer eye on things. When three payroll guards appear with bags full of money, the Human Top appears and quickly snatches the money. As this is happening, Hank and Janey change into Giant-Man and the Wasp and chase after their foe. The Top races into traffic where he is easily able to dodge the speeding cars. Giant-Man isn’t so graceful so he shrinks down to ant-size and waits for the Human Top to stop and rest. He then commands a legion of ants to begin burrowing in the ground under the Human Top’s feet. When the chase continues, the ground under the Human Top’s feet begins to crumble. Unfortunately, the nimble villain is easily able to evade this trap as well.
The Human Top manages to evade capture by fleeing into a subway station. Forgetting his size, Giant-Man is temporarily stuck trying to enter until he takes a capsule to resume his natural height. By the time he and the Wasp get to the subway platform the Human Top is long gone. While Giant-Man curses himself for acting like an amateur, David Cannon gloats over the newspaper headlines about his exploits. However, Cannon is smart enough to realize that unless he comes up with a plan to get rid of Giant-Man for good, his luck might run out.
In the coming days, Giant-Man begins training himself to move faster when in giant form. Using a gyro-top he begins training to be as fast as the Human Top, even resorting to enhancing his speed through chemical means as well. Although Giant-Man begins gaining greater control of his speed and reflexes he decides he must keep pushing harder. The Wasp, worries if Giant-Man will be ready in time for their next encounter with their foe. While elsewhere in the city, the Human Top plots his next daring crime.
Recurring Characters
Giant-Man, Wasp, Human Top
Topical References
The newspaper headlines in this story suggest that the Human Top’s early career spanned from 1959 through 1962 and that the present-day events are taking place in 1963. These dates should be considered topical. Modern readers should interpret this to mean that the Human Top was active for four years prior to his battle with Giant-Man and the Wasp.
Hank jokingly refers to Janet as a midget in this story. Since the publication of this story the term “midget” has become a disparaging term for those who are born unusually shorter than the average (such as those born with dwarfism) The accepted term is now “littler person.”
A subway station in this story still has branding for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company. Until 1940, the New York City subway system was run by three different companies which included the IRT. Although they were all were bought and became part of the New York City Transit Authority, the city retained the old infrastructure until it was refitted and rebranded between 1966 and 1969. Until then, some transit stations still bore the old IRT logo as the one in this story does. This should be considered a topical reference because IRT has not existed for over 80 years and its presence as part of the New York Subway system has been all but erased.
