Tales to Astonish #53
Trapped by the Porcupine!
Giant-Man and the Wasp are putting on a show to entertain the children of a local orphanage. As they perform various stunts with their size-changing abilities, the two heroes are unaware that they are also being watched by the Porcupine. Undercover, the villain fires some quilts at Giant-Man who is using his body to bridge the gap between two buildings so the Wasp can cross. As Giant-Man falls, the Wasp saves herself by shrinking in size. Giant-Man manages to break his own fall but injuries his ankle in the process. Furious that Giant-Man survived his sneak attack, the Porcupine recounts his last defeat at the hands of the two heroes as he flees.[1]
Returning to his lab, Alex Gentry completes his work on a new type of sleeping gas. While trying to figure out a way to get close enough to administer it to his enemies, he reads about how Giant-Man and the Wasp have a fan club. He visits a meeting of the New York chapter of the club. As it happens, Gentry arrives on the day that members of the group have dressed up as various members of Giant-Man and Wasp’s rogue gallery. Welcome with open arms, Alex Gentry convinces the fan club to visit Giant-Man in order to make him feel better, intending to hide among the group in plain sight as the Porcupine.
At Giant-Man and Wasp’s headquarters, Giant-Man is laid up and unable to resume his normal size until his ankle is fully healed, less he causes even greater damage. That’s when their fan club comes for a visit, all dressed in their costumes. Giant-Man is surprised by the visit and is impressed with the detail of the Porcupine’s costume, unaware that this is actually his foe. The Porcupine then asks the Wasp to help get some gifts he left in his car. Once she has left, the Porcupine strikes, using his quills to spray the room with his sleeping gas. Although this knocks out the fan club members immediately, Giant-Man’s tall enough that the gas doesn’t immediately envelop him. Quickly, he leaps up and swings across the room on the exercise rings suspended from the ceiling. With his primary plan a bust, the Porcupine flees via his jetpack, telling Giant-Man that the Wasp is now his prisoner.
At that same moment, the Wasp has been caught in a trap rigged up inside the Porcupine’s car. Despite his injury, Giant-Man vows to save his partner but fails to catch his foe’s remote-controlled vehicle. The Porcupine later locks the Wasp in a specially prepared cell at his hideout. He claims that the prison is escape-proof but this is a lie. In reality, he built a tracking device that will follow the Wasp when she does escape so he can learn Giant-Man’s greatest secrets. Sure enough, when the Wasp flees the tracking device follows her all the way to Henry Pym’s home in New Jersey.
When the Wasp returns home, Giant-Man is happy to see her but quickly finds the homing device and destroys it. Unfortunately, it is too late as the Porcupine forces his way into Pym’s home. In the ensuing ambush, the Wasp is caught in flypaper while Giant-Man is weakened by gas. The Porcupine believes he is gaining the upper hand when he steals some of Giant-Man’s size-changing capsules. Ignoring Pym’s warning, the Porcupine swallows them all at once and realizes too late that he took shrinking capsules. Unfortunately, Giant-Man is unable to do anything as the Porcupine rapidly shrinks until he is impossible to see from the naked eye.[2] With the battle over, Giant-Man frees the Wasp, who desperate to get unstuck from the flypaper.
Recurring Characters
Giant-Man, Wasp, Porcupine
Continuity Notes
The Porcupine previously fought Gaint-Man (then Ant-Man) and the Wasp in Tales to Astonish #48.
Although he has shrunk down to nothingness, this condition is apparently temporary as he is back to his normal size when he’s seen again in Fantastic Four Annual #3.
When Wakes the Colossus
The Wasp is getting ready to entertain the troops at the local veteran’s hospital. Curious about what story she plans on telling them, Hank Pym is given a preview of her latest science-fiction epic:
The story takes place on an alien world ruled by an evil warlord named Mingo. Mingo and his horde use their power to enslave another race on their world, Deltonians. One day, Mingo and his armies attack the Asikii tribe. Since the Asikii worship animals, Mingo and his men dress as wolves, making the Deltonians reluctant to fight back as they worship animals.
Soon Mingo has completely subjugated the Deltonians but is concerned that they may revolt. In order to prevent this, Mingo decides to take advantage of their superstitions. Mingo then has his men carve a massive stone statue they call the Colossus. The tyrant then convinces the Deltonians that they must do as he says otherwise the Colossus will come to life and destroy them.
However, when Mingo starts forcing youths as young as thirteen to toil in the mines, a Deltonian named Viktor convinces his people to revolt anyway. As the Deltonians attack Mingo’s castle they are surprised when the Colossus does come to life. However, instead of defending Mingo, the massive stone statue fights on the side of the Deltonians. In the aftermath of the battle, Viktor tells his people that the only thing keeping his people back was fear and that whatever supernatural force that controlled the statue could not raise a hand against men fighting to be free. Ousted from rule, Mingo is left to wander the country wondering how a statue can come to life.
As Janet finishes her story, she discovers that Hank had stopped listening to focus his work and is immediately insulted. When she storms out of the room, Hank has no idea why.
Recurring Characters
Giant-Man, Wasp
